The main focus in iOS 17 should be to improve speed and reliability with small but useful new features such as interactive widgets, Siri in Dynamic Island, etc.
- What’s happening? An anonymous tipster has leaked a lot of alleged iOS 17 details, mostly a technical update focused on speed and stability.
- Why care? The details were leaked by the same whistleblower who accurately predicted Dynamic Island features ahead of the iPhone 14 Pro launch.
- What to do? Read the tweetstorm on the @analyst941 Twitter account.
iOS 17 could bring these new features to your iPhone
Before we get to the point, we should note that @analyst941 doesn’t have an established track record, although the account accurately predicted details about the iPhone 14’s Dynamic Island feature. With that said, here are the alleged new iOS 17 features that the source mentions on their Twitter thread:
Performance and stability
The source claims that iOS 17 will focus on performance, efficiency, stability, and long-term support for older devices.
System requirements
Despite a recent report that iOS 17 may drop support for the iPhone X and other devices based on Apple’s A10 chip, the source claims that the operating system will support all of the same models as iOS 16, including all A11-based phones like the iPhone. X and iPhone 8. iPadOS 17 may lose support for iPads with A9 and A10 processors, a decision on this will be made in a few weeks.
As mentioned earlier, there won’t be any new features in iOS 17 as the focus will be on fixing bugs, improving reliability and performance.
Interactive Widgets
Widgets in iOS show snippets of information, but they are not interactive. For example, you can’t mark a message as read in the Gmail widget. iOS 17 should bring interactive widgets with “one-touch buttons, sliders and more.”
Control center
As previously reported, iOS 17 should change the design of the Control Center. The source expects major changes to the Control Center interface, customization, etc.
dynamic island
The source says that Dynamic Island in the iPhone will become more useful. Apple’s marketing department apparently “pressured”the development team to add more features to Dynamic Island, including moving the Siri interface to this area (on supported devices). It looks like a final decision has yet to be made as “Apple may or may not use the Dynamic Island version of Siri.”The source also adds that “many other notifications”will be integrated with Dynamic Island.
Camera app
iOS 17 may bring changes to the Camera app. The source didn’t reveal the changes that appear to have been planned for the iPhone 14 Pro release, but warns that they could apply to iPhone 15 models (likely to account for new camera features like deep optical zoom).
Always-on display
Apple will apparently implement additional settings and toggles for the Always-On display feature, but the source didn’t elaborate on that claim.
Focus filters
New filters for focus modes in the Settings app.
Notifications
Unspecified notification changes and “additional options in settings”.
Custom accessibility mode
Obviously, this will allow full control over the layout of the iOS user interface, making it ideal for seniors and young children. Previously, 9to5Mac discovered Custom Accessibility Mode screens in the iOS code.
Wallet
iOS 17 will expand support for digital car keys through the Wallet app.
Health
The source claims that the Health app will undergo some visual changes, with a special focus on the Favorites section.
Search
The Spotlight search feature in iOS 17 will be “greatly improved.”
augmented reality
Apple’s ARKit framework for building augmented reality apps will be the “absolute behemoth”in iOS 17. Of course, there are rumors that Apple is announcing its first AR/VR headset at WWDC, and the ARKit framework could be the main sauce. “Don’t take this lightly,”the source adds, “a metric ton of changes are expected in ARKit.
tidbits
The source also shared these iOS 17 tidbits, including unexpected features:
- Lock screen: Some new lock screen controls need to be added to the Settings app (this could be as simple as merging all the controls into the new Lock Screen section in Settings (similar to the macOS Ventura System Preferences app).
- Home screen: iOS 17 won’t let you place your home screen icons anywhere like on Android. They will still be attached to the given grid.
- Sound Control: The source has yet to hear of independent call, notification, and system sound controls in the updated Control Center.
- Keyboard: There will be no number row for the on-screen keyboard.
In case you’re wondering what I’ve leaked so far, I basically confirmed the “one”pill cutout in the software on the iP14 (rather than 2 cutouts) and the basics of the dynamic island about a week before launch. Including battery percentage return, which was added in 16.1 instead.
— 941 (@analyst941) April 11, 2023
iOS 17 preview to be unveiled at WWDC23
Apple will unveil iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, watchOS 10, and macOS 14 at its annual WWDC Developer Conference, June 5-9.
The WWDC Keynote this morning and the State of the Union address on the afternoon of June 5 will give fans and developers a good overview of the most important new features and hidden changes coming to Apple’s software platforms.
If you missed my footnote, the iPhone 15 Pro will still have capacitive touch buttons, contrary to rumors, the development team is working too closely with the new hardware to go back. The components are ready and it’s too late to deal with this nonsense.
— 941 (@analyst941) April 13, 2023
The company will restart the beta testing cycle by releasing the first iOS 17 developer update and other updates on the same day. People who aren’t registered Apple developers will have to wait two weeks or so for public betas to show up.
The first few beta cycles can be “rough”for devices with 3GB of RAM, like the iPhone X and standard iPad models, the source said. This will improve as subsequent betas become more stable and efficient.