With Apple’s iPhone 15 launch occasion seemingly lower than a month away, we’re moving into the brief strokes within the iOS 17 growth cycle. For all intents and functions, iOS 17 needs to be very near feature-complete at this level, and there are even indicators that Apple is already internally testing iOS 17.1.
With that in thoughts, we don’t often anticipate too many surprises from mid- to late-August betas of main iOS releases. Nonetheless, Apple’s sixth beta of iOS 17, launched to builders this week, nonetheless packs in a number of fascinating smaller enhancements. Right here’s a fast rundown of what’s new within the newest iOS 17 beta.
New Pictures Options
Whereas most of the listed options have slowly appeared over the previous couple of iOS 17 betas, the sixth beta launch now supplies a splash display when first opening the Pictures app to spotlight what’s new.
This consists of computerized albums in your cats and canines that use the identical form of face recognition because the Individuals albums, along with your furry buddies listed alongside the opposite necessary of us in your life. It’s also possible to now see albums within the Pictures widget and customise your Recollections extra to your liking.
Cropping images has additionally grow to be a lot simpler with a one-tap “Crop” button that now seems once you pinch to zoom in on a photograph. Apple snuck that one into the final beta however didn’t announce it till now.
Rapidly Sending Pictures in Messages
In a small however very helpful change, now you can carry up the photograph picker in Messages by holding your finger down on the Plus button, saving you the difficulty of going by way of the menu.
Since sending images might be the most-used messaging applet, this brings again some accessibility misplaced within the new iOS 17 design when Apple selected to simplify the UI and conceal all of the choices behind a pop-up menu.
You may nonetheless entry Pictures from the menu in the event you favor to take the lengthy route. It’s also possible to tap-and-hold and drag any of the listed messaging applets, comparable to Digicam, Stickers, Location, and extra, to reorder them or drag them off the underside into the “Extra” part to cover them from the primary record.
The Finish Name Button Returns to its Rightful Place
Apple has moved the decision controls in iOS 17 from the middle of the display to the underside; nonetheless, in doing so, it additionally needed to displace the Finish name button from its standalone place additional down.
Nonetheless, Apple additionally shuffled fairly a number of buttons within the course of. Audio and Mute traded the highest left and proper spots, whereas FaceTime and Keypad swapped positions vertically within the heart column. The “Add Name” and “Contacts” buttons, which at all times appeared a bit redundant anyway, have been merged to make room for the “Finish” button; nonetheless, Apple selected to drop it into the spot vacated by the outdated “Contacts” button, inserting it fairly unintuitively within the backside proper nook.
It’s unclear if that was to have been its closing resting place for the iOS 17 launch, but it surely appears folks lastly observed — and weren’t completely satisfied concerning the change. Final week, there was sufficient of a hue and cry that mainstream retailers like CNBC and The Related Press reported on it, which can have satisfied Apple’s designers and engineers to rethink a transfer that might mess with 15 years of muscle reminiscence.
Stay Voicemail Loses Customized Greetings
Apple has tweaked the default greeting for its Stay Voicemail a number of occasions throughout the beta cycle, transferring from a greeting that knowledgeable callers that “the particular person you’re calling might choose up” to a extra generic one which reads just like the default Visible Voicemail greeting. Right here’s the Stay Voicemail greeting callers will hear as of iOS 17 beta 6:
Your name has been forwarded to voicemail. The particular person you’re making an attempt to succeed in isn’t obtainable. On the tone, please document your message. When you have got completed recording, you might dangle up.
Nonetheless, previous to iOS 17 beta 6, callers to iPhone house owners who had recorded a customized Visible Voicemail greeting would hear that message as an alternative — though a closing beep was by no means performed to immediate them to start out speaking. With the sixth beta, it seems that, as an alternative of including the beep, all callers will now hear the default greeting when reaching Stay Voicemail, even when a customized greeting has been recorded. It’s unclear if it is a bug or intentional habits.