iOS 17 Features: Live Voicemail, FaceTime Messages, Stickers, Check-in, Standby Mode, Active Widgets, Journal, Offline Maps, and Siri Updates

Live voicemail

You know it. Someone calls you, you don’t have time to talk for a long time and find out what’s going on. With iO17 you no longer have to. Thanks to the live voicemail function, the caller can leave you a message, which is automatically displayed in text form on the display when you receive a call. That way, you know in advance if it’s something important and you should pick up the call, or you can leave the call for later and call the person back when it’s more convenient for you. The feature is only available in English, so unfortunately we’re out of luck here.

In iOS 17, the caller can leave you a voice message, which will appear on the display in written form along with the incoming call, so that you know the context of the call in advance.

FaceTime messages

If you’re calling someone via FaceTime and the other party doesn’t answer, you can easily leave a message in iOS 17, in the form of a video or audio message. On the other hand, the message will arrive and he can view it when he has time and possibly call you back. In addition, gestures in the video have been added as part of FaceTime, where you can, for example, make heart gestures with your hands not only when sending a message, but hearts will fly around you in the video or balloons will fly during a celebration.

If you miss a FaceTime call, you can now send a message to the other party.

Stickers – custom, original and ubiquitous

Apple has improved reactions to messages in iOS 17. You can also respond to the new ones with stickers. You can now create them yourself from your own photos or videos from the gallery. At the same time, the phone automatically recognizes what is the main element and cuts it off from the background. Then you can even place it directly on a specific message bubble. Custom stickers can then also be used in third-party applications.

iMessage brings a modified interface and the ability to create your own stickers from photos or videos, which can then be used in other applications, not only from Apple.

Check-in to notify loved ones

Do you travel a lot and want to easily let your loved ones know that you have arrived at a place? This is what the new check-in function in iMessage is for. All you have to do is “check in” when you have safely arrived at your destination and your close contacts will be notified that you have arrived. You can also report possible delays via the function. Otherwise, contacts can view your location, battery status, and possibly signal status so they know what’s up with you.

With the Check-in function, you can quickly let your loved ones know that you have arrived at the planned location.

Standby mode

With iOS 17, your iPhone can also be used on the stand in the charger. As soon as you turn the phone to landscape mode on it, the graphics change and you can see the clock and calendar across the entire screen, or you can have a series of favorite photos and memories projected here. There is also a night mode, which dims the brightness of the phone and the graphics switch to red, so that the light of the display does not disturb you.

When using the stand and turning to landscape orientation, the phone switches to standby mode, in which you will see important information or reminders of interesting moments.

Active widgets

Although it has been some time since Apple brought full-fledged widgets to iOS, until now they were only informative and could not be actively worked with. Thus, clicking always meant opening the application. Now the widgets are finally active and you can work with the content in them without having to open the application. Do you have a to-do list here? Click on the completed ones directly in the widget. Do you have a widget connected to a smart home? Now, by clicking directly from it, you can turn on the lights in the apartment, for example.

Widgets are finally active. Just press some action button on the widget and the action will be performed without having to open the app like in the past.

Your private diary

iOS 17 also comes with a brand new app called Journal. In it, users will be able to record important life moments or postpone things that interest them in the form of text, photos, music or audio recordings. It will essentially be such a modern, interactive diary. Of course, the content is encrypted and stored only locally on the device and not even Apple will have access to it. However, the app won’t arrive until later this fall, so we haven’t been able to test it yet.

Journal will serve to keep important and personal contributions in one place. The app will come to iOS later this fall.

Offline Apple Mapy

In the case of other map applications, the absolute standard, Apple Maps has only now arrived. With iOS 17, you can finally download offline map data directly to your device so you can use it even without connectivity. Just click on a city or any point of interest in the maps and you will get a context menu with the option to download offline maps. After that, you just have to choose the section of the area in the map that you want to save offline.

Maps from Apple will finally be able to download materials even offline. Just select an area on the map and save. Before that, the application will warn you how much space the downloaded part will take up in the storage.

Siri without the typical “Hey”

If you use the voice assistant Siri, you are probably already familiar with the phrase “Hey, Siri”. The one with the new version of the operating system is no longer necessary. In the default state, the assistant will also respond to simply calling “Siri”. However, it is still possible to deactivate this option in the settings and stay with the original approach. You can now assign multiple tasks to the assistant at once, without having to call her again for each one.