Apple’s iOS 17: Small Changes, Big Impact

Apple’s latest iPhone OS update doesn’t have a single must-have feature, but it has many small changes that make it worth getting excited about. I can’t give you a single good reason why iOS 17 is one of the best iPhone updates in years. There are a lot of small changes, but there isn’t one feature that stands out from the rest, except for the StandBy mode.

Small Changes that Make a Difference

Changes to the keyboard, live messages, and new stickers don’t sound very interesting. I’m most excited about how these small changes will add up. A few new functions don’t work as well as they could. It’s as if Apple’s engineers thought, “Well, we can add this function, so why not?” I don’t think I will use my phone to record my feelings often. And dropping the “Hey” from “Hey Siri” feels a little “meh” when it wasn’t hard to say “Hey Siri” in the first place. Also, Siri still isn’t very good.

Moments of Wow

But those things don’t stand out as much as a few moments that made me think, “Wow, that’s pretty cool.” I started a grocery list in Reminders and watched as “rice wine vinegar” was automatically put in an area called “oils and dressings.” That is magic. Besides that, iOS 17 is another step toward making your iPhone feel more like it’s yours. With iOS 16, you can customize your lock screen. With the phone app, you can use your Contact Card to show a little about who you are. You can type whatever you want, and autocorrect won’t jump in with its prim “ducking!” The live message makes it seem like we all agree that we don’t want to answer the phone. I’m never going to answer the phone again.

Favorite Features of iOS 17

Here are my five favorite features of iOS 17 that you can look forward to using this fall, in no particular order. Or sooner if you want to spice things up. The general beta is out today.

A Better Keyboard

This year, the keyboard gets a bunch of small changes that, when put together, make a kind of Captain Planet update bigger than the sum of its parts. It won’t autocorrect your favorite four-letter word for starts. It still offers “ducking” as I type, but the swear stays the same when I hit the space bar. Autocorrected words are underlined in blue to make it less likely that you’ll miss a mistake before you hit “send.” And if you want to undo a change that autocorrect made, all you have to do is tap an icon next to the text. This makes typing everyday things like calls and emails a little easier. At least, that’s how it felt to me.

Grocery Lists that are Automatically Sorted

In iOS 17, the Reminders app will organize a list of groceries for you immediately. So, that’s it, that’s the feature. When you tell Siri to add “strawberries” to your list, it puts them in an area called “produce” instead of below the laundry detergent. I don’t use Reminders very often when I’m on iOS, but this tool would make me want to use it more.