4 options I want Apple added in iOS 17

WWDC 2023 was one of many busiest Apple bulletins in latest reminiscence, not solely unveiling the upcoming iOS 17, iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, tvOS 17 and macOS Sonoma updates however a slew of Mac {hardware} together with the MacBook Air 15 and the long-awaited Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional AR/VR headset.

iOS 17 appears to be a very thrilling replace with a swathe of recent options coming to iPhones later this 12 months together with Dwell Voicemail, Test In, Standby Mode and a brand new Journal app, however there are just a few essential options that will vastly enhance the iOS expertise that Apple didn’t announce on stage at WWDC 2023.

With that in thoughts, listed here are 4 huge options I want Apple added in iOS 17. Hey, perhaps I’ll have higher luck with iOS 18 subsequent 12 months…

New ring and notification sounds

This one won’t be on many individuals’s wishlists, but it surely’s definitely on mine. The iPhone has an honest, if not barely bland, choice of ringtones and textual content tones that customers can select from, however that choice hasn’t modified in any respect because the introduction of iOS 7 approach again in 2013 (with the one exception being a brand new ringtone for iPhone X customers in 2017). 

We’ve all been within the situation the place we’ve heard an iOS textual content tone and reached for our telephones, solely to search out it’s somebody close by, proper? That wouldn’t occur as typically with a bigger library of tones to select from.

Apple’s choice to not introduce new tones over time may very well be a tactic to power customers to move to the iTunes Retailer and pay for different ringtones and textual content tones – the issue is that it’s filled with these horrendous early 00s ‘comedy’ tones and alerts which are something however humorous in 2023. What about extra nuanced, pleasing textual content tones and ringtones? It’s an understated addition that may actually refresh the iPhone expertise.

RCS help in Messages

iMessage is undoubtedly one of many highlights of iOS, and the controversy of blue vs inexperienced bubbles (when texting an Android smartphone) has been raging for years. Apple is adamant that iMessage gained’t be accessible for Android anytime quickly, so what’s the choice? In accordance with Google, that’d be RCS help.

In its easiest kind, RCS presents all of the sorts of options you’d count on from iMessage, together with sending high-res photographs and movies with out MMS charges, the flexibility to textual content with no reside mobile connection, end-to-end encryption and way more. It even consists of small issues, like the flexibility to go away an iMessage group chat – one thing not presently attainable for Android customers, leading to a slew of (typically undesirable) messages they will’t do something about.

If Apple had been to combine RCS rather than the usual SMS system, it’d make speaking and sharing content material with Android customers a lot simpler and safer. C’mon Apple, be courageous.

ChatGPT integration

Siri has a little bit of a popularity for not being fairly as intelligent or useful as competing digital assistants like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, typically serving up net outcomes for pretty easy queries that the competitors haven’t any problem answering. Apple has labored on Siri’s capabilities over time, however even in 2023, it’s nonetheless not the go-to private assistant.

ChatGPT, or some proprietary model of the pure language chatbot, might vastly enhance simply how useful Siri may very well be each day. Not solely might it converse extra naturally with you, but it surely might present extra detailed responses with out the necessity to show net pages. 

It’s one thing we’re already seeing in textual content kind from Google Bard and Bing’s ChatGPT-inspired assistant with pretty spectacular outcomes a lot of the time, and it’d be nice to get this moved onto voice-to-voice chats. If anybody might do it in a privacy-focused approach, it’s Apple.   

Third-party app shops

Options to Apple’s App Retailer on iPhone might sound complicated and a bit pointless, particularly on condition that the App Retailer has over 1.6 million iPhone and iPad apps accessible to obtain on the faucet of a button, however the thought does have some attraction. Some have argued that Apple are primarily the gatekeepers of iOS and the App Retailer and, as such, something that goes in opposition to their stringent guidelines isn’t allowed on the platform. That’s nice for safety, however not nice for competitors.

Third-party app shops might assist get round this problem, permitting firms like Epic Video games (who famously had a falling out with Apple leading to Fortnite being faraway from the App Retailer) to get their widespread titles again onto iPhone. 

Actually, the EU has outlined such guidelines for smartphone markets forward of laws going into impact in 2024, so I’m shocked that it wasn’t introduced as a part of iOS 17 at WWDC 2023 – although Mark Gurman believes that, initially not less than, it’ll be restricted to customers in Europe with the US and the remainder of the world nonetheless locked to Apple’s official App Retailer. 

If that’s the case, it may be a quiet addition to the software program throughout the beta course of. I’ll definitely be retaining my eyes peeled!

What would you will have appreciated to see launched in iOS 17? Let me know your ideas on Twitter.