5 key options we need to see in iOS 17

With WWDC 2023 simply hours away, it’s nearly time for Apple to carry the lid on iOS 17, presumably alongside its much-rumoured AR/VR headset, new Macs and extra. It’s definitely set to be an thrilling occasion!

Forward of the reveal of iOS 17, we at Trusted Critiques have had slightly take into consideration what we’d wish to see from this yr’s iPhone replace – and it’s secure to say that we’ve had some fairly attention-grabbing concepts about the place Apple may take iOS in 2023.

Right here’s our wishlist of issues we’d like to see introduced as a part of iOS 17 at WWDC 2023 later as we speak.  

Apple’s iPhone widgets first made an look in iOS 14 in 2020, lastly bringing a number of the greatest Android performance to iPhone customers. Nonetheless, there are nonetheless enormous variations between widget performance on iOS and Android, and it’s one thing we’d like to see addressed in iOS 17.

You see, on most Android smartphones you may work together with widgets on the house display screen, permitting you to play or pause music, swipe via current Instagram posts or no matter else it’s worthwhile to do with out the necessity to open the related app.

Widgets on iPhone, then again, act extra as a solution to show info slightly than act upon it. You’ll be capable to see info from first- and third-party widgets in your iPhone’s residence display screen, however tapping on the widget will solely open the app. It’d be a lot simpler if we may activate particular performance, be it writing a tweet or replying to an electronic mail, with out opening the related app.

We’d like to see that stage of widget assist launched in iOS 17, however we’ll have to attend and see for now. 

New ring and notification sounds

This one may not be on many individuals’s wishlists, but it surely’s definitely on ours. The iPhone has a good, if not barely bland, collection 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 state of affairs the place we’ve heard an iOS textual content tone and reached for our telephones, solely to seek 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 might be a tactic to power customers to go to the iTunes Retailer and pay for different ringtones and textual content tones – the issue is that it’s stuffed 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.

So, I’d love for Apple to introduce a bunch of latest, unique notification tones and ringtones in iOS 17. 

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RCS assist 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 response to Google, that’d be RCS assist.

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 out a stay mobile connection, end-to-end encryption and far more. It even consists of small issues, like the flexibility to depart an iMessage group chat – one thing not at the moment attainable for Android customers, leading to a slew of (generally undesirable) messages they will’t do something about.

If Apple have been to combine RCS instead of 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 don’t have any challenge 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, may vastly enhance simply how useful Siri might be each day. Not solely may it converse extra naturally with you, but it surely may 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 may do it in a privacy-focused approach, it’s Apple.   

Third-party app shops

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

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

In actual fact, the EU has outlined such guidelines for smartphone markets forward of laws going into impact in 2024, so it may very a lot be part of iOS 17 – although Mark Gurman believes that, initially no 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. 

What would you wish to see launched in iOS 17? Tell us your ideas on Twitter.