The best new features coming to iPhones in iOS 11

The team at Apple had a lot of ground to cover at WWDC 2017 when talking about the next version of the iOS operating System.

86% of all iPhones are running the most recent operating system, so these changes will come to your phone later this year when you do an update.

Here’s a few great features, coming to your iPhone later this year.

Storage Space:

While for the iPhone and iPad the changes and updates to the iOS operating may seem incremental the hit at the heart of many user concerns.  Storage Space.

Here’s two examples of that.  Your iMessages are now stored in the iCloud keeping just your most recent messages locally on your phone.

I have 1.6GB of messages on my iPhone, and I don’t want to delete them because I want those photos and videos to keep!  Now they will be stored in the cloud, but not taking space on my phone.

The same applies to photos.  Your Videos and Photos are taking up most of your storage space. And while you can (and should) be using iCloud, the photos and videos themselves are quite big.

Using new smart file formats, Apple is reducing the size of both videos and photos to save you even more space.

Driving:

While CarPlay is an outstanding way to interface with your phone while driving, not everyone has it yet.  You need to get a compatible new car, or retro fit your car.  So, with iOS 11 there will be a new Do Not Disturb while Driving Mode.

The phone will intelligently determine you are driving, and switch to DNDWD mode, this will shut your screen to black, and if you turn it on you’ll get a notification that you are in DND mode.

While in this mode, people who message you can get an auto response.  Selected users you choose can also send a follow up “urgent” message to ensure the message gets through.

And If you’re not driving, but are a passenger, you can choose to get out of DNDWD mode.

Apple Pay:

Still going strong, Apple have launched a new person to person payment using Apple Pay.

So if someone asks you for money, you can reply right on your keyboard with an Apple Pay payment, confirming with your fingerprint.

From what we saw at the Keynote, it seems the payment goes into an “Apple Pay Cash” card, not your own bank account.  You can then use this card to make other payments, or transfer into your bank account.

No word yet if this will be fully supported globally at launch.

Control Centre:

As I mentioned in my preview of WWDC – this area needed an overhaul.  Swipe up from the bottom of your phone and instead of three screens of controls, everything is in one place.  Simple buttons on the screen.

We haven’t had a chance to use it yet, but hope and assume that they are all configurable so you can choose which HomeKit accessories appear here as you wish.

Siri:

Siri has gotten a whole lot smarter, now understanding context better, and using machine learning to use a more natural voice.

And for those of you who travel – Siri can now translate for you as well.

Augmented Reality:

While Apple isn’t building a specific app for Augmented Reality (AR), they are building an engine within their software to allow developers to do better AR.

Think Pokemon Go, that little Snorlax in your front yard, looks cool – but not entirely real.  With an app update, using ARKit on iOS the experience is so so much more real.

Sure Snapchat has AR built in, and yes plenty of people are playing with it, but Apple building the smarts into the core of your iPhone operating system means this technology will be in games and experiences from app developers around the world.

This is a genuine game-changer.

Trevor Long traveled to San Jose as a guest of Apple. For a full list of our commercial interests and disclosures click here.