Apple had promised its arrival before the end of the year. Promise kept. The new version of iOS 17.2 has been available since December 11 for many iPhones. Here’s an overview of what’s new.
During the developers conference held at the beginning of last summer, Apple announced some great new features for version 17 of iOS. Released slowly since the arrival of the major update in September, the most anticipated ones have finally arrived in version 17.2 deployed since Monday, December 11 in the evening. A new app, Journal, is appearing alongside new settings and functions and essential bug fixes, even if the Apple company remains tight-lipped on this last point. Here is a quick overview of the main new features.
iOS 17.2: an app to keep a daily logbook
Journal is a new app developed by Apple. Its objective is to help you keep a diary by taking into account the various activities carried out and the feelings experienced throughout the day. So much information intended to promote your mental health, an area that Apple seems to have taken very seriously since the start of the year. This diary can be composed of texts entered or voice memos recorded whenever you want but also photos captured during the day, music and podcasts listened to, sports activities (or not), etc. The data recorded in the app obviously remains encrypted and secure. Journal is installed by default with the iOS 17.2 update.
iOS 17.2: new functions for iPhone 15
The iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max benefit from special treatment. Their Action button now allows you to translate conversations on the fly. To do this, you must define the correct shortcut in the Action button settings.
Furthermore, while waiting for the arrival of the brand’s Vision Pro headset, planned in all likelihood for the beginning of 2024, the iPhone 15 Pro can now record Spatial Videos, a sort of 3D video sequence, which will be visible in the helmet. To achieve this, a small adjustment must be made in Settings > Device Photo > Formats.
Finally, the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max benefit from an improvement in their telephoto lens with more precise focusing for elements placed at a great distance.
In the widget section, we note the appearance of a new Clock widget which takes the design of the one used in alarm mode, and a weather widget with longer-term forecasts or the curve marking sunrise and sunset of the sun.
Among the new functions deployed, note the possibility for the Siri voice assistant to be able to access certain data from the Health app. For those who use an Apple Watch Series 9 or Ultra 2 (the only models to include the in-house SIP 9 chip) it will be possible to call Siri to ask for a heart rate display, a sleep report, etc.
Fortunately, the new features of iOS 17.2 are not limited to the most recent devices. Thus, Apple has decided to unlock Qi2 wireless charging allowing the iPhone 13, 13 Pro, 14 and 14 Pro to be charged in the same way as the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro with a charging power of 15 W without necessarily having to have a a MagSafe certified charger (Apple).
Finally, let’s note some other improvements such as the possibility of automatically filling certain fields in PDF files, the simplified sharing of documents such as transport tickets or cinema tickets through AirDrop or even the verification of identities by Contact key in iMessage in order to make sure you’re talking to the right person.
For subscribers missing from this update: collaborative playlists in the Music app. You will still have to wait to share and complete musical playlists with your loved ones.
It is possible that your iPhone has not yet spontaneously offered you the update to iOS 17.2. This is available for the same series of compatible iPhones, namely:
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone Xr
- iPhone SE (2nd generation and later)
To get it, open the device settings, choose General Then Software update. The update should be offered to you. Then just press the button To update.
Let’s remember in passing that iPads are also affected, as are Apple Watches which upgrade to watchOS 10.2, Apple TVs as well as Macs.