December 13 update below. This post was first published on December 11, 2023.
If it feels like it was just days since you updated your iPhone, well, that’s because it was. The unexpected iOS 17.1.2 iPhone update appeared on Thursday, November 30, 2023. Less than two weeks later, here’s the next release, warning all users to update now.
This update, iOS 17.2, was not a surprise as it’s been going through beta releases, but there was still an element of the unexpected: it arrived a day sooner than many were expecting.
Apple iOS 17.2 has just landed.
Apple
Here’s what’s in it—and it’s pretty jam-packed—plus how you can get it straight away.
Which iPhones Can Run iOS 17.2?
Like all the releases since the arrival of iOS 17 back in September, this new update is compatible with all iPhones released in 2018 or after. That means iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone XR from 2018, then iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max, plus all the iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 variants. It also includes iPhone SE second- and third-generation models.
How To Get It
Open the iPhone’s Settings app, click on General, then Software Update. Here, you’ll see sections on Automatic Updates, and Beta Updates. Whether you have automatic updates on or off, you can choose to download the new software now. Pick Download and Install, and your iPhone will be good to go in no time.
What’s In The Release
Unlike the last couple of updates, which were all about bug fixes and security measures, iOS 17.2 has lots of new features as well as the customary bug-squishing effects. Chief among these is the new Journal app, which helps you write about the stuff that’s happening to you. It’s designed to help improve your wellbeing and is stunningly integrated into the iPhone, all securely encrypted to help your private entries stay for your eyes only.
Talking of integration, with this release AppleAAPL has added the capability to shoot video in a particular way that will integrate with Apple’s next big product category, the Apple Vision Pro headset. With this update you can shoot spatial video on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. These videos will play back in 3D on the headset—I’ve seen these videos on the headset, and they look amazing—but just regular 2D on the iPhone.
Also on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max only, there’s a new shortcut for the Action button, which replaced the Mute/Ring slider of previous iPhones. You can now set it to Translate, making it easy to have conversations in foreign languages without even having to open an app.
There are improvements to Messages, including body shape customization in your Memoji, stickers to add to messages as reactions, and security improvements to protect against spyware. Typing messages, or anything else, is updated so you can turn off predictions inline, although personally I love that feature.
There are enhancements to AirDrop. Similar to NameDrop (which is entirely secure, despite the furor that arose last week about it), you can now share boarding passes or movie tickets just by bringing two iPhones together. There’s also Qi2 charger support for the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, which haven’t had it until now.
Default notifications sounds can be customized to a greater degree—something previously restricted to texts, mail and calendar alerts.
With big new features like Journal and so many smaller details, this is a big update.
December 12 update. Alongside the release of the update, Apple has set out lots more details about spatial video capture on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
In a Newsroom post, Apple specifies how the two latest Pro handsets are now capable of recording spatial videos, describing it as “a groundbreaking new capability that helps users capture life’s precious moments” and watch them back on the Apple Vision Pro when it’s released next year. Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide Marketing, Greg Joswiak, describes these videos as “magical.” Although Apple, like most companies, can tend towards hyperbole, I’d say there is something really extraordinary about these videos, which I saw in a demonstration of the Vision Pro some months ago. They have a wow factor which, I suspect, will lead some potential customers to reach for their credit cards as soon as they’ve seen them.
Apple has more details of how the recording will work, explaining that they are captured at 1080p resolution, at a frame rate of 30 frames per second, and with standard dynamic range. The 3D effect, which is highly compelling when you see the videos played back on a Vision Pro, is created by shooting video on two of the iPhone’s cameras at the same time, the Main and Ultra Wide lenses.
How the iPhone 15 Pro captures spatial video.
Apple
This is clever: the two cameras have different focal lengths and sensors with different resolutions—48 megapixels on the Main camera, 12 megapixels on the Ultra Wide. Combining them into one video is complex and achieved when the iPhone “scales the field of view from the Ultra Wide camera to match that of the Main camera, which is then saved into a single video file.”
As mentioned above, if you play back these files on the iPhone or iPad, say, then you’ll just see a regular 2D video. This has less wow factor but adds to the compatibility for playback. On the Vision Pro, remember, they will appear to be life-sized, appearing either as a large window or an immersive environment that largely surrounds the user.
Apple sees this as a way of recording your memories. Well, all photos and videos do that, but this is an all-encompassing, spectacular way to see your memories again.
December 13 update. Another Newsroom update has appeared relating to iOS 17.2 new features. This one is all about the headline act, the new Journal app. Apple defines it as an app that “helps users reflect and practice gratitude through journaling, which has been shown to improve wellbeing. With Journal, users can capture and write about everyday moments and special events in their lives, and include photos, videos, audio recordings, locations, and more to create rich memories.”
It’s far from the first journaling app, but its success is down to the simplicity of entry, from simple text logging to adding photos, videos, locations or audio. I particularly like the location entry capability as a way of remembering how a particular place made you feel. Apple says, “Users can browse past entries, bookmark them, or filter for details like photos, workouts, places, and more. Scheduled notifications can help make journaling a consistent practice.”
Where it takes things to another level is in the form of personalized suggestions curated from recent activity, and these suggestions are also available in another journaliing app, Day One, as that app has integrated the Journaling Suggestions API into it.
In both apps, privacy is paramount—well, this is Apple, after all—so that, as Apple puts it, “more people can benefit from journaling and the personalized, secure experience only iPhone can deliver.” Your entries are protected by passcode, Face ID or Touch ID, in the case of the iPhone SE.
The new Journal app in iOS 17.2
Apple
Early reviews, such as one from CNet, have been largely positive. Sometimes it gets the location slightly wrong, for instance, and video files need to be under 500MB, which means two minutes of 4K video could be too large. But reviewer Bridget Carey also said, “But if the job of Journal is to help our mental health and fix some of the busy-brain problems we have in this day and age, it does that. It made me think about what really matters and offered a way to quickly switch my mindset.”
Other reviews have commented that it is basic in some ways, which seems to me a smart move: if you get into the habit, which is a big thing with apps like this, Apple can refine it with extra capabilities as we go. That’s the Apple way: think how basic iMessage was at first compared to all the things it does now. Expect this to be an app that grows with you.
Apple’s notes for iOS 17.2 can be found here.
Forbes senior contributor Kate O’Flaherty has set out the details of the security ramifications of iOS 17.2. Read her analysis here.
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Alex Mitchell is your go-to expert for all things mobile. With a passion for the latest smartphones, apps, and mobile innovations, Alex provides in-depth reviews, insightful analyses, and breaking news about the ever-evolving world of mobile technology. Stay connected with Alex to navigate the fast-paced realm of mobile devices.
