Apple on Thursday announced the public beta release of its iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17 platforms. It essentially means general users can now test these platforms on supported devices ahead of the commercial release, which is slated for later this year. To experience the new features coming to iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, the users need to sign up for the public beta program on Apple portal. Below are the details on India-specific features that are a part of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS:
Bilingual Siri experience (iOS 17 and iPadOS 17)
Users can interact with Siri using a mix of English and Hindi for activities. While English remains the default language, it can be combined with Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi. This bilingual experience includes asking Siri for help with setting an alarm or timer, sending messages, making calls, playing music, checking the weather, and looking up directions.
More transliteration keyboards with support for major Indian languages
The iOS 17 for iPhone brings new transliteration keyboards across major Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. It will allow users to easily move between English and another language while talking to family and friends. In the iOS 16.4, Apple introduced transliteration keyboards for Urdu, Punjabi, and Gujarati. These were on top of Bengali and Marathi introduced in iOS 16, and Hindi. With the iOS 17, the iPhone will have transliteration keyboards for the top ten languages in India.
Dual-sim experience
More From This Section
With the iOS 17, users can see Messages sorted by their primary as well as secondary SIM. Besides, users can also set different ringtones for each SIM. Additionally, there will be a provision to call back on the missed calls from the unknown number from either SIM card.
Quality of life updates
- Sign into Apple ID: The new versions of iOS, iPadOS, and macOS would allow users to sign into Apple ID with phone number, instead of an email address.
- Extended call history: Extended call history in Recents within the Phone app, including phone and FaceTime calls, as well as calls received on WhatsApp on the devices based on the iOS and iPadOS
- Full-page screenshots: Provision to save full-page screenshot from Safari, Mail, and Notes apps in the iPhone and iPad as an image or a PDF.
- Message filtering: Filter Messages by unread, known senders, and unknown senders on iPad, in addition to iPhone
- Built-in dictionary in Punjabi: Users can easily get definitions of words and phrases from a variety of sources (iOS, iPadOS, macOS).