Everything You Need to Know About the iOS 11 Update

Here is everything you need to know about the new iOS 11 update!

With iOS 11, you are now able to save your photos and videos in different formats that allow you to save storage space. High-Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) allows you to compress the photo down to twice the size while still being able to share the photo. For video, you have High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) for the high-resolution 4K videos the iPhone is now capable of shooting. By using theses these new formats, you will free up a lot more storage and data without compromising the quality of your footage. To turn your iPhone on High Efficiency, go to Settings > Camera > Formats and check off High Efficiency.

Portrait Lighting is now included on iOS 11, which is intended to go hand in hand with Portrait Lighting on the iPhone 7 Plus. Using the depth map captured by the dual cameras, Portrait Lighting intelligently replicates studio lighting by contouring the human face. To use Portrait Lighting, open up the iOS camera app and swipe up to Portrait mode. When the lens recognizes a face, tapping on the screen will bring up a menu of features with various lighting styles. You can choose between Studio Light, Contour Light, Set Light, Set Light Mono and Natural Light. Portrait Lighting is still in beta, so it should be made available in October or November.

Newly redesigned control center and notifications come with iOS 11, as well. The Control Center has a larger interface, with every control all on one page. You no longer need to swipe back and forth to gain access to all the features. You can also use 3D touch to dive deeper into options. For example, a force touch on music currently playing will bring up a progress bar, as well as skip and pause buttons. The notification center has also been redone, pulling down the status bar will now lead to the same interface you are presented with on your lock screen but will show you your notifications, with less recent ones toward the bottom.

The App Store has also been redone. At the front of it is a new Today tab that serves as the store’s home page, calling attention to new experiences and software. There’s also a Games tab, making it much easier to access the App Store’s most popular category.

There is also a new Emergency SOS feature. By tapping the power button quickly five times, you’ll be able to call 911. It doesn’t start dialing right away but gives you the option to call. It will also disable Touch ID temporal until you type in your passcode.

Screen Sharing and recording tools are new as well. Apple has streamlined the screenshot-sharing process and also gave users the ability to record their screen. The screen recording icon includes a countdown before starting to record while in the control center. Screenshots themselves have received a major overhaul. Now when you grab a screenshot in iOS 11, you get a brief thumbnail of the picture you just took. Tap and hold it, and you can share it to another app or add an annotation to it by typing with the keyboard. If you forget to tap the screenshot, it will be automatically saved to your camera roll.

Apple Music now offers much of what its competitor Spotify can do, but for a while it was missing two popular features that Apple Music now offers! The ability to share playlists and the option to see what your friends are listening to. Apple Music customers can now create a profile others may follow. When they do, they’ll see each other’s activity on the landing page within the app. You can also share playlists. Apple Music plans to better integrate Siri, so users can simply ask Siri to play anything they want and it responds with an intelligent suggestion based on recently played artists and current listening habits.

iOS 11 will also be a lot more transparent about what apps are using your location.

Apple has also introduced Smart Invert Colors, which is similar to Dark Mode. This feature involves the operating system inverting the colors on the display without inverting things like photos and videos.

You can now very easily share access to Wi-Fi. Simply open Wi-Fi settings one your device and attempt to join a network. The other user can simply grant one access to their Wi-Fi network.

With iOS 11, the user now has the option to select location tracking behaviors for all apps. Apple Maps has gained floor plans for shopping centers and airports. Do Not Disturb has now been transformed specifically for drivers. Your iPhone reads Bluetooth connectivity status and movement to determine whether or not it is in a car and automatically silences notifications as you drive. You can also set it to auto-reply to messages to let others know you’re behind the wheel. As a passenger, you can easily bypass this feature. If there is an urgent matter, someone texting you can send “urgent” and Do Not Disturb While Driving will send that notification through.

Siri has sharpened its language skills. Siri should be more natural, conversational and it should be able to translate on the fly. Siri has also become better at predicting your interest and more mindful of how you use your device. You can also now type to Siri. This will bring up a keyboard as soon as you press and hold the home button, but you can still use the “Hey Siri” phrase to activate Siri as well. You can add the new typing feature by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > Siri.

This update has also significantly approved AR wherever you use the feature.

Files, a new app with iOS 11, is a file management system that keeps all your stored documents together in an organized manner on both your iPhone and iPad. Even if you use third party apps like drobox or google drive, Files allows you to access and keep track of them all in one app.

There also a few features that you can only get access to if you have the iPhone X, including Face ID and Animoji.

Happy iPhone-ing!