San Francisco (dpa)

Apple Inc.’s new VR headset stole the show at the company’s June event showcasing plans to developers, but while the US$3,500 Vision Pro isn’t quite reality yet, there are a number of software features set to soon change how your iPhone works.

The iOS 17 update is set to be rolled out in the third quarter of 2023, bringing a number of changes.

Here are some of the biggest:

No ducking way: The function that corrects typing errors is supposed to become smarter thanks to machine learning – and also adapt more quickly to the user’s choice of words. The autocorrect function will also let some swear words go through that have always been corrected up to now. That means “corrected” words like “ducking” should not show up in iPhone chats much longer.

Live Voicemail: If someone calls and speaks to voicemail, the text will appear as instantly transcribed on your lock screen so you can still decide to take the call. And if someone misses a FaceTime call, you can send them a short video message instead of speaking to their voicemail.

NameDrop: This new function allows you to exchange defined contact data when two iPhones or an iPhone and an Apple Watch are held close to each other, similar to swapping business cards.

AirDrop from far away: Until now, the direct transfer of files between two iPhones has been linked to their physical proximity to each other. In future, however, the two phones don’t need to be close by the whole time, and the transfer can be finished securely over the internet.

Offline maps: Apple Maps, like Google Maps, is now adding the option to download maps to avoid mobile data fees or help when there’s no internet connection.

No more “Hey” necessary: Instead of “Hey Siri”, Apple’s voice assistant will in future respond to just “Siri”.

Your iPhone as a nightstand clock: A new standby mode lets you turn your iPhone into a kind of smart display on a holder in horizontal orientation, which then displays photos, the clock or a music player widget, for example. In practice, it’s likely to be used on nightstands when charging.

Live stickers and contact posters: In future, it will be possible to quickly take certain motifs from photos and animate them to use them as stickers in messages. Contacts can be assigned individual, full-screen photos or backgrounds that then appear, for example, when a call is made (contact poster).

Journal: This is a kind of diary app designed to let people journal about things along with photos taken during the day, music listened to and places visited. Thanks to end-to-end encryption, the entries are only visible to the users.