iOS 17.1: Your iPhone Just Got These New Features

 Apple's next iOS update addresses iPhone 12 safety concerns and adds these features.

Apple released iOS 17.1 to the public on Wednesday, more than a month after the arrival of iOS 17. The update brings a few new features and bug fixes to your iPhone, but some touted features, like the Journal app, are still missing. 

To download the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update, tap Install Now and follow the onscreen prompts. 

Here are some of the new features and fixes iOS 17.1 brings to your iPhone.

iPhone 12 radio frequency concerns addressed

France's National Frequency Agency said on Sept. 12 that the iPhone 12 exceeds European-specific absorption rate limits, and it appears Apple addresses those concerns with iOS 17.1.

"iOS 17.1 includes an update for iPhone 12 for users in France to accommodate this specific test protocol that requires reduced power when off-body on a static surface," Apple posted Oct. 10. "iPhone 12 will no longer increase the allowed power when the off-body state is detected, such as while it is sitting on a table."

StandBy mode is one of my favorite new iOS features, and in iOS 17.1, Apple gives StandBy mode more setting options. With iOS 17.1, you have the option to turn StandBy mode off after 20 seconds, never or "Automatically." Apple writes that if you choose Automatically, the display will turn off when your iPhone is not in use and the room is dark, like when you're sleeping at night.

However, I checked these settings on my iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone XR and only found these options on my iPhone 14 Pro. So it appears the new settings are only available on iPhones with an always-on display.

Apple Music upgrades

Apple Music makes it easy to find your Favorited content.

In iOS 17.1, Apple adds a new button in Apple Music that allows you to quickly find Favorite songs. When a song is playing and you're looking at its card on your iPhone, there's a star outline near the song's title. You can tap this star to add the song to your Favorites. 

There's also a new way to find all your Favorited playlists, albums and songs. To find them, go into the corresponding category in Apple Music, tap the button in the top-right corner of your screen, and tap Favorited.

Apple Music also shows you song suggestions in iOS 17.1. To see them, go into any of your playlists and scroll to the bottom of the playlist to see a section called Song Suggestions. These are songs that the app thinks you might like, based on your musical tastes.

AirDrop using cellular data

With iOS 17, Apple upgraded AirDrop with NameDrop, which allows two devices to tap each other and exchange contact information -- kind of like exchanging digital business cards. And in iOS 17.1, Apple now lets you use cellular data to send and receive information over AirDrop when two iPhones are out of range of each other. 

Flashlight symbol in Live Activities 

Have you ever accidentally switched on your iPhone's flashlight and had someone point it out to you later? Some iPhone users won't have to worry about that anymore. With iOS 17.1, when you turn on your flashlight, a little flashlight symbol appears in the Live Activities feed across the top of your screen. However, I couldn't replicate this symbol anywhere on my iPhone XR, so this feature likely only works on Live Activity-enabled iPhones, like the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the iPhone 15 lineup.

Full release notes for iOS 17.1

Here are Apple's full release notes for iOS 17.1, including bug fixes and other improvements:

AirDrop
• Content continues to transfer over the internet when you step out of AirDrop range.

StandBy
• New options to control when the display turns off (iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max).

Music
• Favorites expanded to include songs, albums and playlists, and you can filter to display your favorites in the library.
• New cover art collection offers designs that change colors to reflect the music in your playlist.
• Song suggestions appear at the bottom of every playlist, making it easy to add music that matches the vibe of your playlist.

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

• Option to choose a specific album to use with Photo Shuffle on the Lock Screen.
• Home key support for Matter locks.
• Improved reliability of Screen Time settings syncing across devices.
• Fixes an issue that may cause the Significant Location privacy setting to reset when transferring an Apple Watch or pairing it for the first time.
• Resolves an issue where the names of incoming callers may not appear when you are on another call.
• Addresses an issue where custom and purchased ringtones may not appear as options for your text tone.
• Fixes an issue that may cause the keyboard to be less responsive.
• Crash detection optimizations (all iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 models).
• Fixes an issue that may cause display image persistence.

iOS 17.1 arrives with updates to AirDrop, Apple Music, and more

The minor update follows the release of iOS 17 last month and includes a fix for the iPhone 12’s regulatory issues in France.

Apple has officially released iOS 17.1, the latest version of its iPhone operating system. The update has been available in beta since late last month, during which time its biggest new feature has arguably been the ability to continue AirDrop transfers over a cellular connection if the two connected devices move out of Wi-Fi range after the sending process has started. Apple announced the feature back at its developer conference in June, but it didn’t arrive in time for the main iOS 17 release last month.

As shown in iOS 17.1’s beta releases, the update includes a handful of other minor tweaks and additions. There’s a new Favorites feature for Apple Music that lets you add songs, albums, playlists, and artists to your library and signal your music tastes to the app’s recommendation algorithms, and the settings menu for the StandBy feature has been tweaked to give you more control over when the phone’s display turns off when used in this smart display mode.

Some region-specific additions were also rolled out. Customers in the UK can now see their bank balance in the Apple Wallet app for supported accounts thanks to an integration with the country’s Open Banking API. This update is also designed to resolve the iPhone 12’s issues in France, where the country’s regulator temporarily banned the sale of the device for breaching radiation exposure limits.  

Other tweaks include the expanded availability of the flashlight indicator in the Dynamic Island (the icon was previously available with the iPhone 15 Pro but is now coming to all Dynamic Island-equipped devices) and the ability to choose a particular album for Photo Shuffle to pick images from. 

To download the update, go to Settings > General > Software Update and follow the instructions to install iOS 17.1. iOS software updates often aren’t available to everyone immediately, so you might need to wait before you can download it. A notification icon will appear on the Settings app when the update is available.