iOS 17.2 brings these amazing new features to your iPhone

Nearly two months after iOS 17‘s release, Apple released the iPhone operating system’s second major point build Monday. iOS 17.2 introduces several new features and changes, with many that Apple first demoed at WWDC23 in June.

iOS 17.2’s marquee feature is Apple’s new Journal app, though it enhances several other aspects of the OS. Find out everything new in iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2 below.

iOS 17.2 features: What’s new

You can grab iOS 17.2 on your iPhone by navigating to Settings > General > Software Update. Make sure to update your paired Apple Watch to watchOS 10.2 as well. After that, check out the changes in the new iPhone operating system below.

Journal app

The addition of the Journal app is the biggest highlight of iOS 17.2. The Journal app lets you document your daily life, thoughts, feelings and more. For better documentation, you can add images, voice recordings and location tags to the journal entry.

iPhone Action button gains a new action

iOS 17.2 introduces a new Translate action for the Action button for iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Once you assign this functionality, long-pressing the Action button will trigger your iPhone to listen for audio to translate. (The feature requires Apple’s Translate app to be already set up on your phone.)

This is just one of the many ways you can customize your iPhone 15 Pro’s Action button behavior.

New iPhone widgets

iOS 17.2 adds new widget options for the Clock and Weather. There’s a new Digital Clock widget style. As for the Weather widget, it now offers multiple options to show the daily forecast, sunrise/sunset times and details like the UV index and wind speed.

Change the Default alerts tone

Apple will let you change the default iPhone alert tone after upgrading to iOS 17.2. You can choose from one of the many built-in options or download one from the tone store. Prior to this, you could only set custom notification sounds for text, mail, calendar and reminder alerts.

NameDrop-like sharing for passes

iOS 17.2 brings the ability to share passes and tickets from within the Wallet app using NameDrop-like sharing. To use this new feature, just open the Wallet app with the pass or ticket open, and bring your iPhone to the top of another iPhone to initiate sharing over AirDrop.

Listening History Focus Filter

Apple added a “Use Listening History” Focus history in iOS 17.2. When enabled, it ensures that the music played will not affect your recommendations, mixes, etc., and won’t appear in the Recently Played section of the Apple Music app.

Favorite Songs playlist in Apple Music

A small but important change in Apple Music is the addition of a Favorite Songs playlist. All songs, artists or albums that you favorite are automatically added to this playlist, letting you easily play your favorite songs.

Qi2 support for iPhone 13 and iPhone 14

iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 users will enjoy support for Qi2 wireless charging after updating to iOS 17.2. This won’t change anything dramatically, though. It’s just that you can use Qi2 wireless chargers to charge your iPhone 13/14 at 15W speeds. (Qi2 is based on Apple’s MagSafe wireless charging system, introduced with the iPhone 12.)

Better telephoto camera performance on iPhone 15 Pro

Apple improved the telephoto camera’s focusing speed on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max with iOS 17.2. The company says this will help when capturing small objects from a distance.

Apple’s official release notes

You can find Apple’s full iOS 17.2 release notes detailing other changes and improvements below.

Journal

• Journal is a new app that lets you write about the small moments and big events in your life so you can practice gratitude and improve your well-being.
• Journaling suggestions make it easy to remember your experiences by intelligently grouping your outings, photos, workouts, and more into moments you can add to your journal.
• Filters let you quickly find bookmarked entries or show entries with attachments so you can revisit and reflect on key moments in your life.
• Scheduled notifications help you keep a consistent journaling practice by reminding you to write on the days and time you choose.
• Option to lock your journal using Touch ID or Face ID.
• iCloud sync keeps your journal entries safe and encrypted on iCloud.

Action Button

• Translate option for the Action button on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max to quickly translate phrases or have a conversation with someone in another language.

Camera

• Spatial video lets you capture video on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max so you can relive your memories in three dimensions on Apple Vision Pro.
• Improved Telephoto camera focusing speed when capturing small faraway objects on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Messages

• Catch-up arrow lets you easily jump to your first unread message in a conversation by tapping the arrow visible in the top-right corner.
• Add sticker option in the context menu lets you add a sticker directly to a bubble.
• Memoji updates include the ability to adjust the body shape of any Memoji.
• Contact Key Verification provides automatic alerts and Contact Verification Codes to help verify people facing extraordinary digital threats are messaging only with the people they intend.

Weather

• Precipitation amounts help you stay on top of rain and snow conditions for a given day over the next 10 days.
• New widgets let you choose from next-hour precipitation, daily forecast, sunrise and sunset times, and current conditions such as Air Quality, Feels Like, and wind speed.
• Wind map snapshot helps you quickly assess wind patterns and access the animated wind map overlay to prepare for forecasted wind conditions for the next 24 hours.
• Interactive moon calendar lets you easily visualize the phase of the moon on any day for the next month.

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

• Siri support for privately accessing and logging Health app data using your voice
• AirDrop improvements including expanded contact sharing options and the ability to share boarding passes, movie tickets, and other eligible passes by bringing two iPhones together.
• Favorite Songs Playlist in Apple Music lets you quickly get back to the songs you mark as favorites.
• Use Listening History in Apple Music can be disabled in a Focus so music you listen to does not appear in Recently Played or influence your recommendations.
• A new Digital Clock Widget lets you quickly catch a glimpse of the time on your Home Screen and while in StandBy.
• Enhanced AutoFill identifies fields in PDFs and other forms enabling you to populate them with information such as names and addresses from your contacts.
• New keyboard layouts provide support for eight Sámi languages.
• Sensitive Content Warning for stickers in Messages prevents you from being unexpectedly shown a sticker containing nudity.
• Qi2 charger support for all iPhone 13 models and iPhone 14 models.
• Fixes an issue that may prevent wireless charging in certain vehicles.

iOS 17.2 is the latest major OS release from Apple this year. Unless any major bugs or problems are detected, the iOS release cycle has ended for 2023.