5 iOS 17 features Apple stole from Android

 Live Voicemail

Apple kicked off the iOS 17 segment of the keynote by announcing some big changes to the Phone, Messages, and FaceTime apps. With the phone app, one of the features is real-time voicemail.

What is Live Voicemail? Basically, you'll see a live transcription of the voicemail someone is leaving, and it also gives you the chance to answer the call (before they finish their message and hang up) or let them continue. However, those spammers identified by your carrier won't show up as live voicemails, so don't worry about that.

It's a cool feature, but Apple is far from the first to do it. In fact, Google did it first, though it's called Call Screen on Pixel devices like the Google Pixel 7. With Call Screen, Google Assistant can answer calls and ask the caller for more information. At this point, a live transcription will appear on the screen, and you can then decide whether to pick up or not.

So yes, while it works a little differently than Apple's live voicemail feature, the general idea is the same. It's just that Apple's Siri might not be smart enough to actually handle calls for you.

Interactive widgets

I've loved the idea of home screen widgets since Apple added them in iOS 14, and I have several on my iPhone 14 Pro. But while informative, they're still just glorified app icons because you can't really interact with them in any way. This changed in iOS 17.

But, of course, Apple was late. At this point, Android has had interactive widgets for years. In fact, Android has supported widgets since day one in 2008, with support for third-party widgets coming a year later. Then in 2011, widgets became more flexible, allowing users to scroll and even resize them according to their needs, and they even contained interactive elements.

It took Apple only 14 versions of iOS to finally add widgets, 17 in total to interact with them. We finally got there, but it did take a while.

Offline maps

In 2012, Apple ditched Google Maps as the default maps app on the iPhone and launched its own in-house solution, Apple Maps. In the same year, however, Google Maps began offering offline map downloads, although offline turn-by-turn directions didn’t start until 2015.

But incredibly, after more than 10 years, Apple has now finally added offline map support to Apple Maps on iOS 17. Offline Maps lets you explore, view business information like opening hours/ratings, and even get turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, and transit. It's nice to have offline turn-by-turn directions on Apple Maps from the start, but Google Maps and Android beat it to the ground a few years ago.

FaceTime Voicemail

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Starting with iOS 17, if you call someone via FaceTime and they don't answer, you have the opportunity to leave a video message for the recipient. The other person will be able to see that the FaceTime message was left.

Google did this with Duo in 2018, and now that the app has been renamed Google Meet, it's still available. With Google Duo/Meet, callers can leave a 30-second video message if you miss a video call

AirDrop changes

One standout feature of iOS 17 is the changes to AirDrop. You can now share contact information directly via AirDrop, a specific feature called NameDrop. It works in conjunction with the new Contact Poster, which you can personalize with your own photo and select contact information. Once you hold your iPhone close to someone else's iPhone, you automatically exchange information. Now share other photos and files via AirDrop the same way, because you just hold your iPhones close to each other. Larger files can continue to download over Wi-Fi when you leave AirDrop's range.

Again, this technology is cool, but Apple definitely isn't the first to do it. Years ago, Android had a similar feature called Android Beam, which allowed users to transfer data to each other via NFC technology. Google replaced Beam with Nearby Share, which debuted in 2020 and uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to transfer data between Android, ChromeOS and Microsoft Windows.