Lyrics on the Lock Screen, New Health Features, and More Reportedly Coming in iOS 17

More information is surfacing about Apple’s plans for its next major mobile operating system release as we get closer to its unveiling at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

With WWDC only a few weeks away, it stands to reason that iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 are nearing the final stages of internal testing in preparation for the first developer preview release, which is normally made available to registered developers within hours of the WWDC Keynote.

Most of what we’ve seen suggests that iOS 17 will be a “tuneup” release that’s focused primarily on improving performance and fixing problems. Nevertheless, it’s still expected to offer a few small but interesting features; they may just not be as groundbreaking as what we saw in last year’s iOS 16 release.

We’ve already heard reports that Apple plans to revamp the Control Center with a new design that should hopefully offer more flexibility — and possibly even room for third-party apps to get in on the game. Another rumored feature that’s piqued our interest is Active Widgets which could feature more dynamic content. Multiple sources have confirmed that Apple is working on this, but nobody is sure yet whether it will be ready for iOS 17.

Lock Screen Improvements

A new post on Chinese social media site Weibo from a source that shared accurate info about the yellow iPhone 14 a few months ago is offering up a list of a few other interesting things we can expect to see in iOS 17.

Chief among these are some enhancements that build upon the significant Lock Screen redesign we saw in iOS 16 last year. While the changes seem mostly iterative, they should make the overall experience even better.

According to the report, it will be possible to view lyrics from Apple Music right on the Lock Screen, letting you more easily sing along with your favorite tunes — and likely also tying in more effectively into the karaoke-like Sing that Apple unveiled in December.

The Lock Screen will also reportedly offer even more customization, with the ability to adjust font sizes and a button to share your custom Lock Screens with other iPhone users, similar to what Apple did with Watch Faces a few years back in watchOS 7.

Other changes on the list include a redesign of Apple Music that will supposedly simplify the interface, the ability to rename folders in the App Library rather than being stuck with Apple’s predefined categories, and a more adjustable brightness slider for the flashlight.

Health Improvements: AI Coaching, Apple Health for iPad, and More

In another vein, Apple is also working on some noteworthy improvements to its HealthKit features, at least some of which are expected to debut with iOS 17.

Last week The Wall Street Journal revealed that Apple is working on a new journalling app focused on assisting with physical and mental health by offering a place for folks to “compile their daily activities.”

However, documents seen by the Journal suggested this will go beyond just a simple diary, leveraging Apple’s machine learning expertise to analyze your behavior and “determine what a typical day is like.” However, this may be just one facet of Apple’s new AI-powered approach to health.

In a new report at Bloomberg, Mark Gurman claims that Apple is working on an artificial intelligence-driven health coaching service that could include “new technology for tracking emotions.”

While some of that may serve as the foundation of Apple’s journaling app, the company seems to have broader ambitions for this technology. Code-named “Quartz,” it’s expected to be a combination of a dedicated app and a new subscription service — perhaps one culmination of the “Health+” service we’ve heard rumors of in the past.

According to Gurman, the service will be designed to encourage a healthy lifestyle by improving habits around exercise, eating, and sleep. Much like Apple’s Fitness+ service, the new coaching service would likely require an Apple Watch since the AI algorithms would require physiological data that can’t be collected from an iPhone.

While the coaching service isn’t likely to be ready for launch until next year, Apple plans to offer several enhancements to the Health app in iOS 17, including tools for tracking moods and emotions and managing vision conditions such as nearsightedness. In the short term, the emotion tracker will simply allow users to log how they feel manually, but Apple hopes to expand that in the future with AI algorithms that could analyze speech and typing patterns.

Gurman notes that the new mood- and emotion-tracking features are distinct from the journalling app, where he tacitly counters The Wall Street Journal’s report that the app will be more health-focused. He notes that the journalling app “isn’t meant to be a health feature” and “Apple is unlikely to position it as such.”

Instead, Gurman’s sources tell him that the journalling app is more of a social networking feature. It will be an extension of the Find My service and other location features, more focused on allowing folks to write a travelogue than recording their mental and physical activities.

Apple also plans to finally launch an iPad version of the Health app in iPadOS 17. While that won’t necessarily be able to collect health data, it will allow users to access data securely synced from their iPhone and Apple Watch and view it on the larger screen. Apple hopes the iPad version will “boost the app’s popularity in healthcare settings,” Gurman says.

One of the early obstacles to an iPad Health app was security. The earliest implementations of the HealthKit frameworks didn’t sync data to iCloud out of respect for user privacy. This complicated syncing health data onto an iPad, so Apple likely decided it wasn’t worth the effort. However, now that Apple has embraced even stronger end-to-end encryption technology throughout most of iCloud, the security and privacy of health data are no longer a concern.

Lastly, Gurman confirms that Apple is still working on blood pressure and non-invasive blood glucose monitoring for the Apple Watch. Apple has reportedly abandoned its efforts to get accurate blood pressure readings from the wearable. Instead, it will likely focus on alerting Apple Watch users to unusual conditions such as probable hypertension so they can take a proper reading with a conventional blood pressure monitor.

Still, don’t expect to see either of these sensors appear on this year’s Apple Watch Series 9; Gurman notes that both are still at least a few years away.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]