iOS 11 release date, news and rumors

Update: iOS 11 is being announced by Apple today, and it'll give your iPhone and iPad new features. You should be able to download it right away with an iOS 11 developer beta, according to Apple's unwavering release date history, and can exciting new features like smarter battery life, peer-to-peer Apple Pay payments and FaceTime Audio overtaking standard calls between Apple devices.

iOS 11 is going to be a big deal. Here's the latest on the software update fromWWDC 2017.

Apple's iOS 11 update marks the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, and it's poised to grace a completely redesignediPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.

The iOS 11 release date therefore has tremendous hype surrounding it, and we should see the first iOS 11 features this summer in beta form.

Apple's finished refining iOS 10 with the recent iOS 10.3.3 beta update, so we're already looking forward to the iOS 11 Developer Preview at WWDC 2017.

Here's all the iOS 11 news and rumors that we've found, along with features that we hope are at the top of Apple’s priorities list.

Cut to the chase

What is it? The next version of iOSWhen is it out? Likely June 5 announcement and September launchWhat will it cost? iOS 11 will be free to download

iOS 11 release date

The official iOS 11 release date is likely mid-September, along with an iPhone 8, according to Apple's scheduling history.

Good news: you should be able to download iOS 11 beta as soon this week, as it's expected to be unveiled at the WWDC keynote today.



Apple's WWDC keynote is where Apple previews the first iOS 11 features. Just don't expect iOS 11 to be completely finished by Monday morning.

With iOS 11 beta (including a iOS 11 public beta in July), we'll see several iterations over the course of three months until the final public release.

Again, this is all based on past iOS releases rather than any news or rumors, but there’s no reason to think Apple will change its rock-solid schedule.

iOS 11 Siri upgrade

iOS 11 is expected to have Siri graduate from voice assistant to full-blown a AI bot thanks to a new version of Siri, according to multiple rumors.



The big iOS 11 change is due in part to the Apple Siri Speaker release date and news we expect at WWDC. Siri will finally rival Google Home and Amazon Echo.

Siri in 2017 is supposed to learn your habits and change how it treats you based on what you've done in the past. We may also be able to type to Siri in iOS 11. That's great news for anyone who wants to turn to Siri in noisy environments.  

Not only is Siri expected with answer your questions more quickly, it's poised to anticipate how you'd act. It's geared toward "What's your next question?" and having that answer prepared, too.

Major iPad changes

We're already anticipating a 10.5-inch iPad Pro announcement on Monday, and WWDC conference may give us new software too.



iOS 11 needs to help Apple put the 'Pro' iniPad Pro 2. To do that, we expect to see easier ways to switch apps and harness its multitasking potential.

iOS 10 didn't bright enough iPad-specific changes, not next to iOS 9 did, so we're due for software that bridges the gap between an iPhone and MacBook 2017.

If iPads are the future of mobile computing, we need to see Apple create software that takes advantage of its Apple A10 Fusion processing power.

Group FaceTime

It's time to break out of those 1:1 video calls and, with iOS 11, invite the whole group to your FaceTime chat – or at least do a 3-way FaceTime call.



More audio, fewer pictures

Apple is reportedly a Group FaceTime feature, something that's long overdue, as already a part of Google Hangouts, Skype and  Facebook Messenger.

It's still an iOS 11 rumor, but we fully expect to see this logical feature launch in the post-WWDC 2017 beta or, more likely, in the final software this autumn. 

FaceTime Audio takes over phone calls

Prepare to make more FaceTime Audio calls  because that's supposed to be the default of future iPhone-to-iPhone phone calls – like iMessages, but for calls.



FaceTime Audio will become the normal calling mode between Apple devices, according to a now-deleted post from Reddit user cyanhat.

Replacing cellular calls and saving your once-precious minutes would have been ideal ten years ago when unlimited data plans and limited minutes existed. 

Now, data is more precious than minutes in most countries, so we'll see if Apple makes with a Wi-Fi only change when iOS 11 is announced on June 5. 

An official sleep tracking app

Apple could make quick use of itsacquisition of Beddit, an app company that's been described as the 'Fitbit of Sleep tracking.'



iOS 11 could get an official sleep tracking app – though we don't expect to see such an app launch right away in the iOS 11 beta.

Apple could save the feature for theApple Watch 3, but there's bound to be some sort of iOS 11 integration in order to display your sleep score and graph.

Apple Pay with friends

Apple Pay is already in 15 countries, including the US, UK, Australia and most recently, Taiwan. Italy will make the 16th soon. 



The next big step for the iPhone's contactless payment system may have Apple taking a direct shot at popular mobile payment iOS apps like Venmo.

Peer-to-peer Apple Pay payments will be a part of an Wallet app update, notes to the same Reddit post. It's said to have a social feed and iMessage integration, too. 

More from Apple Clips

Apple was also rumored to be working on a new video sharing and editing app, similar to Snapchat. We got that with Apple Clips (so far, everything rings true). 



But we could see the filtered video app get a proper spotlight and new features with the iOS 11 launch, maybe right inside the default camera app. 

After all, Apple really needs to redesign its barebones camera app (Why can't you switch resolutions in the camera app instead of in the settings menu?).

Better sharing

Apple is also apparently working on enhanced social features, according to sources speaking to Bloomberg.

The company's tipped to make sharing and connectivity with contacts a system-wide feature, and it may consolidate communications to a single optional menu.

This way, you'll be able to see all your SMS messages, emails and social network interactions with a given person on a single screen.

iOS 11 low-power mode

Apple needs a small rethink on the great, but unrefined low-power mode. That could very well happen in the iOS 11 update.



Rumors point to a more intelligent low-power mode that will learn your habits battery conserving habits and try to create a schedule to automatically put itself into low-power mode, according to cyanhat.

It's also said to be geographically adaptive, so if you want to be in low-power mode whenever away from your house, iOS will automatically make those changes for you.

The other change we're hoping to see is bringing low-power mode out of its settings menu confines and into the Control Center. My, my, that giant Night Shift button is mighty big. Low-power mode could easily fit in half of Night Shift's Control Center real estate.

Dark Mode

One thing we’re expecting to see soon from iOS is a Dark Mode, which would make backgrounds black, so you don’t strain your eyes when using an iOS device at night or in other dim environments.



Resources for the feature have already been found within iOS 10, so it’s probably something that Apple plans to add imminently.

Of course, there’s already a Night Shift mode, but that’s a bit different, as it reduces the amount of blue light rather than making the display darker.

What we want to see

That can't be everything from the iOS 11 update, so we're diving into theories about other features ahead of this week's WWDC announcement.

Here's our wish list for addition iOS 11 features.

1. Customizable Control Center 

Control Center is a handy shortcut to a number of quick settings, but it’s not customizable, meaning that for certain options, such as music controls, you must swipe to the second tab – an annoying extra step for anyone who listens to a lot of music or podcasts on their device.

Worse, some actions, such as GPS, don’t have Control Center toggles at all, so we’d like to see the ability to customize both what options are displayed and which tab they appear on.



2. Always-on display 

Samsung impressed us with the always-on display of phones like the Galaxy S7 – giving you a constant clock and a window onto your notifications, and we’d like to see a similar option built into iOS 11.

Raise to wake makes it quicker than ever to view the lock screen, but if we just want to check the time we'd rather not have to even raise the phone, and an always-on display would be a solution.

3. Home screen widgets

Apple’s lock screen widgets are handy, and help stop the home screen getting too cluttered, but we’d still like the option to put widgets on our home screens.

It’s not just about having quick access to apps and information, but also about customizing devices to make them our own, whether that means having a big custom clock and weather forecast on our main home screen, an overview of upcoming calendar events, or whatever else.



4. Smarter Siri

Siri is getting better all the time, but there’s still room for improvement, especially as in many ways Google Assistant has it beat.

We’d especially like to see improvements to Siri’s context awareness – so for example reliably being able to answer follow-up questions without you having to clarify the subject again.

5. Grouped notifications

Everyone likes to be loved, and there's nothing better than your WhatsApp blowing up - until that is, you take a gander at your lock screen or notification bar. 

Currently, iOS seems unable to group messages from the same contact, or message group, together, giving you an almost never-ending stream of notifications. 

Come on Apple, give us "19 new messages from 2 chats" and the ability to expand to see more if we so desire. Pleeaassssseeeeee.

6. Clear all background apps

Being able to hop quickly between different apps is handy, but sometimes we like to clean up the multi-tasking panel and start fresh. Thing is, on iOS 10 that involves swiping each individual app to close it.

For iOS 11 we'd love to have a "clear all" option, allowing us to shut all the background apps with a simple tap of an icon.

7. Easy video resolution changes

iOS is often thought of as simple and intuitive, and for the most part it is, but glaring usability issues sometimes emerge, and one of those is the inability to change video resolution from the camera app.

Instead you have to dig down into the main settings screen, which takes time, isn’t intuitive at all and could leave some users unaware that it’s even an option.

This should be an easy fix, so hopefully with iOS 11 Apple will add a video resolution toggle to the camera app itself.

8. Improved Mail app

Apple's Mail app got a bit of love in the iOS 10 upgrade, but the new look isn't overly slick. Scrolling through an email conversation feels clunky, and rival apps such as Gmail feel better put together overall.

In iOS 11 we'd like to see a cleaner, slicker and more user friendly Mail app, and if Apple wants to take a few pointers from Google's Gmail offering we won't complain.

Also, we want to be able to insert hyperlinks into anchor text with the Mail app. Yes, that's still not possible today, resulting in Long URLs for all links you send.