Get the details on Apple’s release of iOS 17.2, featuring a new journal app and spatial video support.
Apple has finally released iOS 17.2 to supported iPhones today. This version introduces a number of promised features, including a new Journal app and the ability to capture “Spatial Video” video for Apple Vision Pro headsets, coming in early 2024. This update is available for all iOS 17 supported iPhones. That means if you have an iPhone XS or later, you should be good to go.
iOS 17.2: What’s New
Apple’s Journal app is designed to make it easy to document your daily life on the go. And while it’s not revolutionary, what it does better than most journaling apps is show you “moments” directly from your iPhone’s data, including photos, locations, and even workouts. This makes it easy to add these events to your diary.
“The device’s machine learning provides private, personalized suggestions to inspire journaling, and customizable notifications help users develop their writing habits. With the new Journaling Suggestions API, third-party journaling apps can also suggest moments for users to write about,” notes Apple.
Additionally, users can also enable secondary authentication and lock the Journal app with a device password, Face ID, or Touch ID. And according to Apple, all journal entries are “end-to-end encrypted when stored in iCloud, so they cannot be accessed by anyone other than the user.”
Another important feature brought by iOS 17.2, especially for iPhone 15 Pro models, is the addition of a “Flip” trigger to the action button. Now you can set the button to start the translation; this can be handy for someone who usually deals with people from multiple demographics.
On top of that, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max now even let you shoot Spatial Video, which is basically 3D video that you record from your iPhone’s wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses simultaneously in Apple Vision Pro. headphones that will be released next year.
To capture a status video, you must first enable the mode in the camera settings, then select Video mode in the Camera app, turn your iPhone horizontally, tap the status video icon, and then tap record. Apple mentions that “iPhone starts recording video from both the advanced main and Ultra Wide cameras and scales the Ultra Wide camera’s field of view to match the main camera’s field of view, which is then saved as a single video file.”
But it’s worth noting that Vision Pro is basically a US-only product to begin with; So there’s no telling how useful this feature would be for most users who don’t have access to a headset.
How to Download iOS 17.2 Update
First, you must have a supported iPhone. If you already have iOS 17 – that means you can get this too. Next, you need to go to Settings > General > Software Update. Here you need to tap on Download and Install. But before you start, make sure you have a solid connection and more than 50-60% battery to make the update process go smoothly.
