5 Features in iOS 17 That Can Be Useful in Your Next Vacation

I currently bring along my Pixel 6A, iPad 11 Pro, and Edifier TWS NB2 Pro when I travel. They all use USB-C for charging, and that reduces the cables I need to bring. My partner carries an iPhone XR, and needs to bring along a lightning cable for charging and data (let’s hope iPhone 15 changes to USB-C).

💡 Tip: Bring the right cable that can both charge and transfer data. We use Apple original lightning cable to connect the iPhone to rental cars to use CarPlay for our in-car music and GPS needs.

Having the Pixel and iPhone in our travels give us features from both platforms, best of both worlds. We also subscribe to Microsoft 365. During our trip, the photos backup automatically into the 1TB cloud storage we have per account, best of 3 worlds. 😁 

After watching WWDC 2023, we are excited to use iOS17 upcoming features in our next vacation. Here are 5 things we think will change the way we use our iPhone and iPad.

#1 Share Airtag

When we travel, each of us will carry an Airtag and decide where we want to place it. Our Airtags are placed in an Airtag holder (we have the blue and orange one), and we can hook our Airtag to anything we want. I usually hook mine inside my check-in baggage so we can watch it fly with us and go through baggage handling. I will then transfer the Airtag to my backpack when exploring the cities so that I don’t forget I should have a backpack with me (something that is not usual when back home).

Our major peeve about Airtag - it can only be tagged to one account and we cannot share its location with others. This reduces its usefulness if we end up losing our bag with the Airtag and iPhone inside, leaving us with no means of locating our items quickly.

iOS 17 will finally change this! 🎉 iOS 17 will allow us to share our Airtags with up to 5 people. Soon we can use Find My on our iPhone AND iPad to locate our Airtags, extra peace of mind.

#2 Airplay in Hotels

We have tried casting our devices to hotel TVs via their system (usually miracast). But these systems have their own issues, it doesn’t just work. We end up watching our movies or browsing our trip photos on smaller screens. It will be really nice to enjoy our media using hotels’ bigger screens, and iOS 17 looks to be able to make this experience better.

#3 Visual Look Up

On every trip, we get intrigued and curious about the new things we see or eat. Maybe we see beautiful flowers and want to know what kinda specimen it is. Or we see an art piece in a museum and want to read more about it. Google Lens does a decent job for me, and iOS 16 is playing catchup quickly.

Visual Look Up enhancements are also coming to iOS 17. Enhancements include the ability to look up recipes from our food pictures. Now, we can also try replicating dishes we enjoyed when we get back home too.

#4 New App - Journal

This sounds like it could be fun to use, and a different way for us to journal our travel experiences during our trips. I am curious how good (or bad) the “suggestions of moments” can be, and if this could be like having an “AI” to help us with curating our experiences and photos that will be useful for this blog.

#5 Apple Vision Pro

This is the grand slam announcement in WWDC 2023. Not exactly an iOS 17 feature, but this device is just too exciting not to be in this list. While the Apple Vision Pro looks like an enthusiast device now, its potential on planes is obvious.

Maybe in 5 years time, we no longer need screens on planes. We can simply put on “Vision 5”, and have a theatrical experience right on our plane seats. The limited spaces in planes no longer constrain our flight experience with “spatial computing” on Apple Vision devices. This can greatly elevate the flight experience and we can see this new experience being rolled out in the premium seats first. We can’t wait for that day to come.

There are other features rolling out soon in iOS 17 that may be useful for future travels. Especially so, if everyone in your travel group uses Apple Devices. Here are some notable ones:

6. SharePlay in Cars - Share music in CarPlay.

7. Check In - Sharing your live location in iMessage.

8. Download Maps - Enhanced EV routing also. Not sure if this will get us to switch over from Google Maps though.

9. Live Stickers - Create stickers using Live Photos.

10. Live Wallpapers (iPadOS 17) - Use Live Photos to create iPad wallpapers.

What are the announcements in WWDC 2023 that excites you? Like us know in your comments below!