Apple released the first public iOS 17 beta yesterday which means that more people than ever are now using the software that was announced as part of the WWDC 2023 event last month. And it appears that Apple snuck in a handful of new features with this release as well.
At the top of that list of new additions is one that could be a big deal for bilingual people because Siri will now understand bilingual requests for the first time.
Other improvements include being able to see up to 2,000 calls in the Phone app's call history, new iPad message filters, and more.
Stealthy improvements
The new improvements were spotted by TechCrunch with Siri's bilingual upgrade undoubtedly the pick of the bunch.
"The Cupertino-based company has added support for bilingual queries to Siri starting with select Indic languages," the report says. "This means users will be able to ask queries to Siri by mixing English and Hindi. Additionally, users can mix English with Telegu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi."
This news also comes as Apple added support for saving full-page screenshots to the Photos app for the first time, while improved dual-SIM support has also been brought to this latest iOS 17 beta. Now, separate ringtones can be applied to each SIM, for example.
Apple also added the ability to filter messages by unknown or known senders on the iPad as part of iPadOS 17, we're told, while up to 2,000 calls will now appear in the call history and include those made via FaceTime and WhatsApp.
Apple also added transliteration support on iOS for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam as well as the ability to sign into an Apple ID using a phone number instead of an email address. Finally, a new built-in Punjabi dictionary has been added in this latest beta.
Apple's iOS 17 update isn't expected to ship to everyone until this September, with its other software updates likely to follow suit. The update will be compatible with most modern iPhones so you won't need to have Apple's best iPhone just to get the new features.
