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How iOS 17 Is Going to Supercharge AirDrop

AirDrop is going to get a lot easier to use with iOS 17. And iPhone users are going to be able to share more kinds of content between each other.

apple airdrop stillApple

By Tucker Bowe

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At WWDC, Apple officially announced iOS 17 and revealed some cool software features coming to your iPhone later this fall. There will be new interactive widgets, a brand-new Journal app and Apple Maps will (finally) allow you to download maps for offline use. There’s a new “Standby mode” that will essentially turn your iPhone into a smart display when connected horizontally to a charger. And that’s just tip of the iceberg for iOS 17.

One of the biggest features that iOS 17 plans to upgrade has to do with AirDrop. To date, you likely use AirDrop to wirelessly share things like photos, documents and locations from their iPhone to their friends (or even their own computer). But with iOS 17, AirDrop will get easier to use, more versatile, and be able to share more things.

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What is NameDrop?

NameDrop is a new feature integrated into AirDrop in iOS 17 that will make it a lot simpler for two people to share contact information. Instead of the traditional way of using AirDrop to share contact information — opening your Phone app, selecting a contact, selecting “Share Contact,” and then picking the person you’d like to AirDrop that contact to — NameDrop will allow two people to simply bring their iPhones (or an iPhone and Apple Watch) together. That’s all we know right now, but we’ll learn more as iOS 17 approaches.

NameDrop is essentially Handoff — a feature that allows you to switch music from playing on your iPhone to your HomePod or HomePod mini by bringing the two together — but for sharing other kinds of contact information.

What are Contact Posters?

When you share your contact information with iOS 17, you’ll also share your “Contact Poster.” A Contact Poster is basically a picture of yourself that’ll be able to customize and edit — this includes making yourself a Memoji — and then whenever you call that person, your Contact Poster will appear. It’s a way for you to control how you appear to somebody else when you call them.

SharePlay is getting some new skills, too.

shareplay Apple
shareplay Apple

In addition to sharing your contact information and personalized Contact Poster, you will be able to share other things as well. That’s because, with iOS 17, SharePlay — a feature that to date has allowed you to watch movies and shows with friends via the FaceTime app — is getting the same proximity update as AirDrop with NameDrop. When the software update rolls out, you’ll be able to initiate SharePlay just by bringing two iPhones together and then you’ll to quickly share music, movies and games.

When is iOS 17 coming out?

As per usual, the next big software update for iPhone — iOS 17 — won’t be rolled out until Apple announces the next iPhone in the fall.

That said, if you’re really jonesing to try iOS 17 early, you can download the public beta in advance of the official release. (We don’t particularly recommend downloading the iOS beta on your main device because it can be buggy and could potentially mess up your phone, so proceed at your own risk.)

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