iOS 11.3 Arrives With Battery Health Features, More

Heads up, iOS device users: It's time to update your mobile operating system

Apple on Thursday released iOS 11.3, which, perhaps almost notably, lets yous switch off its controversial slowdown feature and see a breakdown of your bombardment'southward health, so you'll know whether it needs to exist serviced. After installing the update, head over to Settings > Battery > Battery Wellness to come across if the slowdown feature is enabled on your iPhone 6, 6 Plus, SE, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, or 7 Plus. In that location, you can plough information technology off if you so choose.

Apple tipped the new bombardment wellness features earlier this year following the revelation that it intentionally cranked downward iPhone CPU speeds without telling anyone. Introduced as office of iOS ten.2.1 in January 2022, this "power management characteristic," equally Apple calls it, was intended to ensure that aging batteries could keep up with newer mobile OSes and to avoid crashes.

The revelation set off a flurry of consumer complaints over why the company kept the practice hugger-mugger, and Apple responded with a battery replacement discount for the whole of 2022.

Bated from that, iOS 11.three includes four new Animoji for the iPhone 10: a lion, carry, dragon, and skull.

On the privacy front, the update introduces a new icon—two blue people shaking hands—which will appear "whenever Apple tree asks for access to personal information to enable features, secure Apple tree services, or personalize an iOS feel," the company explained in a news release.

There's also a new Health Records feature inside the Health app that volition let patients of more than 40 health systems—including Duke, NYU Langone, Stanford, and Yale—view their medical records on the iPhone.

Another new feature called Business Chat will let you communicate with companies via the Messages app on your iPhone or iPad. To effort information technology out, search for a business organisation in Maps, Safari, Search, or via Siri, and you may see the selection to text the company. Newegg, Lowe'due south, The Home Depot, Hilton, Marriott, Find, Wells Fargo, TD Ameritrade, and 1-800-Flowers have already agreed to back up this new feature.

Finally, iOS eleven.three also allows for some fun, new augmented reality experiences.

"With iOS xi.3, apps can now deliver AR experiences that apply vertical surfaces like walls and doors, in addition to horizontal surfaces like tables and chairs, and more accurately map to irregularly shaped surfaces similar round tables," Apple explained.

Nigh Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo

Angela Moscaritolo is PCMag's expert on fitness and smart domicile products. Teaching yoga for nearly 10 years has helped her in evaluating a range of connected health products including fettle trackers, heart rate monitors, rowers, smart scales, stationary bikes, strength training machines, treadmills, and more than. Angela also tests smart home devices from her ranch in Florida, including air purifiers, kitchen appliances, and robot vacuums, just to name a few.