One of the big new features in iOS 17 is called Live Voicemail and it means you’ll get a preview of what a person is calling you about if you can’t answer the phone – then you can decide if you want to answer it or not.

All I need to do is wait for a phone call to come in, um, maybe like this?

But of course I don’t want to answer that phone call because then it will bypass Voicemail.

Now, if I didn’t answer this call and it just timed out it would automatically go into the new Voicemail feature, but to speed things along you have the options to Accept, Reject or Send it To Voicemail.

I’ll tap on there now and now Sapphy on her phone is going to get a pre-recorded message from Siri, basically saying she’s going to Voicemail so please leave a message.

As she starts talking, just like this, you’re gonna see that appear in real time on my phone so I know what she’s calling about.

Of course I could then leave this and replay the voicemail later, I could accept the call and answer and start talking straight away, or I could reply by sending a text message saying that I’m too busy to talk right now.

But this new feature means you know why that person’s calling you and you can judge if it’s important enough to answer the call there and then, and it’s a really good quality of life improvement for your iPhone.