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Of all the iOS 17 features Apple announced at WWDC this week, one in particular made me very happy. It’s called Check-in, and if you’re a parent, a woman, or a member of other marginalized groups, I think you’ll really like it.
Checking in is a way of letting a friend or family member know that you have arrived somewhere. I had to laugh when someone described it as a feature made for dads, because it’s true that especially on Facebook, many dads enjoy announcing that they’ve arrived at a certain location. But the name does it a disservice, as it’s much more than an “I’m here!” announcement.
I can immediately think of two major use cases. The first is for parents and carers, who are of course required by law to freak out when the kids are out of sight. And the second is for anyone who has ever said “Text me when you get home” and worried until the other person did.
What does Check-in do on iOS 17?
Check-in lets you alert someone else, such as a friend or family member, when you arrive at a certain location. It will be integrated into the iOS 17 Messages app, where it will be encrypted so that only the selected recipient(s) know where you are.
Where it gets interesting is when you’re on the road. If for any reason your iPhone detects that you’re no longer making progress toward your destination, it can share important information with your selected contact: your iPhone’s location, your iPhone’s battery level, and whether you can get cellular coverage .
That answers three key questions many of us have asked when it’s taking too long for a friend or family member: Where are they? Did their phone die? Are they perhaps just out of service?
Why I really want Check-in on my iPhone
Check-in could have been done for me. I’m a city-dwelling parent of two kids who are starting to become independent, and I’m also a trans woman with lots of women and LGBT+ friends, so my friends’ safety is always on my mind after we say goodbye (and vice versa -versa).
But while I want to know that the people I care about are safe, I don’t want to violate their privacy.
As useful as Find My is, I’m much more comfortable using it to find iPhones than I do to find my kids. This is especially true for my eldest, who is fifteen: if there had been iPhones when I was fifteen and my parents had used Find My to track me, I would have left my iPhone at home and met my friends who had a burner phone with them. had.
I know I can control my kids’ location, but I don’t think this is good parenting — but at the same time, I don’t want to be a nervous mess if one of my kids comes back late from class or the movie theater. Check-in seems like the perfect solution: convenient enough not to worry, but not sinister enough to make me feel like I’m stalking.
That’s even more the case with my friends. I wouldn’t think of asking my friends to open up venue sharing to me unless we’re all going on a group trip or to a big festival. But “let me know you’re home safe” is exactly what we’re doing, and checking in again seems like a great way to make sure of that and avoid deciding that my friends have been kidnapped by a serial killer if it feels like they’ll be there a little longer. about to answer.
Of course, this is all based on what Apple told us; I need to see the feature in public beta to make sure it’s what I want my iPhone to do. But all signs are positive, and it’s a good example of the kind of small iOS improvements that turn out to be very important.
Check-in may not be the most exciting new feature in iOS 17, but it means the Health app will show a big improvement in my heart rate.
