iOS 11 features: New leak shows much-needed upgrade to FaceTime video calling

Apple is still months away from launching the next major software for its iPhones and iPads, but rumours have started pouring in early. As the new iPhone coming this year is going to be an important upgrade on its tenth anniversary, the software in the rumoured iPhone 8 will be just as good.

We saw the iOS 10 bring several changes and upgrades to the overall mobile OS, changing the look and feel of everything from Messages to Photos and Siri to Music app. But it's time to make a shift to the next big thing – iOS 11.

The release date of iOS 11 is not due until September when Apple launches its new iPhone 8 and the new software will be compatible with most of the old iPhones and iPads, including iPad Air, iPad Pro, iPad mini 3 onwards, all iPhones following iPhone 5C and iPhone 5C and iPod touch sixth generation.

But that's pretty standard for Apple to upgrade most of its iOS-powered devices annually unless the company finds the devices too old to handle the changes. Let's talk about the iOS 11 for now.

What's new in iOS 11?

If the rumours are to be believed, iOS 11 is about to introduce the long-overdue feature of group calling for its FaceTime users. This will allow up to five users to simultaneously chat with each other on a video conference. The information comes from an Israeli site The Verifier citing "several people familiar with iOS development."

This is big news for iPhone and iPad users. FaceTime has proven to be one of the best and widely-used iOS-exclusive features, but has remained untouched for most part of its entire life since its inception in 2010. We wouldn't recommend you to start building your hopes too high right away as the iOS team might simply be testing the feature and never really make it to the end users. But hey, that's just us being sceptical.

In fact, when Apple announces its iPhone 8 alongside iOS 11 in September this year, no one would be paying close attention to this particular feature. But if it does make its way to the platform, Apple will be sure to highlight it in one of the presentation slides at the event.