These Seven iOS Features Remain Available in the U.S. Only

[supremedesigner]

I actually used to think that, but recently I drove from Lincolnshire, England to the South of France, used Google Maps on the way there, then used Apple Maps for the way back. Apple Maps was way clearer on which lane to be in, I felt like I had more time and notice for turnings etc and the voice just felt like actually having a person next to me directing.

I do however still insiticvly use G-Maps day to day!

When driving on the interstate, I use both Apple Maps and Waze simultaneously. This is because Waze provides me with alerts about any road hazards, speed traps or objects on the road ahead, while Apple Maps allows me to quickly glance at my Apple Watch for directions. Unfortunately, Waze does not have an app for the Apple Watch.

 

[Camerondonal]

not true, i'm on EE and have it.
i think only Three currently don't support it.

although i wonder if the OP doesn't mean visual voicemail, but the new voicemail feature where it displays a transcript of the voicemail live on screen - that is currently US only.

Right, you mean visual voicemail (available on some networks from day one, iPhone 1, 2007) versus the much newer live voicemail introduced in iOS 17, in which a live transcription of messages appears on the screen as people leave them. As far as I am aware, the latter remains a US-only feature, for unknown reasons. It should really be included in the original story

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Which is weird. Why wouldn't carriers want (a) to reduce waste and cost by eliminating physical SIM cards, (b) make SIM-jacking a thing of the past (or at least a lot harder), and (c) save money on staff by connecting new devices to their networks easy via the web, an app, or—best yet—iOS itself?

Because of the money. It benefits them to make it annoying to switch carriers. The more annoying the change, the greater the likelihood that the customer will stick with a small number of carriers (and a small number of physical SIM cards). They’d rather THAT be the case than for folks to be able to switch eSIM’s on a whim, to take advantage of a country specific deal or any number of other cost saving plans.

 

[kc9hzn]

It’s easy to understand why. Apple has a monopoly on
Apple Card
Apple Card Savings
Apple Cash
Apple Pay Later
and the rest of Apple’s features.

As a result, introducing any of these could be problematic in certain regions.

Financial regulations also make it difficult to expand Apple Pay/Wallet adjacent features abroad. In the US, there are quite a few customer-centric financial apps, but they all need to partner with a bank to cover financial regulations. The debit and credit cards are issued by a licensed bank, things like savings accounts (and depositor insurance) are also handled by partner banks. It’s probably hard to extend any of those financial features to the banking regulatory structures of other countries.

 

[kc9hzn]

eSIM implementation has been truly awful. How is it that registering a string of digits with a carrier is such a slog, but sticking in a piece of metal and plastic with the same string of digits is as easy as popping in a CD?

The promise of simply scanning a QR code to completely activate one's eSIM is thus far a lie.

Meanwhile in Europe most carriers want to charge €10 for eSIM activation, so have fun getting local data while traveling abroad.

I was honestly quite impressed with the migration process from my iPhone XR to my iPhone 15 Pro. The XR had a physical SIM, so I expected to need to call my phone provider to set up my new phone on my account. But the 15 Pro offered to migrate the SIM to an eSIM during the phone setup process, and it handled the tradeoff expertly. The 15 Pro had data and my old iPhone, with the physical SIM card I’d been using for my previous two phones, now was showing as “no service”. Mind you, I’m a prepaid customer on a major network, and prepaid customers don’t always get all the wiz bang features (for instance, cellular Apple Watch).

 

[kc9hzn]

Many features are not available outside US. Due to various regulations, not expecting to see IDs in wallet to be available in other countries anytime soon. Satellite features should expand and be available everywhere in the near future

The satellite roadside assistance feature was the one feature I was surprised about. Maybe roadside assistance isn’t as developed outside of the US as it is elsewhere? I mean, OnStar has been a thing for decades here (I had a car with both a cassette deck and OnStar, after all), but maybe it’s not common in, say, Europe?

 

[Reason077]

A digital UK drivers license would be very useful.

Agreed. But anyway, the Americans get all these nice features. But there's at least one feature which is UK only! Apple Pay balance/full transaction history that works with any card account (ie: not just Apple Card).

View your account balance and full transaction history in the Wallet app​

 

[Reason077]

The satellite roadside assistance feature was the one feature I was surprised about. Maybe roadside assistance isn’t as developed outside of the US as it is elsewhere? I mean, OnStar has been a thing for decades here (I had a car with both a cassette deck and OnStar, after all), but maybe it’s not common in, say, Europe?

Europe's equivalent is "eCall", which has been mandatory in all new car and van models sold in Europe since 2018.

eCall has similar functionality to OnStar, but it only activates in a crash, sending telemetry data and starting a voice call to emergency services. There's no on-demand "roadside assistance" function unless the manufacturer adds that service themselves.

OnStar previously operated in Europe but it was shut down in 2020.

 

[mdriftmeyer]

Leave it to an MBA like Tim Cook to partner with such colossal scum as Goldman Sachs for the Apple Card. I'm glad the Apple Card is U.S.-only because the rest of the world doesn't need the degree of unethical practices coming from Goldman's banksters. It's pathetic how MBAs worship Goldman and McKinsey and consider them dream jobs. No wonder Apple can't innovate like it did when Steve Jobs, who was not an MBA, was CEO.

He’s an Industrial engineer first.

 

[Shiverme]

Apple Cash and IDs would be incredibly useful in the UK.

 

[RealE]

I was honestly quite impressed with the migration process from my iPhone XR to my iPhone 15 Pro. The XR had a physical SIM, so I expected to need to call my phone provider to set up my new phone on my account. But the 15 Pro offered to migrate the SIM to an eSIM during the phone setup process, and it handled the tradeoff expertly. The 15 Pro had data and my old iPhone, with the physical SIM card I’d been using for my previous two phones, now was showing as “no service”. Mind you, I’m a prepaid customer on a major network, and prepaid customers don’t always get all the wiz bang features (for instance, cellular Apple Watch).

That is amazing and how it should be!

 

[chenks]

Right, you mean visual voicemail (available on some networks from day one, iPhone 1, 2007) versus the much newer live voicemail introduced in iOS 17, in which a live transcription of messages appears on the screen as people leave them. As far as I am aware, the latter remains a US-only feature, for unknown reasons. It should really be included in the original story

the post was in response to someone saying Visual Voicemail wasn't available in the UK, with a subsequent post saying it was but only on O2.

my post was only correcting the fact that Visual Voicemail was available in the UK and on multiple carriers.

i put forward the suggestion that maybe they didn't mean Visual Voicemail but the new live voicemail feature that iOS17 introduced, which is US only.

 

[Camerondonal]

the post was in response to someone saying Visual Voicemail wasn't available in the UK, with a subsequent post saying it was but only on O2.

my post was only correcting the fact that Visual Voicemail was available in the UK and on multiple carriers.

i put forward the suggestion that maybe they didn't mean Visual Voicemail but the new live voicemail feature that iOS17 introduced, which is US only.

You're right, sorry about that: I misread your post - mind on other things yesterday It is odd that Live Voicemail is US-only - there seems no obvious reason for this restriction

 

[Fandroid killer]

Force touch was great actually.
what's iCharger ?

The multicharging wireless pad that was promised for years and then scrapped

 

[kc9hzn]

The multicharging wireless pad that was promised for years and then scrapped

Oh, you mean the AirPower. That was more of a failure to launch. I reckon it was close enough that Apple felt comfortable enough announcing it but then ran into intractable problems in finishing it. It would just be another unknown unreleased Apple product or unannounced product that only seems to exist in the rumor mill if it weren’t for it being a “one more thing” style addition at the end of a keynote. Besides, its failure gave us MagSafe and Qi version 2, so that’s pretty sweet.

Force Touch is, or at least was, a thing, and Apple Card is a thing, too. Apple Card might not have long term traction, in much the same way that Force Touch didn’t seem to, but it’s a product on the market with some market share. If that’s a failure, it’s a failure most businesses would be highly envious of. When it comes to most Apple “failures”, they still tend to be successful enough that they’d be chalked up as a success for other companies.

 

[NightFox]

not true, i'm on EE and have it.
i think only Three currently don't support it.

although i wonder if the OP doesn't mean visual voicemail, but the new voicemail feature where it displays a transcript of the voicemail live on screen - that is currently US only.

Ah, didn't realise EE also offered it now. Ironic as one of the reasons I switched back to O2 from EE a few years ago was because (at the time), EE didn't support it.