iOS 17: How to Create a Contact Poster on Your iPhone | Digital trends

Apple’s newfound love of bold aesthetic improvements in iOS 16 has continued with iOS 17, which is currently in public beta and will be widely released in the coming months. One of those upgrades happens to be Contact Posters. In a nutshell, it’s essentially a glorified contact card, but with some artistic full-screen pizzazz thrown into the mix.

In fact, if you’ve played around with the iOS 16 home and lock screen customizations, you’ll find yourself right at home creating and editing a contact poster. It might sound like a vanity feature, but when the screen lights up with a call notification and you see a full-view picture of the caller and their name styled to your liking, it’s quite satisfying.

How to Create a Contact Poster in iOS 17

The whole process of creating a contact poster is quite easy. You can create a contact poster for your own number or any other acquaintance on your contact list.

Another neat convenience that comes with contact posters is that you can share them by simply bringing two iPhones close to each other. It also works if you tap your iPhone against an Apple Watch.

For this guide, we walk through the step-by-step process of creating a contact poster for fellow Digital Trends contributor Tushar Mehta. The process is identical if you make a contact poster for yourself. To do so, just tap your name when it appears at the top of the contact list in the phone app.

Step 1: open telephone app on your iPhone and select the contact to be redone on the poster. When you tap on a name, it will open the detailed contact page as shown in the image below.

Step 2: On the contact page, tap Edit button in the upper right corner of the screen. On the next page, either press the circle with the initials of the contact name or the pill-shaped one Add image button.

Step 3: When you land on the edit page pictured below, tap the round Photos button. Alternatively, you can use a Memoji, monogram or an emoji. Please note that this is not the contact poster image you select. Instead, it’s the image that appears as a round thumbnail in your contact list.

If you design a contact poster for your own number, the thumbnail image will already be there, pulled from your iCloud Drive. This is the same image you downloaded while creating an Apple account.

Now let’s move on to the editing process for any other contact. Select an image from your phone’s gallery, zoom in or out to best fit the round frame, and tap Choose option in the lower right corner of the screen.

Step 4: On the next page, you’ll be given the option to choose from 12 photographic filter styles to enhance the thumbnail. Pick one that looks the best and pick the blue one Next button.

Step 5: On the following page, you will see a preview of what the contact poster looks like in full screen, using the same image that has been used to generate the round thumbnail.

If you like what you see, click the blue one Update button. However, if you want a different image to appear on the contact poster in full screen, select the option below the one that says Choose another poster.

If you choose the last option, you will land on the actual contact poster editing page that looks like this:

Step 6: On the edit page, tap Image option at the bottom of the screen. Once again, you can choose to keep things simple with a simple monogram design for the initials, or you can have fun with a representative emoji.

When choosing an image, choose a good image because it gives you more room to play with the overall style and other elements that appear on the contact poster.

Step 7: Once you’ve decided to go with a photo, you can pinch or pinch to get the best full-screen view of the contact’s face or full-body preview.

Once the adjustment is done, swipe right to choose from nine styles that include duotone, overprint, gradient, and more. Depending on the effect you like, you can adjust the style tone, gradient or saturation strength.

You can also choose the color tone and even apply depth effect to some of them in relation to the name banner displayed at the top.

Step 8: Next, you can experiment with the text styling in the name banner at the top. Just tap in the text box that flashes the contact’s name.

You can choose between four fonts, adjust the text thickness on a scale, and then choose the right color.

Instead of choosing a solid color, we suggest you choose the very first option in the color tray. This picks up on the hue of the image and subtly blends into the entire color profile by using a similar hue.

Step 9: When you’re done with the text and image style, tap the blue pill-shaped button done button in the upper right corner of the screen. You will now see a preview of what the final contact poster will look like.

You can go back to make further edits to get the exact look you want, or you can tap Continue button at the bottom of the screen to save it.

Step 10: When all the editing is done, you will see a final view of the contact poster as depicted in the image below. Of course, you can always go back and retouch it to get the desired look.

Privacy control for contact posters

Once you’re done setting up your contact poster, you can choose to share it with everyone, keep it locked to your contacts, or disable sharing of details like your name and picture.

Step 1: All you have to do to take control of your contact poster is to open your contact page, tap on Contact Photo & Poster option and press the button that says Sharing name and photo. As for sharing, it depends on your preferences.

Step 2: Press on Share automatically option, and then choose between Contacts only and Always ask to decide if you are OK with sharing your contact poster with everyone you know on your contact list.

It’s also worth noting that your contacts will also need to update the contact picture and poster sharing settings on their phone and choose between automatic and ask first to see your contact poster.

It may seem inconvenient, but it’s a neat privacy measure that offers two levels of control over who can see your contact poster as it contains media that may be sensitive or personal.

We have spent a fair amount of time customizing the contact posters for friends and family members. In some cases, we’ve even asked friends to send flattering photos so we have a good canvas to work with when creating their contact poster.

You can even color-code contact posters, using nice bright colors for friends and more understated pale blue tones for professional contacts. It may seem like a self-indulgent exercise, but these nifty little customizations can really let you express your digital preferences.

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