iOS 11’s new volume indicator is the biggest tiny change no one’s talking about

Apple revealed iOS 11 at its Worldwide Developers Conference this week, and with it, a welcome array of fixes to annoying iPhone problems. Offload Unused Apps will automatically remove little-used apps to free up space on your phone. Maps has added improvements for when you’re driving, like lane guidance, speed limits, and the ability to silence distractions with Do Not Disturb While Driving. But the one feature perhaps most likely to elicit a “finally!” has largely gone unnoticed: the volume slider no longer intrusively blankets the entire screen.

Pointed out on Twitter by user @Turqmelon, the new iOS 11 volume HUD is now neatly tucked in the top-right corner of the screen. It’s much sleeker-looking than its predecessor, which unnecessarily covers video content for a few seconds any time the volume is adjusted. It’s a change that’s been highly requested by users for some time, and it follows in the steps of some third-party apps, such as YouTube and Snapchat, which already removed the clunky default volume indicator in favor of their own, smaller versions. Apple’s new volume HUD look is universal across iOS 11, and so now, after 10 long years, we no longer have to choose between adjusting the volume and... actually watching content.

The public beta of iOS 11 is due to come at the end of June, with a release expected in autumn.