The mobile and tech world yesterday got to see exactly what Apple has up its sleeves with its new operating system for iPhone that will be released later this year. Design changes, updated features and your digital goodie bag of options were laid out to try and keep Apple at the top of the mobile food chain.

But can an update to a mobile operating system have anything to do with your home? I think it can. While the majority of the changes to iOS 7 will be mobile focused in name, the truth is most of the features will be used within the confines of your own home as smartphones quickly become our all encompassing Internet device of choice.

Here are some of the biggest impacts that I think iOS 7 will have in our homes.

Photo Sharing

Photos are a significant decorating element of pretty much any home. They’re hanging on walls. They’re inside massive books. They’re featured in ornate frames on desks and tables. Photos are home. So the updated features that iOS 7 is bringing to the photos app on your iPhone are significant especially since more pictures are being taken on our iPhones than with our digital cameras. The organization of photos will now allow you to create what Apple is calling “moments” and “collections” so you’ll be able to bundle all the pictures from that trip to Disney World into one album that you can easily share with others. I also think that eventually Apple will open up their photos app for even easier integration into the more popular photo printing sites like Snapfish or Shutterfly so you can convert these digital memories into tangible decor for your home.

File sharing within the home

Tell me if you’ve experienced this. You have a document on your iPad, but you really want to work on it on the larger laptop screen. Or you were emailed something on your iPhone, but you need to print it out so you have to login to your mail on your computer in order to print it. It seems absurd that transferring digital files from one device to another that’s literally inches away can become a laborious task. That’s where the new AirDrop feature comes in. Apple is looking to make this process much simpler through integrated sharing that will be embedded on iOS devices. This type of functionality has been attempted before through other apps and software, but you really have to use it for yourself before you can truly assess how good it is.

The potential of Control Center

Control Center in iOS 7 will be the main hub for adjusting the features and settings for your iPhone, but I think it has the potential for future integration with other apps. Could it work in conjunction with say the Nest app that control various aspects of your home from your mobile device? Could Control Center have tabs for controlling the settings of your phone, then your home and maybe even that car in the garage through integrated apps? The potential is there.

In addition to these features there’s updates to how you can browse using Safari, listen to music at home through the new iTunes radio feature and plenty more to be excited about. I think it’s evident that our smartphones will soon become the universal remote for our homes and iOS 7 is just another step on the path to making that a reality.

Share your thoughts on iOS 7 and how your smartphone plays a role in your home in the comments.