Apple is now seeding its iOS 17 Beta 2 release to developers and beta testers, following the Beta 1 release earlier this month. The new changes include a redesigned update screen with more information about the beta software, as well as some of the key features from the WWDC announcement.
There's the new Tap to AirDrop feature, which allows users to touch their devices to initiate file transfers. The Location Settings page in System Preferences now includes a new MicroLocation option which, when enabled, should provide even more detailed location data for apps and location sharing. Message check-in is also now available for the Messages app, with the option to automatically send full or limited location data to contacts when you arrive at a destination.
Standby mode now supports the option to turn off all notifications. Notifications marked as critical will still be delivered. The Apple Music app now supports a toggle to control the length of the crossfade between songs between 1 and 12 seconds. The Apple Music widget now supports new size options.
Check out the full list of iOS 17 compatible devices.
Apple announced iOS 17 yesterday with several notable features, including standby mode, name-drop, and live voicemail. As is the case with new versions of iOS, several older models of iPhones are left unsupported, and this year it's the iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus models.
If you want to try out iOS 17, you'll need an iPhone XS series or newer to meet Apple's requirements. Second- and third-generation iPhone SE models are still supported, so the bottleneck for the iPhone X and 8 series appears to be the aging A11 Bionic chipset.
Switching to iPadOS 17, we can see that Apple is dropping support for its first-generation iPad Pro models as well as the fifth-generation iPad, which launched in 2017.
