Apple Releases iOS 17 & iPadOS 17 Public Beta
After the announcement and release of developer beta updates of iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 last month, Apple has released the first public beta that is accessible to everyone, as it had promised.
iOS 17 brings improved communication apps such as Audio and Video Messages for FaceTime, simplified sharing via AirDrop that includes NameDrop, smarter text input, Live Voicemail, and fresh features like Journal app that promotes reflection and gratitude through journaling and StandBy, a full-screen experience for iPhone when charging sideways.
iPadOS 17 includes a revamped Lock Screen, interactive widgets, smarter PDFs and Notes, improved Messages, FaceTime Enhancements, improved Productivity in Safari, as well as a new Health app, offering detailed insights, trends, and interactive charts for health data.
Apple has also released macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10, and tvOS 17 public betas.
There are India-specific features that are a part of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS:
- Bi-lingual Siri experience (iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS)
- iOS 17 and iPadOS 17: Bilingual Siri experience lest users interact with Siri using a mix of English and Hindi for activities throughout the day
- Users can also combine English with Telugu, Punjabi, Kannada, or Marathi
- This experience includes asking Siri for help with setting an alarm or timer, sending messages, making calls, playing music, checking the weather, and looking up directions
- More transliteration keyboards for major Indian languages (iOS, iPadOS, macOS)
- iOS 17 brings new transliteration keyboards across major Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam
- These keyboards can be great for bilingual users who move between English and another language while talking to family and friends
- They come at the heels of transliteration keyboards for Urdu, Punjabi, and Gujarati introduced in iOS 16.4, Bengali and Marathi introduced in iOS 16, and Hindi
- With this addition, iOS now supports transliteration keyboards for the top ten languages in India
Even better dual-sim experience (iOS only)
- With iOS 17, users can see Messages sorted by their primary as well as secondary SIM, e.g., to be able to easily sort personal messages from work messages
- Users can also set different ringtones for each SIM, e.g., to understand if iPhone is ringing because someone is calling a work phone number or personal phone number
- If a user misses a call from a number that is not yet saved to their device, e.g. a new doctor’s office, they can choose to call this number back from either sim card
Quality of life updates
- Sign into Apple ID with phone number: Sign into their Apple ID using a phone number instead of an email address (iOS, iPadOS, and macOS)
- Extended call history: See a more extended call history in Recents within the Phone app, including phone and FaceTime calls, as well as calls received on WhatsApp (iOS, iPadOS)
- Full page Screenshots: When taking a screenshot of a full page in Safari, Mail, or Notes, users can choose whether to save it to iPhone and iPad as an image or a PDF (iOS, iPadOS)
- Message filtering: Filter Messages by unread, known senders, and unknown senders on iPad, in addition to iPhone
- Built-in dictionary in Punjabi: Users can easily get definitions of words and phrases from a variety of sources (iOS, iPadOS, macOS)
How to get it?
Public beta testers can sign up for Apple’s beta testing program from here and download the iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates from Settings → General → Software Update → iOS 17 Public Beta.
iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 will be available later this fall for iPhone Xs and later, iPad (6th generation and later), iPad Mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), and iPad Pro (10.5-inch, 11-inch, and 12.9-inch) and later.