Apple last week released the developer betas for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, yet they are still actively updating iOS 17. Today, Apple pushed iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 Beta 1 to developers for testing, following closely on the heels of the recent releases of iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 a few weeks ago.
The beta testers haven’t found any big changes in iOS 17.6, and we don’t anticipate any either. Apple added new Pride-themed wallpapers, introduced the Quartiles game for News+ subscribers, allowed offline reading of Apple News content, and enabled app web distribution in the EU with last month’s iOS 17.5, so there isn’t anything that’s left or something we anticipate.
It’s safe to say this release is mainly to fix small bugs in apps and to keep up with important security updates. Apple usually doesn’t give out detailed release notes until they’re almost ready to release the final version. According to the developer release notes, there’s only a minor bug with Bluetooth audio and a few camera issues on specific iPad models.
Developers can test the betas by following these steps: Open the Settings app, navigate to the Software Update section, tap on Beta Updates, and enable the iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 Developer Beta option. Keep in mind, that you’ll need an Apple ID linked with a developer account to download and install the beta version. As a word of caution, regular users should refrain from installing developer betas on their main devices. These updates are primarily meant for developers for testing purposes.
In addition to iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6, Apple has released tvOS 17.6, watchOS 10.6, and macOS Sonoma 14.6, coming hot on the heels of the recent public releases of iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5, tvOS 17.5, watchOS 10.5, and macOS Sonoma 14.5.