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After the release of the first beta of the iOS 17.1 update to developers, Apple now offers the iOS 17.1 Public Beta 1 to public testers.
The release has come just a day after the release of the first developer beta. It is part of Apple’s continuous move to improve the features it first released in the original version of iOS 17. Unfortunately, this week’s releases still don’t include the features we’ve been expecting, including the Journal app. Also, the Charging Optimization is still limited to the iPhone 15 models, despite being first spotted in the iOS 17 Release Candidate.
Public beta testers can now get the release by going to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates. There, you can toggle on iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 Public Beta.
Meanwhile, here are the features and improvements you might see in this public release:
- The flashlight icon indicator is now available to all iPhone models with a Dynamic Island. Formerly, it was only available in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max models.
- Apple Music now offers selections of album artwork users can use to customize the looks of their playlists. You can access it by tapping the menu in the upper-right of the playlist and selecting “Edit.”
- The Music app now shows the “Favorited” playlist option in the Library, Playlist, and Songs section. It applies to songs, albums, playlists, and artists. You can access this by tapping the menu option on the upper right section of the app and selecting Favorited. Songs also now show a new Favorite button with a new animation. The button is also interactive when you use it from the Music player on the Lock Screen.
- The Music app now includes song suggestions at the bottom of the playlists through the new Favorited system. The suggestions show up to five items, and each one has an Add button.
- Apple removed the new ringtones it introduced earlier in the original release of iOS 17. Apple might bring them back in future updates.
- AirDrop now supports data transfer over the internet, so devices can continue sharing content even when they are separated.
- The sharing gesture in AirDrop or NameDrop gains a new setting option to “Use Cellular Data.” This allows users to continuously send and receive content when Wi-Fi is unavailable during an AirDrop session. It can be found in the Settings > General > AirDrop.
- The beta update shows an “Extend” option when editing a wallpaper that is small and insufficient to cover your screen. When you pinch the image, you’ll notice that instead of seeing the end of the photo, you’ll see a smooth gradient fading to white. The feature was first spotted in iOS 17.0 Beta 6.
- The Journal app is still unavailable in this beta release.
- For UK-based users, adding their bank accounts to the Wallet app and viewing credit card and bank account balances is now possible.
- iOS 17.1 now supports the Nintendo Switch N64 Controller.
