iOS 17 betas
As of June, iOS 17 is available to developer beta testers only, but there’s a big change to the developer beta testing process this year. In previous users, iOS developer betas were only available to registered developers who paid $99/year.
For iOS 17 this year, Apple is making betas available to anyone who signs up for a free developer account. No $99 annual subscription required.
That being said, we recommend proceeding with caution. Apple says these are “developer” betas for a reason. The iOS 17 beta has a number of bugs, performance issues, and will have a big impact on your battery life. Just because the iOS 17 developer beta is available for free doesn’t mean you should run to install it.
In July, however, Apple will release a public beta for iOS 17, which will still contain bugs and quirks but to a lesser degree than the developer betas.
When will iOS 17 be released to everyone?
After beta testing has wrapped up, Apple will release iOS 17 to the general public. Based on precedent, this will happen sometime in September. Here’s a rundown of previous iOS update release dates in September:
iOS 16: September 12, 2022
iOS 15: September 20, 2021
iOS 14: September 16, 2020
iOS 13: September 19, 2019
iOS 12: September 17, 2018
As you can see, Apple is pretty consistent with its iOS release schedules. That’s why we expect iOS 17 to follow the same pattern and be released sometime in mid-September.
iOS 17 supported devices
Notably, iOS 17 requires the A12 Bionic chip or newer. This means that the iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus – all of which were first released in 2017 – won’t get the update this year. Here’s the full rundown of iOS 17 supported devices:
iPhone XS and XS Max
iPhone XR
iPhone 11
iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max
iPhone 12 and 12 mini
iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max
iPhone 13 and 13 mini
iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max
iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max
iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd gen)
Leave a Reply