iOS 17.2 beta 4 is out now with Journal app and lots of new features and changes

Macworld

Just after the release of iOS 17.1, Apple began beta testing on iOS 17.2. While iOS 17.1 introduced some of the “coming later this year” features of iOS 17, there are still a few to come, and we expect iOS 17.2 to include some of them.

The biggest one is the Journal app, which Apple announced at WWDC and is included in iOS 17.2. It also includes collaborative playlists in Apple Music, some slight adjustments to the TV app tabs, a new Translate feature for the Action button, and more.

Update 11/28/23: The fourth beta of iOS 17.2 is now available.

What’s new in iOS 17.2

We don’t yet know what every change in iOS 17.2 might be, but these are the most significant new features and updates found in this release so far.

News app Live Activities: The News app now supports Live Activities, useful for rapidly-updating stories like election results.

Spatial video recording for Apple Vision Pro: With an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, open Settings > Camera > Formats to toggle Spatial Video for Apple Vision Pro. In the Camera app, in Video mode, you’ll see a small Vision Pro icon to enable the feature.

Journal app: The Apple life-journaling app is included in iOS 17.2. You can record and reflect on your daily life and activities, with on-device machine learning helping to choose what to write about and pick photos, music listened to, and more.

iMessage Contact Key Verification: Made for users who face “extraordinary digital threats” such as journalists, human rights activists, and government officials, this is a new method by which users can verify the person with whom they are messaging.

TV app tabs: The separate Movies and TV Shows tabs are removed from the TV app, in favor of a single unified “Store” tab.

Emergency Alerts Local Awareness: In Notifications > Emergency Alerts you’ll find a “Local Awareness” option. This uses your approximate location to “improve the timeliness, accuracy, and reliability of emergency alerts.”

Translate Action button: The Action button on iPhone 15 Pro has a new Translate option.

Collaborative playlists: Open a playlist in Apple Music, tap the collaborate button at the top to invite friends to join.

Favorite Songs playlist: A new Favorite Songs playlist in Apple Music will pull together all the songs you have marked as Favorite.

Apple Music listening history Focus filter: You can enable a filter for your focus modes to disable the listening history in Apple Music. This is useful if you fall asleep to music, let someone else borrow your phone, or just don’t want all the Lo-Fi Beats you listen to when studying to impact your Apple Music suggestions.

Weather and Clock widgets: There are three new widgets for the Weather app and one for the Clock app (the first digital clock widget Apple has made).

Reactions in Messages: You can now react to iMessages with any emoji or sticker. Just long-press the message and choose “add sticker.”

Sensitive Content Warning for stickers: Apple says iOS 17.2 will make it so that if you enable Sensitive Content Warnings for Messages, it will also work on Stickers.

Memoji bodies: There’s a new “body” section where users can customize waist, bust, shoulders, and arms for their Memojis.

iOS 17.1: How to install the public beta

If you want to be among the first to test iOS 17, you can sign up for the public beta test. The process for installing a beta has changed in iOS 16.4. Here’s how the new process works now:

Click Sign Up on the Apple Beta page and register with your Apple ID.

Click Enroll your iOS device.

Open the Settings app, tap General, then Software Update.

In the Beta Updates section, select the iOS Public Beta.

It may take a few moments after registering for the beta option to appear in Software Update.

iOS 17.1: How to install the developer beta

You’ll need to be registered as an Apple developer. Beginning with iOS 17, you don’t need to be in the $99 per year developer program to access the developer beta. A free developer account will do. You can get one via Xcode or the Apple Developer app in iOS. Here’s how to do it via the Apple Developer app:

Download the Apple Developer App from the App Store.

Open the app.

Tap on Account.

If you want to sell applications to the App Store you’ll need to pay $99/£79 per year for a paid account. Sign up for the Apple Developer Program (here) or through Apple’s Developer App. You can compare the free and paid accounts here.

Registered developers can choose to get the Public Beta instead by selecting iOS Public Beta in the Software Update screen. It may take a little time after registering as a developer for the option to appear in Software Updates.

Some developers have an Apple ID registered for developer access that is different from the Apple ID associated with their personal Apple account and data. To use a different Apple ID for beta access than is used throughout the rest of iOS, open Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates and select the Apple ID at the bottom of the screen.

Find out everything you need to know about iOS 17 in our iOS 17 superguide.

iOS