On Wednesday, Apple made iOS 17.2 beta 3 available to the public. The update adds a bunch of small but solid improvements — if you can endure some of the inevitable bugs that always accompany beta software.
So, what’s new in iOS 17.2 beta 3? Here are all the features coming to an iPhone near you.
What’s new in iOS 17.2 beta 3?
Apple Music Favoriting improvement
Currently, if you favorite a song on Apple Music, it’s automatically added to your library. Apple now gives you the option to opt out of this, with a toggle in the settings: It’s on by default, but can now be switched off if you don’t want favorited songs to be part of your library.
Disable inline prediction
Inline text predictions — where the iPhone will pop up a gray word in front of your cursor that it thinks you’re typing — can be kind of annoying, especially if they’re completely off base on what you actually want to write. With iOS 17.2 beta 3, you can now turn it off. Just go to Settings > General > Keyboard, and tap the slider next to “Show Predictions Inline.”
Photos and Apple Music now work together
Boot up Photos in the beta, and the app will now ask permission to access your Apple Music library. “Photos can use Apple Music to curate song for Memories,” the prompt says, which suggests reminiscing is about to get a lot more personal.
Old favorite wallpapers are back
As spotted by XDA Developers, the third beta seems to have brought back the old live bubbles wallpaper that animates depending on how you hold your phone. It’s in the Collections section when you pick out a wallpaper, and it now comes with light, dark or automatic appearances.
On top of these, there are a handful of minor changes. The Journal app now shows a small banner towards the top prompting you to add a schedule, while Safari will now remember the timeframe you like to clear your browsing history for, defaulting to your preferred option.
If that all sounds good, here’s how to enable beta updates on your iPhone.
What’s already in iOS 17.2?
These small changes accompany a number of bigger additions seen in the previous two betas of iOS 17.2.
The most significant of these arrived in 17.2 beta 1: the Journal app. This lets iPhone users document their thoughts, feelings and daily activities to generally improve mindfulness. It’s not just text: They can add images, voice recordings and location tags if it’s helpful.
The first beta also introduced collaborative Apple Music playlists. Sharing a playlist link or a QR code lets anybody join in the playlist-making fun, which should make long road trips a little bit more enjoyable for everyone.
For iPhone 15 Pro users, the update also allowed the Action Button to act as a shortcut to translations — certainly handy if you’re abroad and need to quickly get the gist of what someone is saying.
The first update also brought favorite song playlists to Apple Music, a new digital clock widget, Live Activities in Apple News, Contact Key Verification for iMessage and other minor changes.
17.2 beta 2 brought along features like spatial video recording on iPhone 15 Pro, improvements to Siri and warranty information in the general settings menu.
