Best Prices Today: Apple 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 256 GB, 2023)

The MacBook Air has always been a svelte and compact device that is lightweight and easy to carry around. And now it’s got a big screen too: Apple has introduced a MacBook Air with a 15-inch screen that’s just as thin and light as the 13-inch model and actually larger than the more-powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro. So which should you buy?

We’ll break down all the specifics here. You can also read our article comparing the 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro as well as our best MacBook guide.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch Pro: Price

One of the most important parts of any buying decision is how much you want to spend. That’s why the 16-inch MacBook Pro has been left out of this comparison, as you could almost get two 15-inch MacBook Airs for the same money, which puts Apple’s largest laptop in a different league.

But with a $1,999 starting price, the 14-inch MacBook Pro is a little closer in price to the 15-inch Air, so let’s look at how the current models line up:

• 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 8GB/256GB) – $1,299/£1,399/€1,599
• 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 8GB/512GB) – $1,499/£1,599/€1,829
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 16GB/512GB) – $1,999/£2,149/€2,399
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 16GB/1TB) – $2,499/£2,699/€2,999
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Max, 32GB/1TB) – $3,099/£3,349/€3,699

As you can see, there’s still quite a disparity in the prices, but the Pro models do come with at least double the memory and storage as the respective Air (which increases the price of the AIr to $1,699/£1,799), plus a faster M2 Pro chip.

Apple also sells a 13-inch MacBook Pro, which has the same M2 chip as the 15-inch MacBook Air for $1,299, but with an older design (that includes the Touch Bar), we recommend the Air or 14-inch Pro.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Design and specs

Apple updated the design of the MacBook Air when it launched the 13-inch MacBook Air (M2) in July 2022, retiring the tapered chassis it used since Steve Jobs introduced the Air to the world by pulling it out of an inter-office envelope. The design is very similar to the Pro model

• 15-inch MacBook Air: 0.45in x 13.40in x 9.35in, 3.3lbs; 1.15cm x 34.04cm x 23.76cm, 1.51kg
• 14-inch MacBook Pro: 0.61in x 12.31in x 8.71in, 3.5lbs; 1.55cm x 31.26cm x 22.12cm, 1.60kg

Even with a smaller screen, the Pro is a bit chunkier and heavier due to the fans needed for heat dissipation, while the Air is, unsurprisingly, wider and taller, thanks to the bigger display.

The thicker MacBook Pro features more ports. Apple fits the MacBook Air with two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, a MagSafe charging port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the Pro, you get an additional Thunderbolt 4/USB-C (bringing the total to three), plus MagSafe, HDMI, SDXC ports, and a headphone jack.

Both models have a Touch ID sensor built into the keyboard, 1080p FaceTime HD cameras, and six-speaker arrays (the 13-inch Air only has a four-speaker sound system). The sound on the MacBook Pro is described by Apple as “High Fidelity”, by which we assume Apple is indicating it is superior to the Air. Connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.3 and while the Air supports Wi-Fi 6, the Pro tips the balance with Wi-Fi 6E.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Display

The 15-inch MacBook Air has a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, while the Pro comes with a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR panel. The screen on the Air is a bit bigger, but it’s not as good as the screen on the MacBook Pro.

The Air’s display runs at a resolution of 2,880 x 1,864 with a top refresh rate of 60Hz. Its maximum brightness is 500 nits, which is half of the Pro’s 1,000 nits in normal use or a third if you’re running HDR content at a max of 1,600 nits. This is achieved by the Pro display incorporating mini-LEDs rather than the Air’s standard LCD screen.

Perhaps the biggest difference though is that the Pro features ProMotion, meaning that the refresh rate tops out at 120Hz, again double that of the Air. This helps keep scrolling and animations smooth and crisp. Either display will be great for everyday use and long hours of work, but the Pro definitely has the edge when it comes to features.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Performance and battery

The new 15-inch MacBook Air features the same M2 chip in the 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with either the M2 Pro or the M2 Max. However, while the base model of the 13-inch Air has an 8-core GPU, the 15-inch MacBook Air has a full 10-core GPU as well as an 8-core CPU.

As the name suggests, the baseline M2 Pro brings more power, with a 10-core CPU and a 16-core or 19-core GPU. You can also upgrade to the M2 Max chip with a 12-core CPU and 30-core or 38-core GPU.

The standard M2 is a very capable chip, which can handle most things you’ll throw at it, including light photo and video editing. But if those are your main intended uses for your MacBook then we think the extra power in the Pro or Max chip would be the better solution. Otherwise, the M2 will be more than sufficient for a few years to come.

You don’t have to consider battery life in this race, as Apple states that both are capable of 18 hours of use from a single charge, which should get you through even the busiest of working days.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Verdict

The fact that both devices have similar looks and sizes makes it easier to decide which one to get, as it all comes down to price, screen size, and power. If you’re in the market for an everyday laptop for writing documents, creating presentations, working on spreadsheets, some light gaming, and plenty of streaming video, the 15-inch MacBook Air is a fantastic choice. Compared to the MacBook Pro, you get a slightly lighter laptop with a larger display at a much lower price.

Those who require the brightest, smoothest display, extra ports, and even more power will inevitably find the siren song of the 14-inch MacBook Pro too hard to resist. It’s a production powerhouse built for video editing, code creation, and gaming, that’s able to handle all the extreme demands of those activities. It’s called a Pro for a reason.

Most people who need a MacBook Pro probably aren’t reading this article—they know who they are. But for the rest of us, the 15-inch MacBook AIr is Apple’s best value in a laptop and the only one to buy.

MacBook

At the WWDC keynote on June 5, Apple unveiled the new features coming in iOS 17 this fall. Among them are a new app called Journal, Live Voicemail, and a new way to use Stickers, among dozens of other smaller changes.

This free software update will bring a raft of interface tweaks, bug fixes, and new features. It’s like getting a new iPhone without paying a penny. In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about iOS 17. We cover its release schedule and when you can expect the beta and final versions to come out; how to get it when it does; the models of iPhone that are likely to be able to run iOS; and the features we expect and hope to be added in the new OS.

Update June 6: Apple is allowing everyone to download the iOS 17 Developer Beta. You no longer need to have a $99/year paid developer membership in order to access Developer Betas. Find out how to get the iOS 17 beta right now below…

iOS 17 release date: When will iOS 17 arrive?

iOS 17 was announced and demonstrated at WWDC 2023 on June 5 but it won’t be rolled out to iPhones across the world until the fall, almost certainly in mid-September. (The last time an iOS update was released outside September was iOS 5 back in October 2011.) It’s likely to follow closely on the heels of the iPhone 15 launch event. There was a gap of five days between the iPhone 14 and iOS 16 update in 2022, and six days in 2021. Over the past several years, the release of the new version of iOS has been fairly consistent:

• iOS 16: Monday, September 12, 2022
• iOS 15: Monday, September 20, 2021
• iOS 14: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
• iOS 13: Thursday, September 19, 2019
• iOS 12: Monday, September 17, 2018

Based on recent history, we predict an iOS 17 launch date of Monday, September 11, or Monday, September 18.

iOS 17 beta release date: When will iOS 17 beta arrive?

Before the full version arrives in the fall, a series of beta versions of iOS 17 will be released to testers, beginning with the first developer beta on the first day of WWDC 2023. The developer beta of iOS 17 arrived on June 5, following the keynote event.

Previously access to Apple’s developer betas required membership in Apple’s Developer Program, which costs $99 a year. However, in 2023 Apple changed this requirement to include people who have free developer accounts (which previously only gave them access to Xcode and the Developer forums). This means you no longer need to be a paid member of Apple’s developer program to get the developer beta. If you want to try out the developer beta, you just need to register as a developer first.

However, developer betas are not intended for anyone who isn’t a developer. Apple is still going to be running the Public Beta program for IOS 17, which is more appropriate to general users as these updates usually come a few days after the developer update and are therefore a little less likely to break your iPhone. The public beta is likely to be released around the beginning of July.

Timeline:

• June 5: iOS 17 is announced at WWDC, and the first developer beta is released.
• July 2023: Apple releases the first public beta of iOS 17.
• June to September 2023: Apple releases a series of additional developer and public betas.
• Early September 2023: The iPhone 15 is announced.
• Mid-September 2023: The final public version of iOS 17 is released.

iOS 17: How to install the beta and full version

Once the final release comes out, installing iOS 17 will be a breeze. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General > Software Update; iOS will check for any available updates and guide you through the process of installing them. You simply have to follow the instructions, which we explain in our iOS updating guide. And it’s easier still if you’ve turned on Automatic Updates, which you can do from the same screen.

But you can also install betas both leading up to the main release of iOS 17 and through the year following its release. There are two types—developer betas, which arrive first, and public betas, which generally show up a day or two later.

Installing the developer beta: If you want to install a developer beta, you need, unsurprisingly, to be a registered Apple software developer. Since June 2023 Apple has opened the beta to all registered developers–it used to be the case that developers had to pay $99/£79 to get access to all of Apple’s developer betas, including macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. So to get the developer beta you need only follow these steps:

1. Download the Apple Developer App from the App Store.
2. Open the app and click on Account.
3. Tap on Sign In and sign in using your usual Apple ID. 

Once you are logged in you should see the beta in General > Software Update > Beta Updates. You need to be running iOS 16.5 or later for this to work. We cover this process in more detail in our How to get the iOS 17 beta article.

Our advice is that rather than installing the developer beta you should wait until the public beta arrives to avoid too many complications.

Installing the public beta: A better option for most would be to go for the public beta instead: these come out later than the developer betas, but they are free, and still give you bragging rights with your friends. Apple has changed the way betas are installed in iOS 16.4, and they are now tied to Apple IDs rather than profiles, so the process is a little friendlier than before and just requires joining the beta program with an Apple ID on any device.

In either case, it’s important to stress that betas are not finished software and are likely to contain bugs. That’s kind of the point of testing them. So be prepared for things to go wrong, maybe catastrophically, and we don’t recommend that you install a beta on your primary device. If that doesn’t put you off, follow our iOS beta installation guide. For more on joining the program read: How to join Apple’s beta program and try out new software.

iOS 17 compatibility: Which iPhones will be able to run iOS 17?

iOS 17 will not support iPhone 8 or the iPhone X. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and the iPhone X all came out the same year. They are all able to run iOS 16 though, so they should get support through security updates for at least another year. The following iPhones get support for iOS 17, although it is possible that not all of them will support all of the new features:

• Phone 14
• iPhone 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro
• iPhone 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 13
• iPhone 13 mini
• iPhone 13 Pro
• iPhone 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 12
• iPhone 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Pro
• iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro
• iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone XS
• iPhone XS Max
• iPhone XR
• iPhone SE(2nd gen or later)

Even if your chosen device is granted another year of software support, it’s worth noting that older iPhones may not get the full range of new features. Last year, for example, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X missed out on a bunch of cool stuff due to their older processor. For more information take a look at every version of iOS released so far and find out which version of iOS your iPhone supports.

iOS 17: New features

There were many new features in iOS 16, including a redesigned Lock Screen, unsending iMessages, and the iCloud Shared Photo Library, but what is coming in iOS 17? Rumors suggested that there would be “fewer major changes” than usual–but Apple has announced numerous new features for the update:

Journal

This is a brand new app that builds on Memories in Photos to bring a new way to relive special moments, remember and write about experiences with text, location and photos, and more. There is also a Suggestions API for developers to use in their apps.

StandBy

This seems to borrow from the Apple Watch. Put the phone in landscape on a stand at night and see the time with a clock and a range of clock styles. You can also shuffle through your best photos, display widgets, and see Live Activities, like game scores. You can also choose Night Mode to display red text and minimize eye strain at night.

Contact Posters

This will let you personalize how you appear in calls and on your contact card. You can customize your poster with images, fonts, and colors. This works with Call Kit so it can be used in third-party VOIP apps.

Live Voicemail

If someone calls and leaves a message you will see a live transcript as they speak. That way you can see if you want to pick up or not.

FaceTime

Apple is adding the ability to leave a video message in the FaceTime app when people don’t answer.

Messages

The Messages app will be faster, and search filters will let you add terms to a search to narrow the results. You’ll also be able to jump to the first unread message in a group chat, swipe to reply on any bubble, and automatically transcribe audio messages.

A new Check In feature will also let Family and Friends know if you’ve made it to a destination safely. Messages can recognize if you aren’t making progress toward the destination and prompt you to respond. If you don’t, it will share information with the selected contact, including your location, battery level, and cell service status.

Stickers

All emoji across iOS 17 are now stickers that can be resized. Subjects from photos can be lifted out of photos and turned into stickers. You can turn live animated photos into Live Stickers.

AirDrop

Apple is changing the way AirDrop works it will be much simpler to use. You only need to bring your phones close together and you will be able to share information. You can easily choose the phone numbers and email addresses you want to share on an iPhone or Apple Watch. For example, if you want to share photos, just bring your phones close together.

Keyboard and Dictation

Autocorrect will be “more accurate than ever.” Tap the underlined word to get the option to revert to the word you had typed. You can get predictions in line as you type and just tap the space bar to add them. Machine learning will also learn your writing style and adapt autocorrect accordingly. Additionally, Dictation leverages a new speech recognition model to make it even more accurate.

Siri

You no longer need to say, “Hey” every time you want to summon Siri. You can also make multiple requests in the same command.

Photos

The People album in iOS 17 will be able to use on-device machine learning to recognize “more photos of a user’s favorite people” as well as cats and dogs.

Smaller features

There are also numerous smaller features that Apple didn’t mention in the keynote that are worth knowing about, including improvements to Spotlight search, Notes, Autofill, and Apple Music.

iOS 17: Third-party app stores and sideloading

Ahead of WWDC, there were reports that Apple will start to open up the iPhone in iOS 17, allowing the distribution of apps outside of Apple’s own App Store, the use of NFC for touchless payments beyond Apple Pay, browsers that don’t have to use Apple’s Webkit rendering engine, and more. It’s all necessary to comply with the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, and the expectation is that it will only apply to those iPhones running iOS 17 in the regions covered by EU law.

Apple didn’t discuss the changes at WWDC, which isn’t very surprising. Furthermore, there are no references to sideloading or third-party app store on the iOS 17 website. However, that doesn’t mean those changes aren’t coming in iOS 17, either at launch or sometime in 2024.

iOS, iPhone

Best Prices Today: Apple 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 2023)

The MacBook Air has traditionally been a svelte and compact device that is lightweight and easy to carry around. Apple has pushed the boundaries of this now with the introduction of the new 15-inch MacBook Air. With dimensions similar to that of the more powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro, which one offers the better deal and is the one you should buy?

For more help deciding which Mac laptop to buy read MacBook Air vs 13-inch MacBook Pro, and our Best MacBook guide.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch Pro: Price

One of the most important parts of any buying decision is how much you want to spend. That’s why the 16-inch MacBook Pro has been left out of this comparison, as you could almost get two 15-inch MacBook Airs for the same money, which puts the Pro in a different league in terms of cost.

There is a 13-inch MacBook Pro, which has the same M2 chip as the new 15-inch Air, and comes in closer to the asking price, but if it’s a bigger display you’re after then we think this might be too small.

So, that leaves the 15-inch MacBook Air and 14-inch MacBook Pro to fight it out.

Here’s how the current models line up:

• 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 8GB/256GB) – $1,299/£1,399/€1,599
• 15-inch MacBook Air (M2, 8GB/512GB) – $1,499/£1,599/€1,829
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 16GB/512GB) – $1,999/£2,149/€2,399
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro, 16GB/1TB) – $2,499/£2,699/€2,999
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Max, 32GB/1TB) – $3,099/£3,349/€3,699

As you can see, there’s still quite a disparity in the prices, but the Pro models do come with at least double the memory and storage as the respective Air, plus the M2 Pro chip rather than the standard, but still excellent, M2 chip you’ll find in the new 15-inch MacBook Air.

Of course, you can upgrade components on the Apple site when buying, meaning you could configure the Air to match the memory and storage specs or even surpass those of the Pro, so long as you have the cash. At the time of writing, upgrading to 16GB/512GB would set you back $400/£400/€460, leaving the baseline model still a bit cheaper than the Pro, albeit without the M2 Pro chip.

The one thing you can’t do is add a M2 Pro to a MacBook Air, let alone an M2 Max.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch Pro: Design

Apple updated the design of the MacBook Air when it launched the 13-inch MacBook Air (M2) in July 2022, losing the tapered chassis that had been there pretty much since the time Steve Jobs pulled the first model out of an envelope and introduced the Air to the world.

This makes more room for components inside, but does mean that the Air and Pro have very similar looks and dimensions.

• 15-inch MacBook Air – 0.45in x 13.40in x 9.35in; 3.3lbs (or 1.15cm x 34.04cm x 23.76cm; 1.51kg)
• 14-inch MacBook Pro – 0.61in x 12.31in x 8.71in; 3.5lbs (or 1.55cm x 31.26cm x 22.12cm; 1.60kg)

Yes, the Pro is a bit chunkier and heavier, but there’s not much in it. The Air is, unsurprisingly, wider and taller, thanks to the bigger display.

The thicker MacBook Pro features more ports. Apple fits the MacBook Air with two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, a MagSafe charging port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the Pro you get an additional Thunderbolt 4/USB-C (bringing the total to three), plus MagSafe, HDMI, SDXC ports and the headphone jack.

Both the MacBook Pro and Air come with Touch ID, 1080p FaceTime HD cameras, and six speaker arrays (the 13-inch Air only has a four speaker sound system). The sound on the MacBook Pro is described by Apple as “High Fidelity”, by which we assume Apple is indicating it is superior to the Air. Connectivity is via Bluetooth 5.3 and while the Air supports Wi-Fi 6, the Pro tips the balance with Wi-Fi 6E.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch Pro: Displays

You get a 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display in the Air, while the Pro comes with a 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR panel. The screen on the Air might be bigger, but it’s not as good as the screen on the MacBook Pro.

The Air display runs at a resolution of 2,880 x 1,864 with a top refresh rate of 60Hz. Its maximum brightness is 500nits, which is half of the Pro’s 100 nits (or a third if you use the HDR mode at 1,600 nits). This is achieved by the Pro display incorporating mini-LEDs rather than the LCD of the Air.

Perhaps the biggest difference though is that the Pro features Pro-Motion, meaning that the refresh rate tops out at 120Hz, again double that of the Air. If you scroll through pages and content a lot, then the super-smooth Pro display will be a joy.

Either panel will be great for everyday use, but in this area the Pro definitely has the edge.

15-inch MacBook Air vs 14-inch Pro: Performance

The new 15-inch MacBook Air features Apple’s M2 chip, as previously seen in the 13-inch MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro, while the 14-inch MacBook Pro comes with either the M2 Pro or the M2 Max.

Inside the M2 chip there are 8 cores in the CPU, plus a 10-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine, all of which makes short work of most challenging tasks.

As the name suggests, the baseline M2 Pro improves on this with a 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU and a 16-core Neural Engine. If you go up to the more expensive M2 Pro then the specs increase to a 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU, and the M2 Max lives up to its title by offering a 12-core CPU and either a 30-core or 38-core GPU.

The standard M2 is a very capable chip, which can handle most things you’ll throw at it, including photo and video-editing. But if those are your main intended uses for your MacBook then we think the extra power in the Pro chips would be the better solution. Otherwise, the M2 will be more than sufficient for a few years to come.

You don’t have to consider battery life in this race, as Apple states that both are capable of 18-hours of use from a single charge, which should get you through even the busiest of working days.

Should you buy the 14-inch MacBook Pro or 15-inch MacBook Air?

The fact that both devices have similar looks and sizes makes it easier to decide which one to get, as it all comes down to price, screen size and power. If you’re in the market for an everyday laptop for writing documents, creating presentations, working on spreadsheets, some light gaming and plenty of online streaming, and find 13-inch screens a tad too small, then the 15-inch MacBook Air is the one we’d recommend. You get a slightly lighter but larger frame, with a larger display and at a much lower price.

Those who require the brightest, smoothest display, extra ports and even more power will inevitably find the siren song of the 14-inch MacBook Pro too hard to resist. It’s a production powerhouse built for video-editing, code creation and gaming, that’s able to handle all the extreme demands of those activities. It’s called a Pro for a reason.

So, once you’ve decided how you intend to use your MacBook, the choice should be straightforward. Either way, you’ll be getting a great machine.

MacBook

Apple has unveiled some of the new features coming to iOS in the fall.

Journal – Brand new app that builds on Memories in Photos to bring a new way to relive special moments. New way to remember and write about experiences with text, location and photos and more. You chose what to include. Suggestions API for developers to use in their apps.

StandBy – Borrows from the Apple Watch. Put the phone on a stand at night and see the time with a clock and a range of clock styles. Shuffles through best shots. Uses widgets. You can also see Live Activities, like game scores. StandBy adapts to red light – red tone to help you sleep.

Contact Posters – let you personalise how you appear in calls and on your contact card. You can customise your poster with image, font and colour. This works with Call Kit so it can be used in third-oarty VOIP apps.

Live Voicemail – If someone calls and leaves a message you will see a live transcript as they speak. That way you can see if you want to answer it. When you know what the call is about you can decide whether to take it.

FaceTime – Is getting the ability to leave a message as as FaceTime video.

Messages – will be faster and more convenient. Search filters will let you add terms to a search to narrow the results. Jump to the first message you haven’t seen in a group chat. Swipe to reply on any bubble. Audio messages are transcribed.

You can check in with a family member and friend to let them know you got home. It will recognise you aren’t making progress towards the destination and ‘check in with you’. They can also see your battery level and cell status so they know if you can take a call. Sleek new look so you can see the things you see the most.

Stickers – See all the stickers in one place. All emoji are now stickers. You can peak and stick and resize it. Subjects from photos can be lifted out of photos and turned in to stickers. You can turn live animated photos into moving stickers for Live Stickers. Stickers have been added systemwide wherever you can access emoji.

AirDrop – Change to the way it works. NameDrop means you can bring your phones close together and easily chose the phone numbers and email addresses you want to share and share them must like that. You can also share with and Apple Watch. To share photos just bring phones close together to simply share. You can then step away and the content will continue to share over the internet. This works with SharePlay too, so you can just bring phones together to share.

Keyboard and dictation – Autocorrect will be “more accurate than ever”. Tap the underlined word to get the option to revet to the word you had typed. You can get predictions in line as you type and just tap the space bar to add them.

Dictation – Improvements.

Siri – No need to say Hey everytime! Just the first time.

Photos – can identify cats and dogs that are part of your family.

We will update this story as the news breaks, please reload this page for the latest news.

— Here are the rumors —

Each year Apple releases a major update for iOS, the operating system on your iPhone. The current version, released last year, is iOS 16, and it doesn’t take a genius to predict that 2023 will see the launch of iOS 17. This free software update will bring a raft of interface tweaks, bug fixes, and new features. It’s like getting a new iPhone without paying a penny.

In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about iOS 17. We cover its release schedule and when you can expect the beta and final versions to come out; how to get it when it does; the models of iPhone that are likely to be able to run iOS; and the features we expect and hope to be added in the new OS.

iOS 17 release date: When will iOS 17 arrive?

iOS 17 will be announced and demonstrated at WWDC 2023 on June 5, and then rolled out to iPhones across the world in fall 2023, almost certainly in mid-September. (The last time an iOS update was released outside September was iOS 5 back in October 2011.) It’s likely to follow closely on the heels of the iPhone 15 launch event. There was a gap of five days between the iPhone 14 and iOS 16 update in 2022, and six days in 2021. Over the past several years, the release of the new version of iOS has been fairly consistent:

• iOS 16: Monday, September 12, 2022
• iOS 15: Monday, September 20, 2021
• iOS 14: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
• iOS 13: Thursday, September 19, 2019
• iOS 12: Monday, September 17, 2018

Before this happens, a series of beta versions of iOS 17 will be released to testers, beginning with the first developer beta likely released on the first day of WWDC 2023. Here’s our expected timeline:

• Early to mid-June 2023: iOS 17 is announced at WWDC, and the first developer beta is released.
• July 2023: Apple releases the first public beta of iOS 17.
• June to September 2023: Apple releases a series of additional developer and public betas.
• Early September 2023: The iPhone 15 is announced.
• Mid-September 2023: The final public version of iOS 17 is released.

iOS 17 compatibility: Which iPhones will be able to run iOS 17?

Our best guess is that the iPhone XS and later will be able to run iOS 17. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and the iPhone X which came out the same year, are all on the borderline. They may miss out, or they may squeak through and get another year of software support.

Apple, unfortunately, doesn’t follow a strict system where iPhones lose support after a specified number of years. Some years Apple doesn’t remove any devices from the list of supported devices; last year, by contrast, it removed the 6s and 7 generations in a single stroke. (Optimists may hope that this unusually harsh year will be followed by a more lenient one.) If you’ve got an iPhone 7, 1st-gen iPhone SE, or anything earlier than those devices, however, you definitely won’t be able to install iOS 17 since they aren’t compatible with get iOS 16.

• iPhone 7, iPhone SE (2016), and earlier: Not compatible
• iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus: Possibly compatible
• iPhone X: Possibly compatible
• iPhone XS, XS Max, XR: Probably compatible
• iPhone 11 and later: Definitely compatible

In April, there were conflicting reports of compatibility. On Twitter, Fame_Monsters reported that the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X would lose support when iOS 17 arrived, but Anonymous A.S on the Macrumors forums claimed the rumor was “simply incorrect” and iOS 17 would support the same phones as iOS 16.

Even if your chosen device is granted another year of software support, it’s worth noting that older iPhones may not get the full range of new features. Last year, for example, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X missed out on a bunch of cool stuff due to its older processor. For more information take a look at Every version of iOS released so far.

iOS 17: How to install the beta and full version

Once the final release comes out, installing iOS 17 will be a breeze. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General > Software Update; iOS will check for any available updates and guide you through the process of installing them. You simply have to follow the instructions, which we explain in our iOS updating guide. And it’s easier still if you’ve turned on Automatic Updates, which you can do from the same screen.

But you can also install betas both leading up to the main release of iOS 17 and through the year following its release. There are two types—developer betas, which arrive first, and public betas, which generally show up a day or two later.

If you want to install a developer beta, you need, unsurprisingly, to be a registered Apple software developer. This costs $99 a year and will give you priority access to all of Apple’s betas, including macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. A better option for most would be to go for the public beta instead: these come out later than the developer betas, but they are free, and still give you bragging rights with your friends. Apple has changed the way betas are installed in iOS 16.4, and they are now tied to Apple IDs rather than profiles, so the process is a little friendlier than before. You can sign up to receive betas at the Apple Beta Software Program site.

In either case, it’s important to stress that betas are not finished software and are likely to contain bugs. That’s kind of the point of testing them. So be prepared for things to go wrong, maybe catastrophically, and we don’t recommend that you install a beta on your primary device. If that doesn’t put you off, follow our iOS beta installation guide. For more on joining the program read: How to join Apple’s beta program and try out new software.

iOS 17: Rumored new features

After including numerous new features in iOS 16, including a redesigned Lock Screen, unsending iMessages, and the iCloud Shared Photo Library, but early reports indicate that iOS 17 will have ‘fewer major changes’ than usual. However, there are signs that we’ll still get some pretty great features. A report by Mark Gurman in March claims that Apple has shifted its plans for iOS 17 and it is now “expected to boast several ‘nice to have’ features.” He doesn’t offer any specifics other than to say the new features will be among iPhone users’ “most requested features” but will still lack “a tentpole improvement like last year’s revamped lock screen.”

Smart display mode: According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a rather reliable source of leaks and rumors), iOS 17 will turn your iPhone into a smart display of sorts when locked and turned to a horizontal orientation. The feature will build on the lock screen widgets work from iOS 16, and use a dark background with bright text to make it easier to read. Apple is also working on a new horizontal iPad interface but that work is slower. Gurman also mentions changes to the Wallet app and its location services, a new journaling app, additions to the Health app, and upgrades to SharePlay and AirPlay.

Control Center: A MacRumors forum member says that iOS 17 will have substantial changes to Control Center, the first in many years. “Website forum member” is not typically strong providence for info leaks, but this same person has previously leaked accurate information about the Dynamic Island before its unveiling.

Camera and Health improvements: In April, a Twitter thread from prolific leaker @analyst941 detailed several new features they claim are from a development team insider. This leak is sketchy, but the individual reported updates are all vague and predictable enough that they seem likely. They include:

• Major changes to the Control Center UI and customization
• New features for the Dynamic Island
• Additional always-on display settings
• More Focus Mode filters
• Health app UI changes
• Camera app changes
• Notification changes and additional options
• Heavily improved Search/Spotlight

Lock Screen sharing: A post on Weibo from an account that accurately predicted the yellow iPhone 14 color (although at a fairly late date) details some supposed improvements in iOS 17. They include:

• Control Center UI changes
• App Library supports custom folders
• Apple Music lyrics on the lock screen
• Apple Music interface improvements
• Infinitely adjustable flashlight brightness
• Sharing lock screen setups
• Font size adjustment for Lock screen and emoji wallpaper

Lock Screen Maps: Analyst941 on Twitter, who has made several prior iOS 17 leaks, shows a new lock screen interface for Maps that shows the time and notifications count, unlike the current full-screen takeover.

iOS 17: New features we hope to see

Since this year’s release is rumored to be more maintenance and smaller improvements than flashy new features, this year’s wishlist is focused on things we want to see improved in iOS 17—little tweaks that will make a big difference in how we use our phones.

Apple certainly doesn’t come to us for advice about this stuff (and it’s too late to make major changes anyway), but it’s instructive to see how well “what we want” lines up with “what Apple delivers.” For what it’s worth, Apple actually delivered several of our iOS 16 Wishlist features, and if iOS 17 brings us more of the changes on this year’s list, we’ll consider that a success. Here’s what we want to see this year:

App Library overhaul

First introduced with iOS 14, the App Library is a good fundamental idea: Let your home screen be cluttered with only those apps you truly use every day and hide the dozens of other apps on your iPhone away from view.

It’s just a bad design! Apps are stuffed automatically into category folders that don’t always match up with what you’d expect. I have two Fender guitar apps on my iPhone. Fender Tune is in the Entertainment folder where it doesn’t belong, and Fender Play is in Other. Intuitively, these belong in the same folder, which should probably be Creativity. Everyone I know has numerous examples like this.

The folders are represented by four icons, three of which are actual app icons that open the app when you tap on them and the fourth is a group of four more tiny app icons that open the folder. This is an interaction and interface model that doesn’t exist anywhere else in iOS and iPadOS, and it’s not intuitive. Oh, and all the folders and their contents move around and change so you can’t develop muscle memory.

We have a few simple suggestions. Tapping the search box at the top of the App Library gives you an alphabetical list, which is a much simpler and intuitive way to find an app. It should be the default view—or be able to be set as the default view.

At the very least, make the folders in the App Library work like folders throughout iOS. Don’t move them around, make them so you open the folder when you tap on them and never one of the apps within. And maybe incorporate a number showing how many apps are in the folder.

Third-party app stores

A recent report claims that Apple will start to open up the iPhone in iOS 17, allowing the distribution of apps outside of Apple’s own App Store, the use of NFC for touchless payments beyond Apple Pay, browsers that don’t have to use Apple’s Webkit rendering engine, and more. It’s all necessary to comply with the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, and the expectation is that it will only apply to those iPhones running iOS 17 in the regions covered by EU law.

Apple should go ahead and make the changes–whatever they are–global. Naturally, we expect Apple to do the minimum possible to be in compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and we’re probably going to be in for a round of hearings and lawsuits and such saying that Apple isn’t in full compliance.

I still think whatever limited additional choice and freedom the EU iPhone users get will be a good thing, and would be good for users the world over, on balance. Moreover, it might be a smart move by Apple. The company is under antitrust scrutiny in several other markets, including the U.S. It could take a lot of heat off itself by offering the same solution that satisfied EU regulators, possibly preventing even stricter remedies in other regions.

It would also make iOS easier to maintain and test as a single cohesive release, rather than fragmenting iOS into regional variants.

Better Siri

Siri is definitely getting better and got a nice set of improvements in iOS 15 and iOS 16. It finally got offline processing, which speeds things up a lot and improves privacy. It also got a bit smarter and more reliable and is a lot better about understanding what is on the screen and reacting to it.

But Siri simply isn’t getting good enough fast enough. Not a day goes by that I don’t ask my Google Assistant something to which I get a good answer, and then—just out of curiosity—I ask Siri as well, and Siri fails.

The emphasis on new large language models such as ChatGPT is moving the bar for how we expect to be able to converse with AI. Siri needs more than just a “20 percent better than last year!” update, it needs a big forward leap that you can hear and feel every time you use it. It needs to sound better, work better, do more, and be right more often. It needs to truly feel conversational.

Siri kicked off the first generation of smartphone AI and fell behind. Wouldn’t it be great if Siri was the first true “next-generation” smartphone AI?

2FA for all

There’s this awesome feature in iOS that takes 2FA authentication codes you receive via SMS and makes them an autofill option just above the keyboard. This allows you to fill in the code without jumping away from the app or website that requested it and back again.

The only problem is that this only works with 2FA codes from SMS or Apple’s built-in Passwords feature.

We don’t suggest using SMS for 2FA codes unless you have to–they’re not as secure as they should be. Using the built-in password manager to generate codes isn’t a great option either because it really only works well on your iPhone–if you ever need to log in anywhere else, it’s a real pain to jump three layers deep in Settings to get your code. And some businesses mandate the use of certain 2FA apps.

We’d love for Apple to provide a framework for one-time-password code generation apps such as Authy, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and others so they can securely autofill codes when requested just like Messages.

Call screening

Spam calls are out of control, and Apple should be using every tool in its arsenal to solve one of the biggest annoyances plaguing every smartphone user. For some time now, Google Assistant has been able to screen calls from unknown callers on Android phones. It can produce text transcripts and recordings, too.

This seems like a thing Siri should be able to do. In fact, Apple should go a step further and build an iCloud call spam service. These apps and services already exist, but they require you to set up a call-forwarding service–Apple, with low-level access to the operating system, could make this easy and seamless. Just like the iCloud Private Relay service, this should be an obvious feature for a company that bills itself as the “security and privacy” smartphone choice.

More Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island is a wonderful interface convention that we expect to see on all four iPhone models this year. But it can do more!

New notifications should flow out of the Dynamic Island when they come in instead of just sliding down from the top of the screen, and the option to see how many unread notifications you have would be useful too. Maybe Siri could suggest new Live Activities based on the apps you use.

But most importantly, the Dynamic Island should not be a place for notifications to live, just where they briefly appear when they first come in. The use of this area is clear: it’s for persistent background activities and “here and then gone forever” toasts like the Face ID authentication or AirPods connecting.

Version unification

There’s no good reason for Apple’s ecosystem to have fragmented version numbers that are hard to keep track of. More than ever before, the software is updated in sync with features meant to work together, so why do we have one version number of iOS and iPadOS and tvOS, another for watchOS, and another for macOS?

This is only going to get worse when the Reality headset is released and has xrOS 1 or something similar.

Just jump everything ahead to 17. Or better yet, version 20. Why not? After all, Apple skipped the iPhone 9 entirely, jumped tvOS to version 17 out of the blue, and kept macOS at version 10 for more than a decade.

Help make it clear for users: the latest release for each device’s OS will have the same version number. The releases might not always happen on the same day, but consumers should be able to easily see that the latest watchOS 20.2 update goes with iOS 20.2, which goes with macOS 20.2, and so on.

iOS, iPhone

Each year Apple releases a major update for iOS, the operating system on your iPhone. The current version, released last year, is iOS 16, and it doesn’t take a genius to predict that 2023 will see the launch of iOS 17. This free software update will bring a raft of interface tweaks, bug fixes, and new features. It’s like getting a new iPhone without paying a penny.

In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about iOS 17. We cover its release schedule and when you can expect the beta and final versions to come out; how to get it when it does; the models of iPhone that are likely to be able to run iOS; and the features we expect and hope to be added in the new OS.

iOS 17 release date: When will iOS 17 arrive?

iOS 17 will be announced and demonstrated at WWDC 2023 on June 5, and then rolled out to iPhones across the world in fall 2023, almost certainly in mid-September. (The last time an iOS update was released outside September was iOS 5 back in October 2011.) It’s likely to follow closely on the heels of the iPhone 15 launch event. There was a gap of five days between the iPhone 14 and iOS 16 update in 2022, and six days in 2021. Over the past several years, the release of the new version of iOS has been fairly consistent:

• iOS 16: Monday, September 12, 2022
• iOS 15: Monday, September 20, 2021
• iOS 14: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
• iOS 13: Thursday, September 19, 2019
• iOS 12: Monday, September 17, 2018

Before this happens, a series of beta versions of iOS 17 will be released to testers, beginning with the first developer beta likely released on the first day of WWDC 2023. Here’s our expected timeline:

• Early to mid-June 2023: iOS 17 is announced at WWDC, and the first developer beta is released.
• July 2023: Apple releases the first public beta of iOS 17.
• June to September 2023: Apple releases a series of additional developer and public betas.
• Early September 2023: The iPhone 15 is announced.
• Mid-September 2023: The final public version of iOS 17 is released.

iOS 17 compatibility: Which iPhones will be able to run iOS 17?

Our best guess is that the iPhone XS and later will be able to run iOS 17. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and the iPhone X which came out the same year, are all on the borderline. They may miss out, or they may squeak through and get another year of software support.

Apple, unfortunately, doesn’t follow a strict system where iPhones lose support after a specified number of years. Some years Apple doesn’t remove any devices from the list of supported devices; last year, by contrast, it removed the 6s and 7 generations in a single stroke. (Optimists may hope that this unusually harsh year will be followed by a more lenient one.) If you’ve got an iPhone 7, 1st-gen iPhone SE, or anything earlier than those devices, however, you definitely won’t be able to install iOS 17 since they aren’t compatible with get iOS 16.

• iPhone 7, iPhone SE (2016), and earlier: Not compatible
• iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus: Possibly compatible
• iPhone X: Possibly compatible
• iPhone XS, XS Max, XR: Probably compatible
• iPhone 11 and later: Definitely compatible

In April, there were conflicting reports of compatibility. On Twitter, Fame_Monsters reported that the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X would lose support when iOS 17 arrived, but Anonymous A.S on the Macrumors forums claimed the rumor was “simply incorrect” and iOS 17 would support the same phones as iOS 16.

Even if your chosen device is granted another year of software support, it’s worth noting that older iPhones may not get the full range of new features. Last year, for example, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X missed out on a bunch of cool stuff due to its older processor. For more information take a look at Every version of iOS released so far.

iOS 17: How to install the beta and full version

Once the final release comes out, installing iOS 17 will be a breeze. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General > Software Update; iOS will check for any available updates and guide you through the process of installing them. You simply have to follow the instructions, which we explain in our iOS updating guide. And it’s easier still if you’ve turned on Automatic Updates, which you can do from the same screen.

But you can also install betas both leading up to the main release of iOS 17 and through the year following its release. There are two types—developer betas, which arrive first, and public betas, which generally show up a day or two later.

If you want to install a developer beta, you need, unsurprisingly, to be a registered Apple software developer. This costs $99 a year and will give you priority access to all of Apple’s betas, including macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. A better option for most would be to go for the public beta instead: these come out later than the developer betas, but they are free, and still give you bragging rights with your friends. Apple has changed the way betas are installed in iOS 16.4, and they are now tied to Apple IDs rather than profiles, so the process is a little friendlier than before. You can sign up to receive betas at the Apple Beta Software Program site.

In either case, it’s important to stress that betas are not finished software and are likely to contain bugs. That’s kind of the point of testing them. So be prepared for things to go wrong, maybe catastrophically, and we don’t recommend that you install a beta on your primary device. If that doesn’t put you off, follow our iOS beta installation guide. For more on joining the program read: How to join Apple’s beta program and try out new software.

iOS 17: Rumored new features

After including numerous new features in iOS 16, including a redesigned Lock Screen, unsending iMessages, and the iCloud Shared Photo Library, but early reports indicate that iOS 17 will have ‘fewer major changes’ than usual. However, there are signs that we’ll still get some pretty great features. A report by Mark Gurman in March claims that Apple has shifted its plans for iOS 17 and it is now “expected to boast several ‘nice to have’ features.” He doesn’t offer any specifics other than to say the new features will be among iPhone users’ “most requested features” but will still lack “a tentpole improvement like last year’s revamped lock screen.”

Smart display mode: According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a rather reliable source of leaks and rumors), iOS 17 will turn your iPhone into a smart display of sorts when locked and turned to a horizontal orientation. The feature will build on the lock screen widgets work from iOS 16, and use a dark background with bright text to make it easier to read. Apple is also working on a new horizontal iPad interface but that work is slower. Gurman also mentions changes to the Wallet app and its location services, a new journaling app, additions to the Health app, and upgrades to SharePlay and AirPlay.

Control Center: A MacRumors forum member says that iOS 17 will have substantial changes to Control Center, the first in many years. “Website forum member” is not typically strong providence for info leaks, but this same person has previously leaked accurate information about the Dynamic Island before its unveiling.

Camera and Health improvements: In April, a Twitter thread from prolific leaker @analyst941 detailed several new features they claim are from a development team insider. This leak is sketchy, but the individual reported updates are all vague and predictable enough that they seem likely. They include:

• Major changes to the Control Center UI and customization
• New features for the Dynamic Island
• Additional always-on display settings
• More Focus Mode filters
• Health app UI changes
• Camera app changes
• Notification changes and additional options
• Heavily improved Search/Spotlight

Lock Screen sharing: A post on Weibo from an account that accurately predicted the yellow iPhone 14 color (although at a fairly late date) details some supposed improvements in iOS 17. They include:

• Control Center UI changes
• App Library supports custom folders
• Apple Music lyrics on the lock screen
• Apple Music interface improvements
• Infinitely adjustable flashlight brightness
• Sharing lock screen setups
• Font size adjustment for Lock screen and emoji wallpaper

Lock Screen Maps: Analyst941 on Twitter, who has made several prior iOS 17 leaks, shows a new lock screen interface for Maps that shows the time and notifications count, unlike the current full-screen takeover.

iOS 17: New features we hope to see

Since this year’s release is rumored to be more maintenance and smaller improvements than flashy new features, this year’s wishlist is focused on things we want to see improved in iOS 17—little tweaks that will make a big difference in how we use our phones.

Apple certainly doesn’t come to us for advice about this stuff (and it’s too late to make major changes anyway), but it’s instructive to see how well “what we want” lines up with “what Apple delivers.” For what it’s worth, Apple actually delivered several of our iOS 16 Wishlist features, and if iOS 17 brings us more of the changes on this year’s list, we’ll consider that a success. Here’s what we want to see this year:

App Library overhaul

First introduced with iOS 14, the App Library is a good fundamental idea: Let your home screen be cluttered with only those apps you truly use every day and hide the dozens of other apps on your iPhone away from view.

It’s just a bad design! Apps are stuffed automatically into category folders that don’t always match up with what you’d expect. I have two Fender guitar apps on my iPhone. Fender Tune is in the Entertainment folder where it doesn’t belong, and Fender Play is in Other. Intuitively, these belong in the same folder, which should probably be Creativity. Everyone I know has numerous examples like this.

The folders are represented by four icons, three of which are actual app icons that open the app when you tap on them and the fourth is a group of four more tiny app icons that open the folder. This is an interaction and interface model that doesn’t exist anywhere else in iOS and iPadOS, and it’s not intuitive. Oh, and all the folders and their contents move around and change so you can’t develop muscle memory.

We have a few simple suggestions. Tapping the search box at the top of the App Library gives you an alphabetical list, which is a much simpler and intuitive way to find an app. It should be the default view—or be able to be set as the default view.

At the very least, make the folders in the App Library work like folders throughout iOS. Don’t move them around, make them so you open the folder when you tap on them and never one of the apps within. And maybe incorporate a number showing how many apps are in the folder.

Third-party app stores

A recent report claims that Apple will start to open up the iPhone in iOS 17, allowing the distribution of apps outside of Apple’s own App Store, the use of NFC for touchless payments beyond Apple Pay, browsers that don’t have to use Apple’s Webkit rendering engine, and more. It’s all necessary to comply with the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, and the expectation is that it will only apply to those iPhones running iOS 17 in the regions covered by EU law.

Apple should go ahead and make the changes–whatever they are–global. Naturally, we expect Apple to do the minimum possible to be in compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and we’re probably going to be in for a round of hearings and lawsuits and such saying that Apple isn’t in full compliance.

I still think whatever limited additional choice and freedom the EU iPhone users get will be a good thing, and would be good for users the world over, on balance. Moreover, it might be a smart move by Apple. The company is under antitrust scrutiny in several other markets, including the U.S. It could take a lot of heat off itself by offering the same solution that satisfied EU regulators, possibly preventing even stricter remedies in other regions.

It would also make iOS easier to maintain and test as a single cohesive release, rather than fragmenting iOS into regional variants.

Better Siri

Siri is definitely getting better and got a nice set of improvements in iOS 15 and iOS 16. It finally got offline processing, which speeds things up a lot and improves privacy. It also got a bit smarter and more reliable and is a lot better about understanding what is on the screen and reacting to it.

But Siri simply isn’t getting good enough fast enough. Not a day goes by that I don’t ask my Google Assistant something to which I get a good answer, and then—just out of curiosity—I ask Siri as well, and Siri fails.

The emphasis on new large language models such as ChatGPT is moving the bar for how we expect to be able to converse with AI. Siri needs more than just a “20 percent better than last year!” update, it needs a big forward leap that you can hear and feel every time you use it. It needs to sound better, work better, do more, and be right more often. It needs to truly feel conversational.

Siri kicked off the first generation of smartphone AI and fell behind. Wouldn’t it be great if Siri was the first true “next-generation” smartphone AI?

2FA for all

There’s this awesome feature in iOS that takes 2FA authentication codes you receive via SMS and makes them an autofill option just above the keyboard. This allows you to fill in the code without jumping away from the app or website that requested it and back again.

The only problem is that this only works with 2FA codes from SMS or Apple’s built-in Passwords feature.

We don’t suggest using SMS for 2FA codes unless you have to–they’re not as secure as they should be. Using the built-in password manager to generate codes isn’t a great option either because it really only works well on your iPhone–if you ever need to log in anywhere else, it’s a real pain to jump three layers deep in Settings to get your code. And some businesses mandate the use of certain 2FA apps.

We’d love for Apple to provide a framework for one-time-password code generation apps such as Authy, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and others so they can securely autofill codes when requested just like Messages.

Call screening

Spam calls are out of control, and Apple should be using every tool in its arsenal to solve one of the biggest annoyances plaguing every smartphone user. For some time now, Google Assistant has been able to screen calls from unknown callers on Android phones. It can produce text transcripts and recordings, too.

This seems like a thing Siri should be able to do. In fact, Apple should go a step further and build an iCloud call spam service. These apps and services already exist, but they require you to set up a call-forwarding service–Apple, with low-level access to the operating system, could make this easy and seamless. Just like the iCloud Private Relay service, this should be an obvious feature for a company that bills itself as the “security and privacy” smartphone choice.

More Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island is a wonderful interface convention that we expect to see on all four iPhone models this year. But it can do more!

New notifications should flow out of the Dynamic Island when they come in instead of just sliding down from the top of the screen, and the option to see how many unread notifications you have would be useful too. Maybe Siri could suggest new Live Activities based on the apps you use.

But most importantly, the Dynamic Island should not be a place for notifications to live, just where they briefly appear when they first come in. The use of this area is clear: it’s for persistent background activities and “here and then gone forever” toasts like the Face ID authentication or AirPods connecting.

Version unification

There’s no good reason for Apple’s ecosystem to have fragmented version numbers that are hard to keep track of. More than ever before, the software is updated in sync with features meant to work together, so why do we have one version number of iOS and iPadOS and tvOS, another for watchOS, and another for macOS?

This is only going to get worse when the Reality headset is released and has xrOS 1 or something similar.

Just jump everything ahead to 17. Or better yet, version 20. Why not? After all, Apple skipped the iPhone 9 entirely, jumped tvOS to version 17 out of the blue, and kept macOS at version 10 for more than a decade.

Help make it clear for users: the latest release for each device’s OS will have the same version number. The releases might not always happen on the same day, but consumers should be able to easily see that the latest watchOS 20.2 update goes with iOS 20.2, which goes with macOS 20.2, and so on.

iOS, iPhone

With less than a week to go before the WWDC keynote, rumors are continuing to roll in as we anticipate one of the most important keynotes in Apple’s history as it unveils the long-anticipated AR headset to the world. And according to a new report from Mark Gurman, that won’t be the only new product Apple brings to the show.

In a tweet, Gurman reports that “several new Macs” will arrive at WWDC as one of the three “major focus areas” of the keynote (the various operating systems and headset are the other two). Unsurprisingly, he says that the keynote will be “one of Apple’s longest ever and easily exceed two hours.”

I’m expecting three major focus areas next week: 1) several new Macs, 2) the mixed-reality headset, 3) the new OSs. With all of the new hardware and software, I expect the keynote to be one of Apple’s longest ever and easily exceed two hours.

— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) May 31, 2023

We’ve long expected Apple to launch the 15-inch MacBook Air at WWDC, but Gurman’s tweet indicates that numerous models are arriving. That means an update to the Mac Studio, which is still running an M1 chip, the first Apple silicon-based Mac Pro, and 24-inch iMac could all get updates at WWDC.

If Apple updates the Mac Studio or Mac Pro, that also means the M2 Ultra chip will arrive as well. Apple introduced the M2 Max processor in January with the 2023 MacBook Pro, but the M1 Ultra still holds the crown as the fastest processor for the Mac, making things more than a little confusing for buyers. There’s a chance we also get the M3 processor, though recent rumors suggest the chip won’t arrive until later 2023 or 2024.

We’re also expecting macOS 14 to make its debut, though the update is likely to be a small one with few new notable features. You can watch the WWDC keynote live as it happens beginning at 10am PT on Monday.

Mac

Each year Apple releases a major update for iOS, the operating system on your iPhone. The current version, released last year, is iOS 16, and it doesn’t take a genius to predict that 2023 will see the launch of iOS 17. This free software update will bring a raft of interface tweaks, bug fixes, and new features. It’s like getting a new iPhone without paying a penny.

In this article, we discuss everything you need to know about iOS 17. We cover its release schedule and when you can expect the beta and final versions to come out; how to get it when it does; the models of iPhone that are likely to be able to run iOS; and the features we expect and hope to be added in the new OS.

Updated 05/24/23: Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says the iPhone will get a sort of “smart display” feature that builds on lock screen widgets, which kicks in when the phone is locked and positioned horizontally.

iOS 17 release date: When will iOS 17 arrive?

iOS 17 will be announced and demonstrated at WWDC 2023 in June, and then rolled out to iPhones across the world in fall 2023, almost certainly in mid-September. (The last time an iOS update was released outside September was iOS 5 back in October 2011.) It’s likely to follow closely on the heels of the iPhone 15 launch event. There was a gap of five days between the iPhone and iOS update in 2022, and six days in 2021. Over th epast several years, the release of the new version of iOS has been fairly consistent:

• iOS 16: Monday, September 12, 2022
• iOS 15: Monday, September 20, 2021
• iOS 14: Wednesday, September 16, 2020
• iOS 13: Thursday, September 19, 2019
• iOS 12: Monday, September 17, 2018

Before this happens, a series of beta versions of iOS 17 will be released to testers, beginning with the first developer beta likely released on the first day of WWDC 2023. Here’s our expected timeline:

• Early to mid-June 2023: iOS 17 is announced at WWDC, and the first developer beta is released.
• July 2023: Apple releases the first public beta of iOS 17.
• June to September 2023: Apple releases a series of additional developer and public betas.
• Early September 2023: The iPhone 15 is announced.
• Mid-September 2023: The final public version of iOS 17 is released.

iOS 17 compatibility: Which iPhones will be able to run iOS 17?

Our best guess is that the iPhone XS and later will be able to run iOS 17. The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, and the iPhone X which came out the same year, are all on the borderline. They may miss out, or they may squeak through and get another year of software support.

Apple, unfortunately, doesn’t follow a strict system where iPhones lose support after a specified number of years. Some years Apple doesn’t remove any devices from the list of supported devices; last year, by contrast, it removed the 6s and 7 generations in a single stroke. (Optimists may hope that this unusually harsh year will be followed by a more lenient one.) If you’ve got an iPhone 7, 1st-gen iPhone SE, or anything earlier than those devices, however, you definitely won’t be able to install iOS 17 since they aren’t compatible with get iOS 16.

• iPhone 7, iPhone SE (2016), and earlier: Not compatible
• iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus: Possibly compatible
• iPhone X: Possibly compatible
• iPhone XS, XS Max, XR: Probably compatible
• iPhone 11 and later: Definitely compatible

In April, there were conflicting reports of compatibility. On Twitter, Fame_Monsters reported that the iPhone 8/8 Plus and iPhone X would lose support when iOS 17 arrived, but Anonymous A.S on the Macrumors forums claimed the rumor was “simply incorrect” and iOS 17 would support the same phones as iOS 16.

Even if your chosen device is granted another year of software support, it’s worth noting that older iPhones may not get the full range of new features. Last year, for example, the iPhone 8 and iPhone X missed out on a bunch of cool stuff due to its older processor. For more information take a look at Every version of iOS released so far.

iOS 17: How to install the beta and full version

Once the final release comes out, installing iOS 17 will be a breeze. Open the Settings app on your iPhone and go to General > Software Update; iOS will check for any available updates and guide you through the process of installing them. You simply have to follow the instructions, which we explain in our iOS updating guide. And it’s easier still if you’ve turned on Automatic Updates, which you can do from the same screen.

But you can also install betas both leading up to the main release of iOS 17 and through the year following its release. There are two types—developer betas, which arrive first, and public betas, which generally show up a day or two later.

If you want to install a developer beta, you need, unsurprisingly, to be a registered Apple software developer. This costs $99 a year and will give you priority access to all of Apple’s betas, including macOS, watchOS, and tvOS. A better option for most would be to go for the public beta instead: these come out later than the developer betas, but they are free, and still give you bragging rights with your friends. Apple is changing the way betas are installed in iOS 16.4, and they are now tied to Apple IDs rather than profiles, so the process is a little friendlier than before. You can sign up to receive betas at the Apple Beta Software Program site.

In either case, it’s important to stress that betas are not finished software and are likely to contain bugs. That’s kind of the point of testing them. So be prepared for things to go wrong, maybe catastrophically, and we don’t recommend that you install a beta on your primary device. If that doesn’t put you off, follow our iOS beta installation guide. For more on joining the program read: How to join Apple’s beta program and try out new software.

iOS 17: Rumored new features

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman (a rather reliable source of leaks and rumors), iOS 17 will turn your iPhone into a smart display of sorts when locked and turned to a horizontal orientation. The feature will build on the lock screen widgets work from iOS 16, and use a dark background with bright text to make it easier to read. Apple is also working on a new horizontal iPad interface but that work is slower. Gurman also mentions changes to the Wallet app and its location services, a new journaling app, additions to the Health app, and upgrades to SharePlay and AirPlay.

After including numerous new features in iOS 16, including a redesigned Lock Screen, unsending iMessages, and the iCloud Shared Photo Library, but early reports indicate that iOS 17 will have ‘fewer major changes’ than usual. According to Mark Gurman, Apple has shifted resources to the development of software for its AR headset, tentatively called xrOS. A report in early January indicated that its headset development had “cost it some new features in iOS 17.”

A later report from less-reliable LeaksApplePro echoed Gurman’s comments, saying iOS 17 will focus on “stability and efficiency” and “there won’t be many visual changes.”

However, there are signs that it might be a bigger release after all. A report by Mark Gurman in March claims that Apple has shifted its plans for iOS 17 and it is now “expected to boast several ‘nice to have’ features.” He doesn’t offer any specifics other than to say the new features will be among iPhone users’ “most requested features” but will still lack “a tentpole improvement like last year’s revamped lock screen.”

A MacRumors forum member says that iOS 17 will have substantial changes to Control Center, the first in many years. “Website forum member” is not typically strong providence for info leaks, but this same person has previously leaked accurate information about the Dynamic Island before its unveiling.

In April, a Twitter thread from prolific leaker @analyst941 detailed several new features they claim are from a development team insider. This leak is sketchy, but the individual reported updates are all vague and predictable enough that they seem likely. They include:

• Major changes to the Control Center UI and customization
• New features for the Dynamic Island
• Additional always-on display settings
• More Focus Mode filters
• Health app UI changes
• Camera app changes
• Notification changes and additional options
• Heavily improved Search/Spotlight

A post on Weibo from an account that accurately predicted the yellow iPhone 14 color (although at a fairly late date) details some supposed improvements in iOS 17. They include:

• Control Center UI changes
• App Library supports custom folders
• Apple Music lyrics on the lock screen
• Apple Music interface improvements
• Infinitely adjustable flashlight brightness
• Sharing lock screen setups
• Font size adjustment for Lock screen and emoji wallpaper

Analyst941 on Twitter, who has made several prior iOS 17 leaks, shows a new lock screen interface for Maps that shows the time and notifications count, unlike the current full-screen takeover.

iOS 17: New features we hope to see

Since this year’s release is rumored to be more maintenance and smaller improvements than flashy new features, this year’s wishlist is focused on things we want to see improved in iOS 17—little tweaks that will make a big difference in how we use our phones.

Apple certainly doesn’t come to us for advice about this stuff (and it’s too late to make major changes anyway), but it’s instructive to see how well “what we want” lines up with “what Apple delivers.” For what it’s worth, Apple actually delivered several of our iOS 16 Wishlist features, and if iOS 17 brings us more of the changes on this year’s list, we’ll consider that a success. Here’s what we want to see this year:

App Library overhaul

First introduced with iOS 14, the App Library is a good fundamental idea: Let your home screen be cluttered with only those apps you truly use every day and hide the dozens of other apps on your iPhone away from view.

It’s just a bad design! Apps are stuffed automatically into category folders that don’t always match up with what you’d expect. I have two Fender guitar apps on my iPhone. Fender Tune is in the Entertainment folder where it doesn’t belong, and Fender Play is in Other. Intuitively, these belong in the same folder, which should probably be Creativity. Everyone I know has numerous examples like this.

The folders are represented by four icons, three of which are actual app icons that open the app when you tap on them and the fourth is a group of four more tiny app icons that open the folder. This is an interaction and interface model that doesn’t exist anywhere else in iOS and iPadOS, and it’s not intuitive. Oh, and all the folders and their contents move around and change so you can’t develop muscle memory.

We have a few simple suggestions. Tapping the search box at the top of the App Library gives you an alphabetical list, which is a much simpler and intuitive way to find an app. It should be the default view—or be able to be set as the default view.

At the very least, make the folders in the App Library work like folders throughout iOS. Don’t move them around, make them so you open the folder when you tap on them and never one of the apps within. And maybe incorporate a number showing how many apps are in the folder.

Third-party app stores

A recent report claims that Apple will start to open up the iPhone in iOS 17, allowing the distribution of apps outside of Apple’s own App Store, the use of NFC for touchless payments beyond Apple Pay, browsers that don’t have to use Apple’s Webkit rendering engine, and more. It’s all necessary to comply with the EU’s new Digital Markets Act, and the expectation is that it will only apply to those iPhones running iOS 17 in the regions covered by EU law.

Apple should go ahead and make the changes–whatever they are–global. Naturally, we expect Apple to do the minimum possible to be in compliance with the Digital Markets Act, and we’re probably going to be in for a round of hearings and lawsuits and such saying that Apple isn’t in full compliance.

I still think whatever limited additional choice and freedom the EU iPhone users get will be a good thing, and would be good for users the world over, on balance. Moreover, it might be a smart move by Apple. The company is under antitrust scrutiny in several other markets, including the U.S. It could take a lot of heat off itself by offering the same solution that satisfied EU regulators, possibly preventing even stricter remedies in other regions.

It would also make iOS easier to maintain and test as a single cohesive release, rather than fragmenting iOS into regional variants.

Better Siri

Siri is definitely getting better and got a nice set of improvements in iOS 15 and iOS 16. It finally got offline processing, which speeds things up a lot and improves privacy. It also got a bit smarter and more reliable and is a lot better about understanding what is on the screen and reacting to it.

But Siri simply isn’t getting good enough fast enough. Not a day goes by that I don’t ask my Google Assistant something to which I get a good answer, and then—just out of curiosity—I ask Siri as well, and Siri fails.

The emphasis on new large language models such as ChatGPT is moving the bar for how we expect to be able to converse with AI. Siri needs more than just a “20 percent better than last year!” update, it needs a big forward leap that you can hear and feel every time you use it. It needs to sound better, work better, do more, and be right more often. It needs to truly feel conversational.

Siri kicked off the first generation of smartphone AI and fell behind. Wouldn’t it be great if Siri was the first true “next-generation” smartphone AI?

2FA for all

There’s this awesome feature in iOS that takes 2FA authentication codes you receive via SMS and makes them an autofill option just above the keyboard. This allows you to fill in the code without jumping away from the app or website that requested it and back again.

The only problem is that this only works with 2FA codes from SMS or Apple’s built-in Passwords feature.

We don’t suggest using SMS for 2FA codes unless you have to–they’re not as secure as they should be. Using the built-in password manager to generate codes isn’t a great option either because it really only works well on your iPhone–if you ever need to log in anywhere else, it’s a real pain to jump three layers deep in Settings to get your code. And some businesses mandate the use of certain 2FA apps.

We’d love for Apple to provide a framework for one-time-password code generation apps such as Authy, Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and others so they can securely autofill codes when requested just like Messages.

Call screening

Spam calls are out of control, and Apple should be using every tool in its arsenal to solve one of the biggest annoyances plaguing every smartphone user. For some time now, Google Assistant has been able to screen calls from unknown callers on Android phones. It can produce text transcripts and recordings, too.

This seems like a thing Siri should be able to do. In fact, Apple should go a step further and build an iCloud call spam service. These apps and services already exist, but they require you to set up a call-forwarding service–Apple, with low-level access to the operating system, could make this easy and seamless. Just like the iCloud Private Relay service, this should be an obvious feature for a company that bills itself as the “security and privacy” smartphone choice.

More Dynamic Island

The Dynamic Island is a wonderful interface convention that we expect to see on all four iPhone models this year. But it can do more!

New notifications should flow out of the Dynamic Island when they come in instead of just sliding down from the top of the screen, and the option to see how many unread notifications you have would be useful too. Maybe Siri could suggest new Live Activities based on the apps you use.

But most importantly, the Dynamic Island should not be a place for notifications to live, just where they briefly appear when they first come in. The use of this area is clear: it’s for persistent background activities and “here and then gone forever” toasts like the Face ID authentication or AirPods connecting.

Version unification

There’s no good reason for Apple’s ecosystem to have fragmented version numbers that are hard to keep track of. More than ever before, the software is updated in sync with features meant to work together, so why do we have one version number of iOS and iPadOS and tvOS, another for watchOS, and another for macOS?

This is only going to get worse when the Reality headset is released and has xrOS 1 or something similar.

Just jump everything ahead to 17. Or better yet, version 20. Why not? After all, Apple skipped the iPhone 9 entirely, jumped tvOS to version 17 out of the blue, and kept macOS at version 10 for more than a decade.

Help make it clear for users: the latest release for each device’s OS will have the same version number. The releases might not always happen on the same day, but consumers should be able to easily see that the latest watchOS 20.2 update goes with iOS 20.2, which goes with macOS 20.2, and so on.

iOS, iPhone