iOS 17 beta 1 hands-on: A buggy delight that further alienates Android users

June 7, 2023 | 06:21:55

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The official previews of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, and watchOS 10 had been something we had been looking forward to for months. Finally, we had the opportunity to use these operating systems for the first time after the main WWDC23 keynote. Registered developers can now test the beta versions on their compatible machines while the public, stable releases are still about three months away.

Apple’s most widely used operating system, iOS, powers millions of iPhones worldwide. And the Cupertino company hopes to get closer to its users with iOS 17. Although the stability and dependability of the final release are not accurately represented by the first developer beta, we do know what this version will include.

Communication upgrades were a major theme during the conference. Though, evidently, these upgrades will mostly affect you if your social circle relies on iOS. Otherwise, iOS 17, in many ways, is a minor bump that doesn’t bring a lot of excitement to the table. After running iOS 17 beta 1 for around a day, I’ve come to some conclusions, which I will highlight below.

The overall iOS 17 beta 1 experience

I’ve been using iOS developer betas on my primary device for a long time, and I have to admit that iOS 17 beta 1 is one of the buggiest I’ve ever used. However, I believe that earlier releases were more stable. That is to be expected and known when it comes to a major release’s first beta. Therefore, if you’re thinking about it, you might want to wait until a later beta version of the experience stabilizes before moving forward.

As an illustration, turning on the new Crossfade toggle in the Music settings causes the Settings app to crash. After the initial crash, the Settings app will crash again each time you access the Music section. You won’t be able to change that, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to fix it. any settings related to the Music app until Apple fixes it.

The major introductions in iOS 17 beta 1

As previously mentioned, iOS 17 beta 1 includes a lot of new features. However, if their friends use Android or other non-Apple solutions, many users won’t be able to use them. For instance, even though many of my friends use iOS, we don’t communicate using iMessage or FaceTime. I therefore won’t be able to actively use the new FaceTime video voicemail and reaction features, despite the fact that they are useful. In a similar vein, since only other iOS 17 users will be able to view my profile, many of my friends who use Android won’t be able to see the Contact Poster I’ve set.

But this goes beyond the Phone, FaceTime, and Messages apps. Let’s look at some music. Users will be able to collaborate on playlists in iOS 17 and use SharePlay in CarPlay to manage the queue. I won’t be able to use these features with my friends since they all have Spotify subscriptions.