Apple’s Third iOS 17 Beta Now Available to Developers | Here’s What’s New

Right on schedule, Apple has just made the third beta of iOS 17 to registered developers. As usual, the new update is expected to polish up iOS 17 as we get closer to a public beta and an eventual release and unlock a few more of the things Apple has promised for iOS 17.

We’ll have to wait until later this week to see if a public beta appears; however, Apple did promise that the first iOS 17 public beta would arrive sometime in July, and in the past, it’s often been the third developer beta of an iOS release that becomes the first public beta.

Things are a bit different this year, though, as Apple has made its developer betas freely available for the first time ever. In the past, only those who signed up for Apple’s $99/year Developer Program were entitled to download and install the developer betas. That changed with iOS 17 as Apple opened the floodgates to make the iOS 17 developer betas available at no cost to anybody who registered their Apple ID with the Apple Developer Program and agreed to the terms and conditions involving the risks of early betas.

Nevertheless, those unwilling to risk installing a developer beta on their everyday Apple devices are still better waiting for Apple’s public beta program. That’s the point at which the iOS 17 betas are considered stable enough to be tried out by the general public and not just developers who should only be installing them on secondary testing devices.

Today’s third iOS 17 developer beta is accompanied by a new series of betas for iPadOS 17, watchOS 10, macOS Sonoma, and tvOS 10. HomePod Software 17 Beta updates aren’t yet generally available even to developers.

What’s new in iOS 17 Beta 3

When it comes to major iOS releases, Apple generally rolls out new features and enhancements slowly over the course of the first two or three developer betas, and iOS 17 beta 3 is no exception. While we can expect things to get a bit less interesting in future betas, there are some interesting new and noteworthy changes still to be found in beta 3.

Song Credits in Apple Music

During its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) Keynote, Apple mentioned that more detailed song credits would be coming to Apple Music, and now this has arrived in the third beta.

These can be found by tapping on the three-dot menu from the Now Playing screen in the Music app or long-pressing on a song in the track list and then selecting the song title from the top of the pop-up menu. The credits will show details on the performers, composers, lyricists, and even the production and engineering crew. A tile at the bottom will also show the available audio quality for the track, such as Lossless, Hi-Res Lossless, and Dolby Atmos.

Not every album has credit data available yet, but Apple presumably plans to have this ready by the time iOS 17 is released in the fall.

Refined Home App Controls

Apple’s Home app has gotten a bit more polish, with a splash screen to show what’s changed, new control layouts for multicolored lights and thermostats, and some new icons for garage doors.

This joins the change from the first iOS 17 beta that added activity history for accessories like door locks and garage doors to let you see when they’ve been opened and by whom.

Mental Wellbeing and State of Mind

One of the most significant new health features coming in iOS 17 and watchOS 10 is the ability to log your state of mind throughout the day to help improve your mental well-being. You can turn on reminders to log your moods throughout the day or near the end of your day or pop into the health app and make a note at any time. You’ll also be able to log this information like any other health sample through Apple’s Shortcuts app.

With the third beta of iOS 17, Apple has tweaked the colors in the mood logging interface and added matching buttons and backgrounds, ranging from a bluish purple for “Very Unpleasant” to a comfortable orange-peach shade for “Very Pleasant.”

Other Changes

Several other smaller changes have been discovered throughout iOS 17 beta 3. This includes a preview of your most recent photo beside the Photos option in the Messages app, a separate “Depth Control” toggle under Settings > Camera > Preserve Settings, and a three-dot pop-up menu that contains the options to recover or permanently delete photos in the Recently Deleted album in the Photos app.