Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 to Developers

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 betas to developers for testing purposes, with the updates coming a day after the launches of iOS 17.3 and iPadOS 17.3.

Registered developers are able to opt into the betas by opening up the Settings app, going to the Software Update section, tapping on the "Beta Updates" option, and toggling on the iOS 17 or iPadOS 17 Developer Beta. An Apple ID associated with a developer account is required to download and install the beta.

Apple has a March 6 deadline to introduce app sideloading in the European Union in order to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), and iOS 17.4 will add support for this. Sideloading will allow Apple users in Europe to download apps outside of the App Store, but the change will be limited to the EU and won't impact customers in other parts of the world.

There's no word yet on what else is included in iOS 17.4, but Apple's updates around this time often introduce new emoji characters. If there are indeed new emoji in the update, we can expect to see the Unicode 15.1 additions, which include phoenix, lime, an edible mushroom, shaking head vertically (as in a "yes" nod), shaking head horizontally (a "no" head shake), and broken chain.