Apple Seeds First iOS 17.4 Public Beta With EU App Ecosystem Changes, Re-Releases Dev Beta

Tuesday January 30, 2024 10:12 am PST by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 updates to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test the software ahead of its release. The public iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 betas come a week after Apple released the betas for developers. Apple has also re-released the first beta of iOS 17.4 for developers with a new 21E5184k build number, which is the same build number used for the public beta.

iOS 17
Public beta testers can get the beta 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 Public Beta. Signing up on Apple's beta testing website is required.

The iOS 17.4 and iPadOS 17.4 betas introduce a whole slew of changes for users in the European Union, allowing for alternative app stores and alternative payment methods.

There are new options for choosing a default browser, NFC has been opened up to banks and other financial institutions, and browsers aren't mandated to use WebKit.

Along with these changes, the update also brings new emoji characters, Podcast transcripts, tweaks to Safari, hints of what we can expect from the next-generation CarPlay, and more.

Full details on what's included in iOS 17.4 beta 1 can be found in our features guide.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

Apple Alerts Stores to iPhone Duo's Display Cracking Issue

Friday October 30, 2026 3:20 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol

In a memo shared with Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers this week, and later obtained by MacRumors, Apple provided technicians with guidance on how to diagnose and address the iPhone Duo's inner display cracking issue. If a customer reports the issue, Apple advised technicians to inspect the iPhone Duo and repair or replace it in accordance with their standard procedures....

• 280 comments

Apple Launching Five New Products This Friday

Monday November 2, 2026 1:22 am PST by Tim Hardwick

Apple is releasing five new products this Friday, November 6, following pre-orders that opened last week, including its first touchscreen MacBook Pro models. The following new products will be available from Friday: iPad mini with OLED display and A20 Pro chip iMac with M6 chip 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 chip 14-inch MacBook Pro with OLED touchscreen 16-inch MacBook Pro with OLED...

• 22 comments

Everything New Your iPhone Can Do on iOS 27

14 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 27.2

Friday October 30, 2026 12:42 pm PDT by Tim Hardwick

Apple released iOS 27.2 on October 26, bringing enhancements to Siri AI, adding Suggestions in Messages, and sneaking in a string of smaller additions across Photos, Podcasts, Games, Apple TV, and FaceTime. iOS 27.2 is available to download to your device now via Settings ➝ General ➝ Software Update. Note that some features may not be available in all regions or on all iPhone models....

• 24 comments

Top Rated Comments

cupcakes2000

36 months ago

Some folk would rather their own democratically elected government had a say on the matter, rather than have an unelected organisation make 27 countries minds up for them.

The “unelected organisation” are voted for proportionally by each member countries citizens, during the elections. Each country has a specific amount of mp’s.
Then, when or if the EU want to make a law, each elected member state government decides to either agree or veto the vote. If even one country vetos the vote, the law as it stands, wouldn’t pass.

Just thought I would mention it as you clearly don’t know how it works, or you can google it to find out. Either way, don’t just make stuff up and post it as fact. 👍

Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Unami

36 months ago

Some folk would rather their own democratically elected government had a say on the matter, rather than have an unelected organisation make 27 countries minds up for them.

Oh, it's not unelected, there are European parliament elections on June 6th-9th. In fact, the EU workings are more democratical than most countries.

Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

jdavid_rp

36 months ago

Does that mean the whole world gets bloaty software on their phones to accommodate EU code?

Well, in EU we already had “bloated” software with all the code, images and whatever for the Apple Card, the ID on wallet feature, Apple Pay Cash and surely other features we haven’t seen yet

Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)

bsolar

36 months ago

Except that's not true. The EU Council (which makes the rules including the DMA) is not elected by the citizens. The EU parliament is. And they (the EP) only get to vote on regulations created by the EC.

So the EU is only indirectly a "democracy". As a citizen you don't have any way to get the EU to make or change any legislation.

First of all, the EU Council is composed by the heads of state of the State Members, which are democratically elected as the State Members are democratic countries themselves. This means the EU Council is a democratic representation of the State Members' citizens.

Second, representative democracy is the only form of democracy which exists in practice, with various degrees of semi-direct power given to citizens, but typically it's the representatives that either propose or vote legislation, not the citizens themselves.

As with basically any representative democracy, a citizen that wants something done needs to elect the right representatives. In the case of the EU Council by electing their own head of state, in the case of the European Parliament by electing their parliament representatives.

Details aside, at a fundamental level how is this different from any other democratic country exactly?

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

mystery hill

36 months ago

Settings > General > About: IDENTIFIABLE_REGION now displays the region that the device ‘belongs’ to.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)