Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 to Developers - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Seeds First Betas of iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 to Developers

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 17.6 and iPadOS 17.6 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a few weeks after the launch of iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5.

iOS 17
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.

The features Apple promised for iOS 17 have all been implemented, so it is not clear what will be included in iOS 17.6. It is expected to be one of the final feature updates to iOS 17, as Apple will soon transition most of its focus to iOS 18.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

Waze logo

5 New Waze Features Rolling Out Now: Here Are All the Details

Monday July 13, 2026 3:42 am PDT by
Google today announced that Waze is getting a handful of new features, including some Gemini-powered personalization enhancements for Conversational Reporting. Conversational Reporting already uses Gemini when users report traffic incidents like slowdowns, but now you can use it to suggest map updates like road closures or outdated addresses. Saying something like "The road is closed here"...
apple back to school sans airpods 2

Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer is Coming Soon

Sunday July 12, 2026 7:29 am PDT by
Apple's stores will be rolling out Back to School marketing materials this week, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This suggests that the offer will begin in the U.S. in the next few days. Last year, college students and educational staff could receive a free accessory like AirPods 4 or an Apple Pencil Pro with the purchase of a qualifying Mac or iPad model. The Back to School offer is in...
Apple 2026 Back to School Graphic

Apple's 2026 Back to School Offer Just Went Live in Select Countries

Wednesday July 15, 2026 11:48 am PDT by
Apple's annual Back to School promotion is now live in select countries in Asia, including China, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. The offer provides college students and educational staff with a free item with the purchase of an eligible Mac or iPad model. The exact offer varies by country, with options including a pack of four AirTags, AirPods 4,...

Top Rated Comments

jz0309 Avatar
27 months ago
Hopefully the focus is on bug fixes and security updates
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iLuddite Avatar
27 months ago

Maybe...

I won't personally touch betas, pubic or developer. Did enough of that back in the earlier iOS days.
I wouldn’t touch a pubic beta, either ;)
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FridgeToaster Avatar
27 months ago
Everybody: iOS nowadays is so buggy, it's basically unusable.
Also everybody in June: Let's install Developer Beta 1.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adrianlondon Avatar
27 months ago

Everybody: iOS nowadays is so buggy, it's basically unusable.
Also everybody in June: Let's install Developer Beta 1.
Well, the choice is "old stuff and buggy" vs "new stuff and buggy".

New stuff is always exciting, so dev beta it is!
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
FineWoven Avatar
27 months ago

Meanwhile, many here likely already have iOS 18…
Haha those are some brave souls! Even though I can get the dev betas if I wanted to, I always wait for the public versions when they come out a month later. Much more likely to be stable. And even then I just start with my iPad and if all is well for a week or so then I’ll move to installing it on my iPhone. My Mac however, I always wait until the full release has been out a little while in the fall since that is vital to me as a work machine and I can’t risk anything I rely on being rendered useless as a result of Apple’s rushed testing process.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
27 months ago

How has iOS 18 been bug-wise? I know it's an early beta but I'm curious how solid it is this early on, especially given all the AI stuff Apple has littered across the system (but presumably not enabled yet.)
It's very usable, it just that the way you do things that are common place is now shifted around. Take for instance received calls. Clicking on the text of the caller doesn't initiate a call, only if you click on the phone icon on the far right. Clicking on the text opens the contact form with the ability to block or unblock calls from that party. In that manner it's like a bit of relearning is required with some features you use all the time. It not like a lot of the features they showed off have arrived yet which is typical that early in its cycle. At some point in the future most will have to learn all about how to use this rather then its becomes too featured all at once in Sept. :D
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)