In September of this year, iOS 17 was introduced, but it was missing several features that were announced at WWDC23 in June. Although some of these features were added in iOS 17.1, such as AirDrop over the internet, many others were still absent. However, with the release of the iOS 17.2 beta, many of these lost features are now available. Although this is still in beta, we have an estimated release date.

Journal app

Introduced in this beta is a completely different app; Journal. While very minimal compared to other apps like Day One, this app does not have a huge focus on text and instead focuses on raw info in the form of curations. These curations can include location, media listened to, people you've communicated with, workouts, and more. It also includes prompts to write about with each curation, allowing you to add your thoughts and memories to the information.

Spatial Video

Apple announced Spatial Video capture for the iPhone 15 Pro lineup in September, allowing users to record horizontal videos in 3D to view on their Apple Vision Pro. With storage averaging out to about 130MB for one minute of video, according to MacRumors, this will allow you to preserve depth to view your memories like you are there when someone views it on an Apple Vision Pro

While it will appear in 3D on the Vision Pro, it will appear flat on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac display.

Expanded Action Button functionality

iOS 17.2 also introduces the translate option for the Action Button, allowing users to translate into a different language quickly and efficiently. 

Apple Music improvements

Apple Music got a huge focus in this update, allowing you to view your favorite playlist that will play all the songs you have marked as your favorite. You can now also temporarily disable music history in focus modes with a new focus filter, and while collaborative playlists were in the third beta, it was removed in the fourth beta of the upcoming update.

New widgets

Widgets also got a lot of love in this update, creating new widgets for the clock and weather. The weather app gets a sunrise/sunset widget, allowing users to view the next solar event right on their home screen. Apple has also added expanded information to the daily conditions widget, allowing users to view the conditions, high, and low for the next four days. The clock has a digital clock, with bears a striking resemblance to the Modular Ultra watch face.

Smaller changes

Apple also added a few smaller changes, which are listed below:

• You can now turn off inline predictions for the keyboard

• Contact key verification will let users know if you are talking to someone whose iCloud account might be hacked.

• The Apple TV app is now more independent from the iTunes store, merging the TV shows and movies tab

• A new rainbow option for contact poster text has been added

• Your iPhone will be ready to be used as an AirPlay receiver for an Apple Vision Pro.

• A new body section in Memoji allows users to change their waist, bust, shoulders, and arms

• Apple News now supports live activities for events such as elections

• The App Store now has an app categories bar on top in the "Apps" and "Games" section.

Potential release date

While the official release date is not currently available, we can estimate that this update will be released in the next two weeks.