What’s new in iOS 17 Beta 5

Apple today released the fifth beta of its upcoming iOS 17 update to developers for testing purposes, and the Cupertino company continues to make small tweaks and improvements to the operating system.

There aren’t many changes since we’re late in the beta testing process, but there are a few updates worth highlighting.

app store

For App Store downloads, Apple no longer capitalizes download buttons. Labels for the Get, Open, Update, and other ‌App Store buttons are now in title case instead of in uppercase as they were before.

Direct voicemail

Apple changed the direct voicemail prompt to make it less confusing for people calling you. The previous default voicemail message contained the phrase “the person you’re calling can answer,” which caused some callers to hang up rather than leave a voicemail.

Here’s what he says now:

Your call has been forwarded to voicemail. The person you are trying to reach is not available. On the tone, please sign your message. When you finish recording, you can hang up.

Mood tracking

Apple continues to improve the look of the mood logging feature in the Health app, and there’s a new graphic when you tap into the mood tracking interface. There were also small tweaks to the different graphic options for some of the colors and icons used to indicate each mood.

Private browsing is closed

There’s a new Safari private browsing start screen, which allows you to turn on the locked private browsing feature. This pops up when you open a private browser window for the first time after installing ‌iOS 17‌, and gives you an option to enable the setting.

Turning on locked private browsing locks the browser when you leave Safari or lock your phone, and accessing Private Browser afterward requires authentication with Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. This feature was turned on by default in previous betas, but it looks like it might be a setting that gets enabled when ‌iOS 17‌ is released.

Locate Siri Remote

When you open the Remote app in Control Center, there’s a new pop-up letting you know which feature is meant to let you track the Apple TV Siri Remote using your iPhone.

Although there is a hint of this feature, it doesn’t seem to be effective yet.

abbreviations

The icons that Apple uses for Safari in the Shortcuts app have been improved to make it clearer what each action does. Apple previously used the Safari icon for everything, but now options like Search Web, Open URL, and Filter Articles have more specific icons.

Sign in for messages

Apple has improved the appearance of the message verification example screen, which is presented so that you can see the difference between sharing limited data and sharing full data. The Settings screen now displays battery charge and ‌iPhone‌ unlock information sent along with location.

Apple also updated the wording to clarify that information is only shared if Checks are not answered when prompted.

More features of iOS 17 Beta 5

Do you know a feature we left out in this list? Let us know in the comments below.