Eight days after a feature-rich iOS 17.2 arrived on iPhones, Apple has released an iterative update dubbed as iOS 17.2.1. The changelog doesn’t mention a lot and emphasizes “important bug fixes”.
iOS 17.2.1 is now rolling out on iPhone XS and later. You can wait for an update notification or go to Settings >> General >> Software Update to get your hands on the tiny 240.5MB update. Note that there’s no change on watchOS 10.2 and iPadOS 17.2 as both the sect of devices remain at their topmost firmware version.
Circling back to iOS 17.2.1, Apple hasn’t updated about those “important bug fixes”. It begs the question if this incoming update is truly minor fixing tiny issues or if Apple had to speed up the bug patching process to conceal a heavy vulnerability that could endanger those using iPhones. In any case, it is better to get your hands on iOS 17.2.1 just when you get it.
iOS 17.2 made its debut a few days ago with a bunch of major upgrades including an on-device storage and processing of the Journal app. There’s also the ‘Translate’ option on the Action Button that was earlier launched with iOS 17 although the people had to wait till now to get their hands on the update.
Note that Apple hasn’t updated the logs for iOS 17.2.1 at the time of writing this. Its release note mentions there are ‘no published CVE entries’ that could give us some idea as to why the a need to update iOS in just a week.
iOS 17.3 in the works
The next major iOS update would be iOS 17.3 scheduled to arrive sometime early next year. If previous updates are considered, we could see the iOS 17.3 update in December 2023 or January 2025 although we will have to wait to catch a confirmed bit about the same.
What’s new with iOS 17.3 you might ask? The update will ring ‘Stolen Device Protection’, a feature that adds a layer of security in case your iPhone is stolen and the thieves try to crack your passcode. There’s also Apple Music collaborative playlists that will make it to iOS 17.3. Apart from that, we should get AirPlay in hotels with IOS 17.3 as well as some changes to the app stores for the European Union including third-party app stores and sideloading functionalities although we will have to wait for longer.
