The New Features You'll Find With iOS 17.5

After releasing in late 2023, iOS 17 has released its fifth major update. 17.5 comes just two months after 17.4 and brings with it even more quality-of-life features for your iPhone. They mainly concern Apple News+, new maintenance tools and even expanded app access to those in the EU. Find a quick brief of the newest features below.

Apple News+ Upgrades

First are a raft of new features for Apple News+, their proprietary subscription service that aggregates a lot of news media and magazines for users. It now boasts a new offline mode along with a whole new game called Quartiles. It's a classic word game, where the player must match two to four-letter tiles to form words.

Apple is trying to double down on the entertainment value of News+, no doubt following the example of many other platforms. Elsewhere online, iGaming sites offer users classic games that can be played in the digital space, from casino games to those you'd find on a game show. For example, it's possible to play Plinko Go at Paddy Power, a slot combined with the pachinko-style gameplay of The Price is Right's most popular game. For paying subscribers of Apple News+, throwing in a new game alongside pre-existing crossword puzzles is an obvious way to sweeten the deal.

As for the online mode, it allows users to access most News+ content without needing a Wi-Fi connection. In the settings, you can prioritise certain content that you'd prefer to see when in offline mode.

Repair State Setting

This new update comes with practical features like the Repair State. This is exactly what it sounds like, a special mode that exists for when the iPhone is having maintenance work done on it. As owners will know, Apple runs its own iPhone repair service to help customers with any hardware issues they may face. When users send their product away for service, Apple's preparation guide says that the Find My feature should be turned off. With stolen device protection, some users have to wait an hour if not more to turn this feature off properly.

The Repair State is a quality-of-life update for those who need maintenance, not necessarily the average user. Instead, this repair mode uses your Apple ID password to bypass security concerns. The ID confirms you're the owner of the phone, allowing you to send the product away without turning off the Find My feature and wrangling with your stolen device protection settings.

App Upgrades for EU

For users in the EU, the iOS 17.5 update will allow you to download apps directly from their developers. In January of 2024, Apple updated users on the Digital Markets Act. This legislation intended to broaden the app industry by providing other options for users to download the same apps. As a result, the 17.4 iOS update allowed iPhone users to source third-party apps.

Now 17.5 goes further, by promoting app developers first-hand. Following a developer guide released by Apple, they have now relaxed permissions so that iPhone users can acquire apps that might not necessarily appear on their proprietary marketplace or the third-party marketplaces that 17.4 introduced.

With these features added to modern iPhone models, users can anticipate their inclusion in iOS 18. Scheduled for release in September 2024, iOS 18 claims to have many more upgrades squirreled away, many of them honed by the AI developments that have occurred in recent years.