Apple released iOS 17.3 on Monday, January 22. Now, just 18 days later, there’s another update, iOS 17.3.1. It’s smaller and has less vaulted ambitions, but it serves a specific purpose. It took many by surprise, though it was a shoo-in that it would arrive in the next days or week. That it landed on a Thursday, not Apple’s preferred release date of Tuesday is an indication that Apple wanted to get it out quick.
Here’s everything you need to know.
Which iPhones Can Run iOS 17.3.1?
There are a lot of phones that can run this new update. You need an iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max or iPhone XR from 2018, or any version of iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 variants. This also includes iPhone SE second- and third-generation models.
How To Get It
Got to the Settings app on the iPhone, click on General, then Software Update. Here you can choose to download the new software now, and that’s usually the choice to make. Pick Download and Install, and your iPhone will be up and running in nothing flat. It’s a fast install, with the update weighing less than 300MB on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.
What’s In The Release
There’s absolutely no mention of security updates in this new release in Apple’s notes about it. That doesn’t mean they aren’t lurking in the background but the focus here is on a particular element and I suspect it’s the entire focus of this new update.
Apple notes that “This update provides bug fixes for your iPhone including: Text may unexpectedly duplicate or overlap while typing.”
And that’s it. If that seems a bit thin, let’s remember that typing on your iPhone is something that you do every single day and it is important that the phone gets it right. Duplicated or overlapping text is definitely a no-no.
So while this is something of a single-purpose update, that doesn’t mean it’s unimportant. It’s also been addressed for the iPad with iPadOS 17.3.1 and macOS Sonoma 14.3.1. All are on release now.
There could be other fixes and updates in the release, but Apple hasn’t mentioned them.
The next big update is iOS 17.4, which is a game-changer for the iPhone. That’s not expected until the first week of March, three weeks away. Will there be another update in between? Hard to say, but while I don’t think it’s likely, you can’t entirely rule it out. More as we have it.
