New iOS 17.3.1 iPhone update spotted in the wild

Apple appears to be working on and internally testing the upcoming iOS 17.3.1 software update for the iPhone, based on analytics data for multiple websites.

MacRumors reported Monday that it had spotted a visitor to its site using iOS 17.3.1, which hasn’t been released yet as either a beta (which would be unprecedented for such a small point update) or a public release. The most likely explanation is that someone at Apple HQ is running a pre-release version of the update for internal testing, and has visited a number of websites, including Macworld. We checked our web analytics and spotted a single entry for iOS 17.3.1 too.

Web analytics have revealed the existence of pre-release iOS updates on several occasions before now, including both iOS 17.1.1 and iOS 17.1.2 last November. It might strike readers as odd that of all the websites on the internet, Apple’s testing team would choose to visit the ones likely to notice and write about it, but it’s not like any of this is a big secret.

Nor is iOS 17.3.1, which will probably come out in the next week or so, expected to feature any major changes or new features. Things like that appear in iOS X or iOS X.X updates; X.X.X updates are confined to fixes for bugs and security vulnerabilities. Important stuff, but hardly something Apple would feel the need to keep under wraps.

iOS 17.4, on the other hand, could be a lot more interesting. We know from the beta that it will include significant App Store changes for EU users… and some nice new emojis. iOS 17.4 is expected to be released to the public in early March or thereabouts.