Apple iOS 11 Developers' Beta 7 Released: How To Install, Should You Download? Updated



The Developers' Beta 7 of iOS 11 is upon us, just seven days after the last update, suggesting that it’s going to mainly be a series of bug squishes and general tightening up of the software which is looking increasingly ready for release. In other words, this late in the beta game, Apple’s working to an impressively accelerated schedule.
As I mentioned last week when Dev Beta 6 arrived, the Developers' Beta is the one that’s only available to developers (I mean, there's a clue in the name, right?), not the rest of us who are able to take a look at the software a little later via the public beta.
Although you can sign up for the dev beta just by registering as a developer, please bear in mind that this costs $99 and in all likelihood, you’ll only be saving yourself a matter of hours – in recent weeks the dev beta has been followed the next day by the public version if not sooner.

Update: the public beta is now live, in record time, following the Dev Beta just a couple of hours later!
If you haven’t signed up for the public beta, read my fellow contributor Anthony Karcz’s guide on how to do so.
Oh, and by the way, if you’ve updated to iOS 11 and are now having upgrader’s remorse, don’t worry. Anthony has a great guide to save you so you can go back to iOS 10 again. And for a full run-down of more features of Public Beta 5, read Anthony's comprehensive feature here.
Downloading Dev Beta 7 was quick, both on iPhone and iPad, with the update weighing around 100MB. Download and install for me took about 20 minutes on each device.
And Anthony's piece on Public Beta 6 is now live, too.
Bugs again
As always, the chief purpose of updating beta software is to cleanse it of all bugs before public release.
Some users, including me, found last time around that Control Center on the iPad was buggy: a long press on the connections panel that appears within Control Center should bring up the expanded UI but last week this simply led to the lock screen.
That’s now been fixed, which is good. Though the one thing I’d really like to happen with the expanded UI is to press the wi-fi icon and be able to bring up a list of available networks, rather than just toggle wi-fi on and off. Apple, my fingers are still crossed for this one.

Incidentally, another section of Control Center which has an expanded UI available is Music and this now has a little Music icon which appears when you’re not actually playing music.
No more 32-bit apps
The release notes for this beta quietly warn that 32-bit apps (the ones which currently launch with a warning that this app isn’t going to work much longer unless the developer updates it) won’t run on further betas of iOS 11. Developers, you’ve been warned.
There are plenty of details of third-party apps which have had issues resolved – or not. This is normal and will be cleaned up in due course, one hopes.
The release notes this time around are as extensive as ever and include resolved issues in first-party apps such as Maps (where Siri can now get directions even if Do Not Disturb While Driving is active) and iBooks, where deleting purchased books or placing PDFs and books appropriately in the app have been fixed.
One more element in the release notes which is of interest: there is a known issue which causes updates from beta 5 or beta 6 to stall. It’s solved by deleting the update (go to Settings, then General, then iPhone Storage to find it) and once deleted, re-install it.

Incidentally, this iPhone Storage section of Settings was previously part of Storage & iCloud Usage. It’s a considerably improved section thanks to the Recommendations which appear and which are designed to help you manage your onboard storage. These Recommendations include useful items which can offload unused apps if you’re running low on space or automatically delete old conversations from Messages. Old is defined as a year or longer.
And, surprise, surprise, it's also to be found on the iPad where it's called iPad Storage.
Hey, Siri
Siri has new voices several languages including Canadian French, Brazilian Portuguese and more, in male and female genders. Successive Siri voices tend to be more human-sounding and less robotic, which is always welcome.
I’ll be updating this post as new features become apparent, but initial results are excellent. This is a highly stable build that is worth downloading straight away.

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