Apple Releases New Public Betas of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, and tvOS 15

Wednesday July 28, 2021 10:16 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the third betas of iOS and iPadOS 15 to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to download and test the new updates ahead of their fall release. The third public betas come two weeks after Apple released the second public betas.

iOS 15 General Feature Purple
Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the iOS and iPadOS 15 updates over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website.

iOS 15 is adds new features for FaceTime, tools for reducing distractions, updated notifications, and privacy enhancements. ‌FaceTime‌ supports SharePlay for watching TV, listening to music, or screen sharing with friends, while a Shared with You feature keeps track of the songs, website links, pictures, and more that friends send you.

Focus is designed to help keep you on task by cutting out notifications you don't want while you're busy, and there's a new notifications summary feature that prevents you from being inundated with unimportant notifications throughout the day.

Safari has a redesigned look with a compact tab bar that's located at the bottom of the screen, plus Tab Groups let users save open tabs for later. Maps has a new zoomed out globe view and a new 3D view in select cities, plus there's more road detail and an AR-based walking direction feature.

The Wallet app will support IDs and more kinds of keys in iOS 15, and Photos gains updates to Memories and a new Live Text feature that uses on-device intelligence to recognize the text in an image, making it searchable and copyable. Spotlight is better than ever, and processing for Siri requests is now done directly on device.

Mail Privacy Protection in the Mail app stops senders from seeing your IP address and knowing if you've opened up an email, and an App Privacy Report gives you details on how often apps use permissions like camera and location access.

There are a ton of other new features available in iOS and iPadOS 15, with full details available in our roundup. Today's beta introduces additional tweaks for Safari, adds MagSafe Battery Pack support, and more.

Apple has also seeded new public betas of tvOS 15 and watchOS 8 to its public beta testing group. tvOS 15 can be downloaded by opening up the Settings app on the ‌Apple TV‌, navigating to the Software Updates section under "System," and then toggling on "Get public Beta Updates" after signing up to beta test on Apple's public beta website.

watchOS 8 can be downloaded can be downloaded after upgrading your iPhone to the public beta version of iOS 15. After installing ‌iOS 15‌, the proper ‌watchOS 8‌ profile from Apple's beta software website must also be installed. The software can be accessed by going to General > Software Update in the Apple Watch app on ‌‌iPhone‌‌. To update, ‌Apple Watch‌ needs to have 50 percent battery life, it must be placed on the charger, and it must be in range of the ‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌iPhone‌‌.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, watchOS 11

Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)

Related Forums: Apple TV and Home Theater, iOS 15, Apple Watch

Top Rated Comments

Robert.Walter

49 months ago

In case anybody is wondering, Hide My Email is still limited to 100 unique emails. (I still need can 150 more to convert all o/l accounts to the HME standard.). Am happy with the new authenticator. Private Relay is improving. But all these things should be bundled into passwords with Sign In with Apple so everything is in one place and one can keep an overview and use these features without having to jump into and out of different sections of Settings (especially because Passwords isn’t very robust at capturing and updating changes in credentials.)

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Realityck

49 months ago

Good looking forward to fixes/changes in this PB
[HEADING=2][SPOILER="iOS & iPadOS 15 Beta 4 Release Notes"][/SPOILER][/HEADING][SPOILER="iOS & iPadOS 15 Beta 4 Release Notes"]
[HEADING=2]App Store[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Purchases made using the Sandbox environment no longer return VerificationResult.unverified(_:). (79053760)
* Fixed an issue that prevented the system from automatically pushing subscription renewals to your app through the StoreKit 2 APIs in the App Store sandbox environment. (78463355)
* Using products(for:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/product/3851116-products') in the App Store sandbox environment will now function in device simulators. The simulator must be running on a Mac with macOS 12.0 Beta 4 or later. (79742485)

[HEADING=2]Audio[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Immediately after restarting your device, audio playback might not function as expected. (81064594)
Workaround: Wait at least 60 seconds before attempting audio playback after a restart.

[HEADING=2]Authentication Services[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* allowedCredentials ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationservices/asauthorizationsecuritykeypublickeycredentialassertionrequest/3751832-allowedcredentials') is now respected. (79221358)

[HEADING=2]AVFoundation[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* supportedPhotoPixelFormatTypes(for:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturephotooutput/3857741-supportedphotopixelformattypes') and supportedRawPhotoPixelFormatTypes(for:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturephotooutput/3858114-supportedrawphotopixelformattype') now return [OSType] instead of [NSNumber] in Swift. (64822071)
* recommendedVideoSettings(forVideoCodecType:assetWriterOutputFileType:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturevideodataoutput/2867900-recommendedvideosettings') now returns nullable NSDictionary<NSString *, id> * instead of nullable NSDictionary * in Objective-C and [String: Any]? instead of [AnyHashable: Any]? in Swift. (33784279)
* cgImageRepresentation() ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturephoto/2873963-cgimagerepresentation') and previewCGImageRepresentation() ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcapturephoto/2873945-previewcgimagerepresentation') now return CGImage? instead of Unmanaged<CGImage>? in Swift. (44734827)
* recommendedAudioSettingsForAssetWriter(writingTo:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avcaptureaudiodataoutput/1616308-recommendedaudiosettingsforasset') now returns nullable NSDictionary<NSString *, id> * instead of nullable NSDictionary * in Objective-C and [String: Any]? instead of [AnyHashable: Any]? in Swift. (50450334)

[HEADING=2]CarPlay[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* When sharing your screen in a SharePlay session, connecting your phone to CarPlay might fail. (76385907)
Workaround: Stop screen sharing before connecting your phone to CarPlay.

[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Users no longer see the vehicle compass overlap the resume button in map panning mode during active navigation. (80099526)

[HEADING=2]Core ML[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* In automatic reference counting (ARC) mode, the compiler may extend the lifetime of MLMultiArray longer than expected when .dataPointer property is used. This may increase memory usage. (80895213)
Workaround: Enclose .dataPointer access in an @autoreleasepool {... } block.

[HEADING=2]Files[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Files might quit unexpectedly if you choose Open in New Window for a file. (79449679)

[HEADING=2]Find My[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* When your iOS device needs to be charged, text indicating that the Find My network is active only displays if the device language is set to English. (78547946)

[HEADING=2]Focus[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* You’re unable to switch to a Focus other than Do Not Disturb using Siri. (78263540)

[HEADING=2]Guided Access[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* When using Guided Access with VoiceOver, you might be unable to enter the Guided Access passcode to end Guided Access. (79370792)
Workaround: If a device passcode is set, force restart your device to end Guided Access.

[HEADING=2]Home[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* You can’t pair with Matter accessories that use Thread. (80991829)
* You can’t pair a third-party app with Matter accessories through the app paring flow if the accessory is already paired with another app. (80059432)
Workaround: Remove accessory pairing from other apps, then pair the third-party app.
* You can’t add a flow to a third-party app with Matter accessories if you haven’t created an Apple Home. (80058744)
Workaround: Launch the Home app to create a Home before you add a flow.
* Matter accessories aren’t reachable while Apple TV is connected via Wi-Fi. (79582629)
Workaround: Connect Apple TV via Ethernet.
* The API to connect a Matter accessory with a third-party home hub isn’t currently available. (79729460)
* Matter accessories might enter a No Response state after pairing. (76019163)
Workaround: Remove the accessory from Home, reset the accessory, and add it back to Home. If the issue persists, reboot your Home hub. If the issue persists, remove your Home hub from Home and re-add it. If the issue persists, remove the home and create a new one.
* The initial pairing attempt with a Matter accessory might take an unexpectedly long time and eventually fail. (77967587)
Workaround: Retry pairing the accessory.
* You can only pair up to five Matter accessories in a home. (77967671)
* Only the owner of a home, not an invited user, can pair Matter accessories. (76012945)

[HEADING=2]Home Screen[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* After canceling a search in the widget gallery, the cancel button remains visible, which might blank out the widget gallery. (78572049)
Workaround: Dismiss and reopen the widget gallery.

[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* The widget gallery no longer displays the wrong widget category after selecting a category from the sidebar. (78882533)

[HEADING=2]iCloud[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* If network connectivity is interrupted, the system no longer displays an inaccurate alert that iCloud Private Relay is incompatible with the network. (79853379)

[HEADING=2]Language & Region[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Certain languages no longer display unlocalized text. (79373100)

[HEADING=2]Logging[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* For every process crash, iOS no longer generates two crash logs. (76650102)

[HEADING=2]Maps[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* The Bay Bridge might scale incorrectly at high zoom levels. (79217316)
* Rounded building corners might disappear. (80468151)

[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Rivers no longer disappear at certain zoom levels. (79993916)
* Buildings no longer overlap roads at certain zoom levels. (79928870)

[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* MKPinAnnotationView ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mkpinannotationview') and MapPin ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mappin') are marked as deprecated in this beta. (78536295)

[HEADING=2]Networking[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* Support for cleartext HTTP URL schemes for Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) is now deprecated. Use only HTTPS URL schemes for PAC. This affects all PAC configurations, including, but not limited to, configurations set via Settings, System Preferences, profiles, and URLSession APIs such as connectionProxyDictionary ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/urlsessionconfiguration/1411499-connectionproxydictionary') and CFNetworkExecuteProxyAutoConfigurationURL(_:_:_:_:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cfnetwork/1426392-cfnetworkexecuteproxyautoconfigu'). If you configure a cleartext HTTP PAC URL, the system may upgrade it to HTTPS during PAC file loads. Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) Protocol via DNS isn’t affected. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Option 252 WPAD may attempt to upgrade cleartext HTTP URLs to HTTPS during PAC file loads. (61981845)

[HEADING=2]Privacy[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Record App Activity no longer defaults to off after a software update or restore from backup. (77466774)
* Background pushes will only be delivered if the app has been used in the foreground in the past few weeks. (79379996)

[HEADING=2]Reality Composer[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* You might be unable to create new projects in Reality Composer. (79418400)
Workaround: Create a new project in Reality Composer on macOS and transfer the .rcproject file to your device via AirDrop or Mail.

[HEADING=2]Safari[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* When enabled, Safari Extensions will not appear in the Smart Search field when Show Separate Tab Bar is selected. (80804327)
Workaround: Force quit and relaunch Safari to make Safari Extensions appear.
* The clear button in the search bar might be clipped on iOS. (80132991)

[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* The Safari start page sync no longer requires devices that are on macOS Monterey 12 beta 3 and iOS 15 beta 3 or newer. (79385360)
* Safari search results are now scrollable on iPad. (80170006)
* Safari no longer crashes when you’re closing tabs. (80327074)
* The iPhone tab bar now correctly minimizes and expands on scroll. (80410491)

[HEADING=2]SharePlay[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* SharePlay performance might be affected if a session has more than five participants. (79466576)
* If you start a SharePlay session on your Apple TV, the confirmation request might not appear on your iOS device. (79425227)
Workaround: Unpair your iOS device from your Apple TV, then pair it again.

[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Notifications received while sharing your display are no longer visible to other SharePlay participants. (79456016)

[HEADING=2]ShazamKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Media items added to the default instance of SHMediaLibrary ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/shazamkit/shmedialibrary') don’t appear in Shazam. (77785557)
Workaround: Touch and hold the Music Recognition Control Center module to view SHMediaLibrary ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/shazamkit/shmedialibrary') contents.

[HEADING=2]Siri[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* VoiceOver and Spoken Content users might not initially see all available voice options. Voice options should populate after some time. (79463000)
* On-device speech recognition only supports the following languages: Chinese (Mandarin - China mainland), English (Australia), English (Canada), English (United Kingdom), and English (US). (78483609)

[HEADING=2]SwiftUI[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]New Features in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Added buttonBorderShape, which can be used to control the shape of bordered buttons. (79456465)
* Added new AttributedString ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributedstring') attributes underlineStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributescopes/swiftuiattributes/3862794-underlinestyle') and strikethroughStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributescopes/swiftuiattributes/3862793-strikethroughstyle') to AttributeScopes.SwiftUIAttributes ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributescopes/swiftuiattributes'). (78437803)

[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Providing a binding to an OutlineGroup ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/OutlineGroup') might require including wrappedValue ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/Binding/wrappedValue') in the init(_:children:content:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/OutlineGroup/init(_:children:content:)-2galq') key path parameter, and isn’t available in iOS and iPadOS 14 and earlier. (77890799)
* Focusing a view in a newly added List ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List') row using FocusState ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/FocusState') requires deferring the focus state property update to the next time the main runloop runs. (78607356)

[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* AsyncImage ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/AsyncImage') in List ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List') no longer cancels image downloads prematurely. (78187465, 78727070)
* List row modifiers, like listRowBackground(_:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List/listRowBackground(_:)'), listRowSeparatorTint(_:edges:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List/listRowSeparatorTint(_:edges:)'), and listRowSeparator(_:edges:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List/listRowSeparator(_:edges:)'), now work correctly within List ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List')convenience initializers. (53783523)
* Using searchable with an availability check no longer crashes when running on older devices. (79145837)
* The default PickerStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/PickerStyle') on iOS has changed to a menu. (79336263)

[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* controlProminence has been deprecated. Use the new .borderedProminentButtonStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/ButtonStyle') instead. (78908460)
* The Function (Fn) shortcut modifier is deprecated and reserved for system usage. (78627099)

[HEADING=2]Third-Party Apps[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* VPN apps fail to connect if they use a private API that no longer exists in iOS 15. (79164225)

[HEADING=2]UIKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Collapsing the hardware keyboard shortcut bar doesn’t properly invoke leading and trailing edge changes for UIKeyboardLayoutGuide ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uikeyboardlayoutguide'). (74440016)

[HEADING=2]Watch[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* iOS 15 no longer creates a boot loop cycle for a paired Apple Watch (1st generation). (80023360)

[HEADING=2]Weather[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 4[/HEADING]

* The Weather app now works as expected when the system language is Hungarian. (80275901)

[HEADING=2]Xcode[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* MusicKit ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/MusicKit') functionality, such as loading content with music requests, doesn’t work in simulated devices. (78559381)

[HEADING=2][/HEADING][/SPOILER][HEADING=2][/HEADING]

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Robert.Walter

49 months ago

Please Juli, can’t you go back to splitting the PB release info into separate articles? (for a better explanation, pls see my comments at the last PB article.)

Not fair to have to wade through, for example, unrelated posts for everything else when one is looking for info and comments on a specific OS. In my case I’m interested in Watch which gets the fewest comments and have to wade through iOS ipOS tV, etc. it’s a lot easier for readers to scroll past separate articles than to sift through a jumble of comments.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)