In A Surprise Move, Apple Releases iOS 15 Public Beta 2 – Forbes

When I said goodbye to the iOS 14.7 beta last night, I had no idea how final of a goodbye it would actually be. The expectation was that Apple would roll out the second developer beta of iOS 15, then later this month, when developer beta 3 was released, the Public Beta would begin. 

Apple apparently has great confidence in this build, however, as iOS 15 Public Beta 2 is now available for anyone who registers their iOS device for the Apple Beta Program.

So Long iOS 14 

Once you’ve enrolled your device, you’ll see the new profile in the Settings app of your device. There, you’ll have to make your first big decision as a public beta tester. While iOS 14 introduced the ability to install a stable public build or the current beta build, they have to be from the same base. Meaning that, in order to participate in the iOS 15 beta, you’ll need to delete the iOS 14 beta profile from your phone. 

Keep in mind this is beta software. Especially when it’s only the second release, things will go wrong. Features won’t work. Apps won’t work. Things might just break without reason. If you install this on your main device, be ready with a reliable backup in case things fall apart during testing. 

What’s New?

With the PSA dispatched, let’s take a closer look at all the features you get to play with in iOS 15 Public Beta 2! Despite this being an “iterative” development year instead of a “sweeping changes” kind of year, there’s still plenty that beta testers will have to play with. You can check out my full list here. 

Specifically for Public Beta 2, Apple’s VPN feature, iCloud Private Relay, is now available. 

What’s Broken? 

Remember when I mentioned that some things will be broken in this early beta? Here they are! And this is just the stuff that Apple knows about. It’s up to you to report any bugs you find via the Feedback app. 

• Finder might become unresponsive when installing iOS 15
• The beta isn’t currently available for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro
• Live text in photos may or may not be available
• Taking panorama shots in low power mode might produce unexpected results
• Carplay might fail if you’re screen sharing when you connect to your vehicle
• Files might quit unexpectedly if you choose Open in New Window for a file
• Duplicating files on certain USB drives might fail, incorrectly alerting there isn’t enough free space available
• For Find My: Notify When Left Behind isn’t supported for Intel-based Mac computers or Apple Watch, also text indicating the Find My network is active when your iOS device needs to be charged will only display if the device language is set to English. 
• Some text may be illegible in PDF documents
• Focus is…a little too focused. You can only switch to Do Not Disturb using Siri. Focus Autoreply for Messages isn’t working yet either. 
• You can only share Health data with and receive Health data from three people. 
• You can’t pair a Matter device with a third-party hub at this time
• You can’t pair Matter accessories that use Thread and for those that don’t, they still may become unresponsive after pairing, requiring a re-pair.
• Thread devices might not connect until you toggle them a few times near your hub. 
• You can only pair five Matter devices…Matter devices can only be paired by owners…Thread devices might decide to use Bluetooth instead. Basically, just pair your device with Bluetooth for now. 
• Widgets continue to be beta bug fodder! The widget gallery might display the wrong widget category after selecting a category from the side bar, the Home Screen might quit unexpectedly when dragging a widget from the widget gallery, Large pinned favorite widgets in iPadOS 14 don’t migrate correctly to iPadOS 15 beta, After canceling a search in the widget gallery, the cancel button remains visible which might blank out the widget gallery
• iCloud Private Relay may provide an inaccurate geographical location and it may fall back to a public connection if it can’t maintain the private relay. 
• Keyboards for some languages may display unlocalized text
• Scrolling the reports view in Maps might produce unexpected results
• Previously known WiFi networks might be lost during setup
• SharePlay may or may not be available, requiring a sign out to fix. That might be a good thing, since SharePlay has a host of issues ranging from high media volume just not working at all. 
• On-device (i.e. offline) Siri speech recognition is available for only these languages at this time:  Chinese (Mandarin – China mainland), English (Australia), English (Canada), English (United Kingdom), and English (US)
• If you have under 500MB of space on your device you might not be able to update iOS

What’s Fixed?

So while that’s a pretty substantial list above, it doesn’t mean Apple hasn’t already crushed a bunch of bugs from developer beta 1. Here are the issues that’ve been resolved.

• Carplay
• Mute and Route Overview buttons now appear in all vehicles
• Siri won’t disappear if you invoke it after an announcement completes, but before the banner dismisses
• Announcement requests will no longer quit unexpectedly (but leave their banners on screen)
• Images and thumbnails won’t display a black and white grid overlay
• Facetime
• Spatial panning of audio in Group FaceTime calls now initiates when starting a call
• The zoom level indicator reflects the actual zoom level when using the rear camera 
• Tapping the Portrait effect button during a Group FaceTime call no longer zooms unexpectedly
• No longer becomes unresponsive when starting a FaceTime call with a contact name that contains non-roman characters
• You can create multiple HomePod alarms in your home. 
• The entire App Library is no longer dismissed when swiping up in App Library search or an expanded category
• Home Screen pages now appear in the unexpected order after moving a page to become the last page while a Focus was active
• All devices on your iCloud account don’t have to be upgraded to iOS 15 to set up a Private Relay recovery contact
• Mail 
• The document scanner works as expected
• Swiping down on the title bar of an email to save a draft locally syncs it with other devices
• Attachments are added to new messages when you choose to reply or compose a new message with an attachment you opened in Quick Look. 
• Sharing Notes to Messages via Quick Notes works as expected
• Shared with You will no longer appear in Photos when the Automatic Sharing feature is turned off and sharing is now available in Memories
• Safari no longer quits unexpectedly when tapping the search bar it will load all websites even if Hide IP address from trackers is turned on
• Documents open as expected in Schoolwork
• Drag-and-drop in the Shortcuts editor works as expected
• Your Apple Watch won’t enter Sleep Lock until Bedtime
• It’s no longer raining even when it’s not – this build fixes precipitation notifications in Weather

What’s Next

This unexpected public beta in June is quite the gift to Public Beta testers that didn’t expect to see the new version of iOS on their phones until much later in July. 

Beta testing has gone at a steady pace so far, with just a few weeks between the initial release and the second. Now with the influx of public testers, Apple will likely keep development slow for a bit as they get a glut of bug and Feedback reports to sift through. 

That said, I’d expect to see a third beta build sometime mid-month (when I initially thought we’d see public testing begin). But with a beta this early, all bets are off. If there’s a big enough bug, Apple will push things out early to fix it. 

Keep a stable iOS 14 build to go back to and have fun testing!

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