Apple seeded the fourth beta of iOS 10.2 to developers and beta testers yesterday, two weeks after Beta 3 and almost exactly one month after publicly releasing iOS 10.1.1. It’s available now via the Apple Developer portal and as an over-the-air update. Here is what’s new and our thoughts on when you could see 10.2 finally go public.
New features and apps in iOS 10.2
While Beta 4 doesn’t reveal anything new, it seems that Apple has used it to tie up some loose ends. The previous beta gave the majority of changes in the form of new emoji, such as face palm, fox face, owl, shark, clown face, drooling face and more. All in all, there were more than 100 new emoji, which included some professional additions, such as a doctor, firefighter, mechanic, scientist, lawyer, and more.
In addition to emoji, iOS 10.2 also includes new wallpapers, new music-arranging options, and repeat and shuffle buttons. There are also screen effects such as “Celebrate” and “Send with love.” In fact, this list could go one for some length because Apple has done a lot of fine-tuning with iOS 10.2.
As such, the age-old Videos app has now been replaced with the all-new TV app, which serves as something that can make watching television and videos easier by enabling a user to discover new content. At some point soon, it will be available for iOS devices and the Apple TV.
Finalizing the iOS overhaul
Apple previously described iOS 10 as its “Biggest ever release” for iOS users. So far across all betas we’ve seen a new lock screen, the addition of a Siri SDK for developers, a revamped messages app. There’s also now a dedicated Home app for Homekit users, redesigned maps and Apple Music, and more.
While the above may sound like a lot, Apple still has much work to do before publicly releasing iOS 10.2. However, it is frantically working to get this done ASAP, and with Beta 4, it may have gotten a little closer tot the final version, as it has fixed many of the bugs which have been plaguing iOS users rather than introducing new features.
We don’t know when to expect it to be released to the public. However, it’s been leaked that Apple is fairly happy with the feature set that’s already included. So we may not have to wait much longer for iOS 10.2 to go public.
Changes discovered in iOS 10.2 Beta
- Three new wallpapers in iOS 10.2 beta (only for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus)
- Updated widget for Videos app
- New Preserve Camera setting
- All-new emoji (looks like Unicode 9.0 update/also on macOS 10.12.2, watchOS 3.1.1)
- New “Press & Hold to Speak” menu in Home Button Accessibility settings
- Exciting new “Celebration” Messages screen effect
- New “Show Star Ratings” option in Music Settings
- New headphone icon in status bar for Bluetooth devices
- TV app now added in iOS 10.2 beta, Videos app has been removed
- SOS feature similar to that on Apple Watch when clicking power button five times
- Music now points to relocated shuffle and repeat controls
- Feedback app returned in beta 3
- New “Love” screen effect joined “Celebration” in Messages
