A few days ago, Apple continued its roadmap for its major operating systems in testing and launched the next beta version for developers. In fact, the iOS 18 beta 6 exactly as we hoped, but the novelty was that iOS 18.1 beta 2 has also been released, whose update was expected with the beta 5 of iOS 18 and did not take place. Below we analyze the main new features of these first two betas, which are heading towards the second half of August to enter the month when the next iPhone 16 will be presented.
Changes continue in iOS 18 and iOS 18.1 betas
In addition to launching iOS 18 beta 6 and iOS 18.1 beta 2 for developers, Apple also took the opportunity to launch the same number of betas of iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia 15,
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iOS 18 Beta 5 Arrives with Major New Features in Safari
One of the main features of these two updates was unify most of the changes in both beta versions. In other words, iOS 18.1 is the same as iOS 18 with the additions of Apple Intelligence that Apple does not want to launch in the first version of iOS 18. Some of these changes that have been added to iOS 18.1 but were already in the previous beta versions of iOS 18 are as follows:
- Photos Application: The simplification of the Photos app that we saw in beta 5 has been included in the second beta of iOS 18.1 with the aim of not complicating it too much for the user, while maintaining the essence of the change in the app presented at WWDC24.
- Distraction Control: In iOS 18 beta 5, this feature was also integrated, which was nothing more than a tool to hide elements when we browse with Safari. You can temporarily hide ads, a banner that splits text you want to see in two, a cookie pop-up, etc. This feature is now integrated into iOS 18.1 beta 2.
Beyond these features explicitly incorporated into iOS 18.1 to standardize betas, they Some changes are included in the two different beta versions:
- Control center: has undergone a change with which we can add an individual Bluetooth activation and deactivation button, outside the group of connections that already existed before. In addition, the camera icon has been diversified and is now divided into capture, magnifying glass and QR scan and even a silent mode has been added in the notification control.
- Dark mode: a long-awaited change for all developers. If dark mode is enabled, the notifications that appear on the lock screen They will appear with the dark mode icon and not the light icon that appeared previously.
- Changes in each application: As usual, when Apple launches a new version of the operating system, it prepares a kind of window that appears when you first enter an application, showing the main changes or new features. These screens are beginning to appear in these beta versions, which also indicates that this beta process seems to be coming to an end.
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All Apple Intelligence Features in iOS 18.1 Beta 1
Finally, Apple also wanted continuing the advancement of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 with the following modifications:
- New locations: With this new beta, users in Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, India, and Singapore can use Apple Intelligence if their language is English. Additionally, it has been reported that some users in the European Union were able to access Apple Intelligence features by changing the region to the United States and changing the language to the United States.