We’ve rounded up the new iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac features available in the early betas of iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, watchOS 9.2, and macOS Ventura 13.2.
iOS/iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1 betas
As the first beta software updates for iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, watchOS 9.2, macOS Ventura 13.1, and tvOS 16.2 are now available for developer testing, we thought it best to let you know about upcoming new features coming soon to your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV.
So we’ve rounded up the most important new features and quality-of-life improvements coming in a few weeks with these Apple OS updates.
1. More frequent real-time activity updates
The Live Activity feature puts information from apps, such as sports scores and delivery times, on the lock screen. As with widgets, iOS periodically updates these things with fresh data from apps rather than real-time to save battery life.
A new setting in iOS 16.2 allows you to update your live activities more frequently at the expense of battery life. “Allowing more frequent updates allows you to see more timely information, but can drain your battery faster,”reads a description found in the iOS 16.2 beta. Read: 45+ Ways to Save Battery Life on iPhone
2. Freeform Collaboration and Brainstorming App
Announced at WWDC22, Freeform is Apple’s new app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, available in iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura 13.1.
With Freeform, you can take notes, create mood boards, brainstorm your ideas, sketch and draw shapes, insert images, save links, and more—all with your finger or the Apple Pencil.
Other people can join your Freeform document to collaborate, and any changes are instantly synced across all devices via iCloud. Reminiscent of the Paper app, Freeform has a large canvas that can be pinched in and out.
3. The Home app uses a more modern architecture.
The Home app in iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and macOS Ventura has a new core architecture. Apple already supports the Matter cross-platform smart home standard, and the new architecture will improve the performance and reliability of smart home appliances in your home. Read: 5 Useful Smart Home Machines
The transition to the new architecture requires that all HomeKit hubs in your home, such as HomePod and Apple TV speakers, be updated to tvOS 16.2 or later. Controlling your updated home in the Home app is only available on devices running iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS Ventura 13.1, tvOS 16.2, and watchOS 9.2.
4. Stage Manager works with external displays again
Stage Manager, Apple’s controversial new multitasking feature for iPad and Mac, supports external displays in iPadOS 16.2 and macOS Ventura 13.1.
With an external display, Stage Manager allows iPad owners to run eight apps simultaneously: four on the iPad alone and four on the external screen. Stage Manager is compatible with iPad M1 and M2.
5. Emergency SOS message
iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, and watchOS 9.2 will help you avoid the police on your doorstep if you accidentally activate emergency SOS.
To prevent unintentional SOS calls, Apple collects system data and displays a notification when you cancel the Emergency SOS countdown timer. “Did you intentionally activate an emergency SOS call on your iPhone?”warning asks. It also opens the Feedback Assistant app, which sends the collected data to Apple.
6. Siri Voice Recognition on Apple TV
The Recognize My Voice option from HomePod is coming to Apple TV with tvOS 16.2, automatically switching between user profiles for up to five family members.
Prior to tvOS 16.2, you had to manually select your Apple TV profile in the Control Center to get personalized content recommendations and more. With tvOS 16.2, you simply press the Siri button on your remote and start talking. tvOS automatically recognizes your voice, activates your listening history, video recommendations, and more. Read: How to find your Apple ID on iPhone, iPad and Mac
In other words, just picking up the Siri Remote and asking, “What should I watch?”Get instant personalized advice.
Siri can recognize your voice to switch profiles, play music, or make personalized video recommendations. If your Apple TV is in your home or added to your home later, your Siri voice profile from your iPhone will be linked to your home so that Siri can recognize your voice on this Apple TV and any current or future Siri-enabled devices in your home. .
The setup process allows you to use a Siri voice profile from your iPhone or iPad instead of creating a new tvOS voice recognition profile from scratch.
Here is the installation process on iOS 16.2
There are many more questions to be answered. Unfortunately this feature is not fully functional in beta 1. pic.twitter.com/e7x80SAb63
— Sigmund Judge (@sigjudge) October 25, 2022
6. Tidbits: sleep widget, sports scores on the lock screen and more.
Third-party apps that use Apple’s SwiftUI programming language to animate various UI elements will now look smoother on devices with ProMotion, Apple’s dynamic display refresh technology. Concretely, these SwiftUI soft transitions will finally support ProMotion’s smooth 120Hz refresh rate.
iOS 16.2 also displays sports scores as live action for teams featured in the TV app. The results are displayed on the lock screen or Dynamic Island iPhone 14 Pro.
This feature is available for MLB games in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and South Korea, and for NBA and Premier League games in the US and Canada.
iOS 16.2 also has a new Sleep widget that displays the amount of time you’ve spent in bed and the quality of your sleep on your iPhone’s lock screen.
Apple provides three versions of the widget, including a minimal single-tile widget that only displays time spent in bed, and a more sophisticated version that includes visuals. The Sleep widget uses your sleep data saved in the Health app.
9to5Mac reported that a Medications widget may also appear.
When will Apple release iOS 16.2 and other updates?
Apple released the first iOS 16.2 betas and other updates on October 25, 2022. After a few more betas, like five or more, these software updates should be ready to go during prime time. The company will likely release iOS 16.2, iPadOS 16.2, macOS Ventura 13.1, watchOS 9.2, tvOS 16.2, and HomePod 16.2 software to the public in November or December.