iOS 18.2 public beta 3 now available, here’s what’s new

Just a few hours after releasing the latest iOS 18.2 beta for developers, a new public beta is here. iOS 18.2 public beta 3 arrives as one of the last releases before next month’s full launch. Here’s what’s new.

New changes in public beta 3 ahead of the RC update

Today’s new public beta is the same software build as the developer beta 4 released earlier this afternoon.

This latest build has little to offer in terms of new features or big changes. Just a few small new updates have been discovered:

• the Photos app’s video scrubber now shows milliseconds
• Camera Control’s accessibility settings have been added to the standard Camera Control settings hub, centralizing more options in one place
• added in the last beta but just discovered: you can now set a default Contactless App to replace Wallet inside Settings ⇾ Apps
• small design tweaks to Apple Mail

Overall, beta 3 is focused on performance improvements and bug fixes. Which makes sense, because we’re getting very close to Apple shipping the RC (release candidate) version of iOS 18.2.

Apple has recently released weekly iOS 18.2 betas, but the company will likely take next week off due to the Thanksgiving holiday, meaning our next chance for a beta will be the week of December 2.

Most likely, that’s when we’ll get the RC update ahead of a public launch the week of December 9.

Highlights of iOS 18.2

iOS 18.2 is a huge release for users, largely due to the highly anticipated new Apple Intelligence features. These include:

• Genmoji: Make your own custom emoji for use in any app.
• ChatGPT in Siri: Siri can tap into ChatGPT’s knowledge, and you can even query ChatGPT directly.
• Image Playground: Create original AI images in animation, illustration, or sketch styles.
• Visual intelligence: Use iPhone 16’s Camera Control to get relevant info from your physical environment.
• and more

But there are also great additions outside of AI, such as a redesigned Mail app, new Find My features, Camera Control upgrades, and even more.

If you haven’t yet joined the public beta program, you can do so now via beta.apple.com to install the pre-release software today.

What are your favorite or most anticipated iOS 18.2 features? Let us know in the comments.

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