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Everything new in iOS 14.2 beta 1 — updates to Control Center, Watch icon & more

Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider

Last updated

Apple seeded iOS 14.2 beta 1 — the first iOS 14 point release — to registered developers on Thursday. Here's everything that's new.

It isn't clear why Apple has jumped to the iOS 14.2 build. The company may release iOS 14.1 separately as a bug-fixing update, or it could simply skip that point release entirely.

Most of the beta's changes appear to be focused on the iOS Control Center. For example, there's a new music recognition Shazam icon that users can add to Control Center.

The Magnifier in Control Center also has a new "people detection" option that lets users measure the distance between themselves and another person.

Additionally, there are some aesthetic and design changes to the Control Center's media player, including larger artwork and a refined interface.

Lastly, the Apple Watch app icon has been given a minor revision with slightly different colors and a new band watch icon similar to the Solo Loop.

This is the first beta version of the upcoming iOS 14.2 update, and Apple will likely release a public testing variant soon. Apple officially released iOS 14 to the general public on Wednesday.

As always, this is a non-exhaustive list of the changes we've spotted so far. See any others not on our list? Let us know on Twitter @Andrew_OSU and we'll add them.



17 Comments

peterhart 8 Years · 163 comments

The line of “blank app” spots in Control Center is bothersome, to me anyway. By watching your video here and seeing you have nothing in what seems to now be a spot for Home and Home’s accessories, I wish the blank section wasn’t there if one doesn’t have anything to fill these spots. I removed a few things from my Control Center so I wouldn’t have to scroll down...first world problem, I know. <sigh> 

SpamSandwich 19 Years · 32917 comments

Incidentally, I found out why Audio Unit Extensions are screwed up for iOS GarageBand:

https://twitter.com/j_liljedahl/status/1306946578641543168?s=21

ericesque 7 Years · 29 comments

The solo loop was introduced for the express purpose of cleaning up that icon.  I’m not even mad. 

potsie 9 Years · 2 comments

Did the Memoji watch face get whacked in this beta? I installed it with the release of version 7 on my Series 4 but it's not showing up as an available face after updating my phone to the 14.2 beta and my watch to the 7.1 beta.

stephanjobs 12 Years · 284 comments

Hopefully they fix the horrendous bug that unpacks all of your app folders when you add one of the larger  widgets to the home screen and move them to another page.
What a nightmare… Every single app in all the folders got unpacked and I had 12 pages open that I had to re-organize.

As cute as it is and as easy as if they think it is… They really need to get rid of this “wiggle” thing and just add a simple drag and drop to make folders and remove folders.

Also how about a page rearrange? Why can’t I just drag the whole page and place it in front of another page? 

Maybe I’m missing something but its all so tedious