Amber Neely
Apple has provided its second beta of iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 to public beta testers, just over one week after releasing the first public betas.
Arriving two days after the developer betas went live, the public beta can be downloaded from Apple's Beta Software Program site. The beta content is likely to be the same as what was provided in the developer version.
In the second beta of iOS 14.2, Apple has introduced a plethora of new emoji, including bubble tea, strawberry, flip flop, and more. The new emoji are part of the Unicode 13 release. In total, there are 58 new characters, faces, objects, and animals coming with iOS 14.2.
Other minor changes include tweaks to the Now Playing screen in Control Center and the Home app.
For those who have the Apple Watch Series 6, iOS 14.2 beta 2 combined with watchOS 7.1 beta 2 bring support back for the new Blood Oxygen app as well as the new watch faces that were missing in the original beta.
The first beta of iOS 14.2 saw Shazam added to Control Center as well as a redesign of the Now Playing interface and people distance to the Measure accessibility app.
AppleInsider, and Apple itself, strongly suggest users avoid installing betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, due to the potential for data loss or other issues. It is instead recommended to install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to ensure there are sufficient backups of important data beforehand.
Find any changes in the new betas? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at andrew@AppleInsider.com.
Andrew Orr
Marko Zivkovic
Christine McKee
Malcolm Owen
3 Comments
I wonder if this will fix the attachment bug in Messages, which throws up an “attachment is too long” error when trying to send, say, a voice text attachment over 700kb to an Android user. Or maybe it’s just me. I know that a settings reset didn’t fix it. I’m too lazy to do a full wipe and reset.
I’ve read several articles online recommending that people who are planning to upgrade to the iPhone 12 as soon as possible should probably skip this update. The 12 is expected to ship with iOS 14.1, and you can’t install a backup of an os onto a device that is running an earlier version of that os. There are workarounds, of course, but they will all be a giant headache compared to simply waiting to receive the phone before updating to 14.2.
I have noticed a big change with 14.2 beta and the Samsung Duo wireless charger. Prior to 14.2 beta, once the phone was fully charged the light on the charger would turn green to signify that the phone was fully charged. Now, with 14.2 it constantly charges the battery. Hopefully that will be fixed with the 14.2 release.