Apple issues fifth developer betas for iOS 15, iPadOS 15, tvOS 15

Apple has moved on to its fifth round of milestone developer betas, with new builds of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and tvOS 15 available for testing.

The newest builds can be downloaded via the Apple Developer Center for those enrolled into the test program, or via an over-the-air update on devices running the beta software. Public betas typically arrive within a few days of the developer versions, via the Apple Beta Software Program website.

The fifth round arrives after four previous iterations, with the fourth from July 27, the third from July 14, the second on June 24, and the first on June 7. Final versions are expected to be released in the fall.

For iOS 15, Apple introduces Focus modes, Live Text OCR, a digital ID for Wallet, enhancements to Messages and FaceTime, and updates to Weather and Maps, among other changes.

iPadOS 15 gains improvements to multitasking, as well as home screen widget support, a system-wide Quick Note feature, and the addition of the Translate app. For developers, Swift Playgrounds will allow app development on the iPad, including App Store submissions.

On watchOS 8, users can expect the addition of Tai Chi and Pilates workouts, respiratory rates in the Sleep app, new Photos layouts and memories, and Digital Crown cursor control and GIF search for Messages.

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AppleInsider, and Apple itself, strongly advise users don't install the betas on primary devices, as there is the small possibility of issues like data loss. Testers should install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to ensure there are sufficient backups of important data before updating.

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.

3 Comments

wwinter86 53 comments · 12 Years

About 3 years ago

Doesn't look like a Apple Watch or HomePod beta this time or at least not today.

kkqd1337 468 comments · 12 Years

Safari still has no option to revert the address bar position to the top/normal position

Marvin 15335 comments · 18 Years

kkqd1337 said:

Safari still has no option to revert the address bar position to the top/normal position

This new layout is a bit unusual. It makes sense for Safari as a standalone app to put navigation in the most convenient place but millions of mobile websites and apps built over 10 years have been designed the same way and now Apple's UI sits on top of them. There are mobile web apps that have buttons at the bottom that now move when tapping them and have to be tapped a second time.

This kind of drastic change needs a bit more heads up than a few weeks between the beta and final release.

The URL bar is an annoying UI element to have to deal with in any position because most web content wants to be fullscreen. The navigation is only needed to move away from a site. It's good to have it hide but to hide it when scrolling then show it when tapping on things makes for a bad user experience because it keeps resizing and blocking content.

As phones get bigger, having it at the bottom is useful but it shouldn't get in the way of the content until it's needed. Tapping on the content should hide the URL bar completely until the user makes a deliberate gesture to bring up the URL bar. Maybe they can collapse the bar into a circle icon like a Safari icon or site favicon that floats around and has to be tapped to open the bar again. This way it doesn't block interaction or content:

When a new site is loaded, it should show the URL being loaded for a couple of seconds so users can verify which site they are on and then the bar collapses until the user wants to change the site.

It would be nice to get a more efficient way to edit long URLs too. It's so slow scrolling left-right through the text. It wouldn't matter if it opened up like a text panel instead of a bar and showed the full URL at once. Then you could quickly select a big block or jump directly to the part of the URL to change.