iOS 16 beta 2 arrives with more improvements for Messages and backups
But hold off for the public beta
Apple released updates to the developer betas of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS Ventura, and watchOS 9 this week (June 22), where there's been some bug fixes and refinements for the new features it announced at WWDC.
While Stage Manager in iPadOS 16 has seen some improvements, by way of making it easier to resize windows, and being able to hide the dock, the Messages app is taking older software versions into account when editing messages.
There'll be two messages sent - one being the original, and the other the newly edited message.
There's also the ability to create backups over iCloud using your cellular data plan, but as other users are awaiting the public beta release of iOS 16 (along with other platform releases), we suspect the wait won't be much longer.
Analysis: when could iOS 16 public beta arrive?
Beta releases from Apple usually arrive two-three weeks after a previous version, whether that's a minor release such as iOS 15.6, or the tentpole releases of iOS 16.
At the time of writing, it's been two weeks since WWDC and when the first developer betas arrived. We usually see the public betas show up when beta 3 does. By then, there'll be a bunch of feedback given by developers who have been using the earlier releases, and all that has been applied to the features across the new software.
For example, WWDC 2021 was June 7, with the public beta arriving three weeks later, earlier than Apple's date of July. While the iOS 14 public beta arrived on July 8, just under three weeks after WWDC 2020 was hosted remotely.
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This is why we suspect the public beta of iOS 16 and other updates will arrive around the week beginning July 4. That way, they're released after the federal holiday break, and users can get into how the new updates will benefit them, albeit with caution.
Regardless, these are still early, in-development versions of what will be on the majority of iPhones by the time 2022 wraps up. So be aware that you may encounter bugs and other issues if you do decide to install the public betas...when they arrive.
Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he's written a book, 'The Making of Tomb Raider'. His second book, '50 Years of Boss Fights', came out in 2024, with a third book coming in 2025. He also has a newsletter called 'Springboard'. He's usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that's about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.