Apple Releases Second Beta of iOS 18.2 with More Apple Intelligence and Other Goodies
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Now that November is upon us, we’re only about a month away from the public release of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2, bringing the next phase of Apple Intelligence to the masses, and Apple is moving toward that goal with the second developer beta of iOS 18.2 and the rest of the gang today.
For now, iOS 18.2 remains a developer-only affair. However, while the first beta was limited to those devices that supported Apple Intelligence, beta 2 is now available for all iPhones compatible with iOS 18, going back to the 2018 iPhone XS and iPhone XR. Now that iOS 18.1 has been released to the public, we’ll likely see the first public iOS 18.2 betas arrive soon. Ditto for the new iPadOS 18.2 and macOS 15.2 betas.
The first iOS 18.2 beta brought key new Apple Intelligence features such as Image Playground, Genmoji, and ChatGPT integration, plus support for additional English languages. Since that’s all we’re expecting in the final release of iOS 18.2, it’s not a surprise that the second beta is mostly about refining these features, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything new in other areas.
What’s New in iOS 18.2 Beta 2
While iOS 18.2 includes some small Apple Intelligence tweaks, there’s more coming for other iPhones, too. Here are a few things we’ve found in the second iOS 18.2 beta so far.
Upgrade to ChatGPT Plus
While Image Playground and Genmoji remain essentially unchanged on the surface, Apple has tweaked the ChatGPT options found in the Apple Intelligence & Siri section of the Settings app to add an “Advanced Capabilities” section that shows whether you’ve reached your daily limit for requests and offers an option to upgrade directly to ChatGPT Plus, even if you don’t have the standalone ChatGPT app installed.
Share Your AirTag Location by Link
While iOS 17 added the ability to share your AirTags with friends and family, iOS 18.2 takes that one step further by letting you create a public link for a given AirTag that you can share with anyone. Apple suggests it could be used to share an item’s location with “an airline or a trusted person,” but you can share the link with whomever you like.
While the link is long and complicated enough that nobody can guess it, anyone you share it with should be able to open it without further authentication. The Find My app will track how many people have visited the link. You can deactivate it anytime, but it will also automatically expire after 14 days or when you’re reunited with your lost item.
Note that the links don’t appear to be live yet in the second beta. The Find My app will generate them, but attempting to open one takes you to a generic page for Apple’s Find My network.
Camera Control Enhancements
For iPhone 16 users, the Camera Control button gets the auto-focus and auto-exposure lock capabilities that Apple promised were coming when it unveiled the iPhone 16 in September.
This option is off by default right now, but it can be toggled on with a quick trip into Settings > Camera > Camera Control, which makes the new button work more like a traditional DSLR-style camera. A light press will lock auto-focus and auto-exposure, letting you get things framed just right before pressing all the way down to capture the shot.
There are also new Accessibility settings to adjust the double-click speed of the Camera Control, expanding on the existing options that let you tweak the light press force and double-press speed and toggle off light-press and swipe gestures.
Other Smaller Changes
As with every new iOS release, there are a few smaller tweaks that are still noteworthy. For instance, iPhone Mirroring can now be used while you’re connected to the Internet from your Mac through the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot feature. That was a significant limitation for road warriors who wanted to use the feature.
The Shortcuts app gets some new Fitness actions for opening directly to specific areas in the Fitness app, although you’ll still need to use a third-party app like Toolbox Pro if you want to do things like read workout data.
The icons in the Settings app also appear to have received some nice adjustments to improve their appearance when the iPhone is running in Dark Mode.
When Will iOS 18.2 Be Released?
Apple has already promised that new Apple Intelligence languages and features will be arriving in December, which means that’s when we can expect iOS 18.2 to land. However, the good news is that it could be sooner rather than later.
We’d already pegged the first half of December, as Apple typically shuts down for the holidays and doesn’t like to release new software when nobody is around to deal with potential support issues. However, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in his latest Power On newsletter that this could be pretty early in December: “The week of Dec. 2, barring any unexpected delays,” he notes.
Sadly, Gurman also says we may have to wait a while after that for any new Apple Intelligence features. It seems that iOS 18.3 will be focusing on other things, as the next major update to Apple Intelligence isn’t anticipated until April when iOS 18.4 ships, which will enhance Siri, add support for several non-English languages, and bring Apple Intelligence to the European Union.
