Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 10.2 to Developers

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 10 update to developers, one week after releasing the iOS 10.1 update and more than a month after launching the iOS 10 operating system. As a major 10.x update, iOS 10.2 will likely bring bug fixes, performance improvements, and perhaps a few new features to iOS 10.

Registered developers can download the new iOS 10.2 beta from the Apple Developer Center or over-the-air with the proper configuration profile installed.

10-2-beta
We don't yet know what features are included in iOS 10.2, but the prior update, iOS 10.1, introduced a new Portrait photography mode for the iPhone 7 Plus' dual-lens camera system. Should new features be discovered in today's update, we'll update this post.

Apple has called iOS 10 its "biggest release ever" for iOS users, with a revamped lock screen, a Siri SDK for developers, an overhauled Messages app, a dedicated "Home" app for HomeKit users, new facial and object recognition capabilities in Photos, and redesigned Maps and Apple Music apps.

What's new in iOS 10.2:

Emoji - Unicode 9 emoji are included in iOS 10.2. Some of the new emoji include clown face, drooling face, selfie, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, pancakes, croissant, and more.

ios102emoji
Wallpapers - There are new wallpapers in iOS 10.2, which use the same graphics that were shown off in iPhone 7 marketing materials.

ios102wallpaper
Camera settings - There's a new option for saving your last known camera settings. This will let you preserve the last Camera Mode, Photo Filter, or Live Photo setting. "Preserve Settings" is available in the Settings App under "Photos & Camera."

preservesettings
Videos widget - There's a new widget available for the Videos app, accessible on the widgets panel by swiping to the right on the Home screen of an iPhone or iPad. The Videos widget displays movies and TV shows in the Videos app, and a tap will cause content to play automatically.

videowidgetsios102
Emergency contacts - There's a new feature that will automatically notify your emergency contacts when you use the Emergency SOS feature on iPhone or Apple Watch. A popup notification shows up when you open the Health app after installing iOS 10.2.

Apple Music - There's a new option to sort playlists in Apple Music by type, title, and recently added.

Related Forum: iOS 10

Popular Stories

apple intelligence black

Report: Apple's AI Strategy Could Finally Pay Off in 2026

Tuesday December 30, 2025 9:01 am PST by
Apple's restrained artificial intelligence strategy may pay off in 2026 amid the arrival of a revamped Siri and concerns around the AI market "bubble" bursting, The Information argues. The speculative report notes that Apple has taken a restrained approach with AI innovations compared with peers such as OpenAI, Google, and Meta, which are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in data...
apple fitness 2026 1

Apple Teases 'Something Big' Coming Soon to Apple Fitness+

Tuesday December 30, 2025 2:11 pm PST by
The Apple Fitness+ Instagram account today teased that the service has "big plans" for 2026. In a video, several Apple Fitness+ trainers are shown holding up newspapers with headlines related to Apple Fitness+. What's Apple Fitness+ Planning for the New Year? Something Big is Coming to Apple Fitness+ The Countdown Begins. Apple Fitness+ 2026 is Almost Here 2026 Plans Still Under ...
maxresdefault

Hands-On With a Rough iPhone Fold Mockup

Monday December 29, 2025 10:55 am PST by
Apple is rumored to be introducing a foldable iPhone in September 2026, and since it will bring the biggest form factor change since the iPhone was introduced in 2007, curiosity about the design is high. A 3D designer created an iPhone Fold design based on rumors, and we printed it out to see how it compares to Apple's current iPhones. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
maxresdefault

Where's the New Apple TV?

Monday December 22, 2025 11:30 am PST by
Apple hasn't updated the Apple TV 4K since 2022, and 2025 was supposed to be the year that we got a refresh. There were rumors suggesting Apple would release the new Apple TV before the end of 2025, but it looks like that's not going to happen now. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said several times across 2024 and 2025 that Apple would...
iphone 17 pro dark blue 1

iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max Users Report Static Speaker Noise While Charging

Tuesday December 30, 2025 10:39 am PST by
iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max owners are having trouble with the speakers of their devices, and have complained about a static or hissing noise that occurs when the iPhone is charging. There are multiple discussions about the issue on Reddit, the MacRumors forums, and Apple's Support Community, where affected users say there is a noticeable static noise "like an old radio." Some people report...
iPhone Top Left Hole Punch Face ID Feature Purple

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Next Year With These 12 New Features

Tuesday December 23, 2025 8:36 am PST by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another nine months, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we have recapped 12 features rumored for the iPhone 18 Pro models. The same overall design is expected, with 6.3-inch and 6.9-inch display sizes, and a "plateau" housing three rear cameras Under-screen Face ID Front camera in...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These 8 New Features to Your iPhone

Monday December 22, 2025 8:47 am PST by
Earlier this month, Apple released iOS 26.2, following more than a month of beta testing. It is a big update, with many new features and changes for iPhones. iOS 26.2 adds a Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics in Apple Music, and more. Below, we have highlighted a total of eight new features. Liquid Glass Slider on Lock Screen A new slider in the Lock...
samsung glitter blue

Samsung's Year End Sale Introduces Major Discounts on Popular Monitors and TVs

Monday December 29, 2025 6:29 am PST by
Samsung kicked off a new end-of-the-year sale this week, introducing great deals on monitors, TVs, Galaxy smartphones, and home appliances. Many of these deals are the exact same all-time low prices we tracked during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Samsung. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep ...

Top Rated Comments

Tony_YYZ Avatar
120 months ago
Android device users complain they don't get enough updates. iOS users complain they get too many updates.

oy vey
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaveOP Avatar
120 months ago
I am simply sick of all these updates. It's completely absurd and would be unnecessary if apple knew how write good and dependable code. But it's bug after bug after bug. The only beneficiary of this is this board as it gives all of you loads to moan and groan about. But for us regular users, it's a nightmare. Spending day after day updating all my devices and then discovering that a new bug was introduced that will require another update. If Steve were still alive, this wouldn't be happening. I'm going to buy a pc and the new pixel phone right now. I'm done with apple forever.
Bye! No need to post anymore either, what will you do with all your extra time! :D
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheAppleFairy Avatar
120 months ago
I am simply sick of all these updates. It's completely absurd and would be unnecessary if apple knew how write good and dependable code. But it's bug after bug after bug. The only beneficiary of this is this board as it gives all of you loads to moan and groan about. But for us regular users, it's a nightmare. Spending day after day updating all my devices and then discovering that a new bug was introduced that will require another update. If Steve were still alive, this wouldn't be happening. I'm going to buy a pc and the new pixel phone right now. I'm done with apple forever.
Well delete the beta profile then, If you don't have the beta profile you don't get that many updates and will have nothing to cry about.
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
0029937 Avatar
120 months ago
I'm going to buy a pc and the new pixel phone right now. I'm done with apple forever.
Ciao
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rwilliams Avatar
120 months ago
This far in and nobody has mentioned Dark Mode. You fellas are slipping.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jayson A Avatar
120 months ago
You've got to be kidding me. The animation is longer. The wallpaper actually zooms in on the 7Plus but it does not on the Air 2. Entirely DIFFERENT animation. The wallpaper does NOT zoom in on the Air 2.

@Jayson A Help me out. lol
Yes, you're right. The animation isn't glitchy, they literally re-worked the animation to be exactly how it's being shown.

Apple did this because they want the animation to start immediately on the first click, rather than waiting for a second click before returning home.

It's like this (for anyone that's interested)

iPhone 6s:
1. User clicks home button once
2. iPhone says to itself "Don't do anything yet! We don't know if the user is going to double click, so we don't know what action to take just yet!
3. After a second or so, the iPhone goes "False alarm! User just wanted to go home! Start the home animation!!"
4. The screen smoothly transforms into the size of its home screen icon.

iPhone 7 does things differently:
1. User clicks home button once
2. iPhone says to itself "Start the animation! We'll deal with a second click as it comes!"
3. The wallpaper however, cannot move yet because the iPhone doesn't know when you'll do the second click.
4. If a second click is detected during the initial animation, the iPhone says "Wait! The user clicked again! Interrupt the current animation and show them the multitasking screen!"

Because of the fact that the iPhone has to be prepared to show the multitasking screen, the way the app animates to the home screen is different. It starts off by shrinking the screen slowly, but keeping the same proportions of the app screen (16:9). Once it gets past the size of the multitasking window size, it starts to distort slightly and blend into it's icon on the home screen. However, since the zoom animation started off slow, it has to make up time by speeding up toward the end of the animation, but someone forgot to tell the wallpaper that, so it lags behind the rest of the animation.

That's why the iPhone 7's animation looks off-putting.

If they could just get the wallpaper to move at the same speed as the zoom animation, it wouldn't look so weird or delayed.

I hope this helped some people out
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)