Apple Releases Second iOS 10.2 Beta for Public Beta Testers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 10.2 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, just one over one week after releasing the first iOS 10.2 public beta, and one day after providing the second iOS 10.2 beta to developers.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 10.2 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on their iOS device.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas are not stable and include many bugs, so they should be installed on a secondary device.


iOS 10.2, as a major 10.x update, includes several new features to enhance the iOS 10 operating system. New emoji are included, introducing Unicode 9 characters like clown face, drooling face, selfie, face palm, fox face, owl, shark, butterfly, avocado, pancakes, croissant, and more, plus many profession emoji available in both male and female genders.

Apple has also updated the artwork on most existing emoji, adding detail to make them look less cartoonish and more realistic.

In addition to new emoji, the iOS 10.2 update includes new wallpaper, new Music sorting options, a new "Celebrate" Screen Effect," an option for preserving camera settings, a Videos widget, Single Sign-On support, an SOS feature for quickly calling emergency services, a new TV app to help users discover television content to watch, and more.

Related Forum: iOS 10

Popular Stories

apple oct 2024 mac tease

Apple Expected to Announce These Two to Three Products 'This Week'

Sunday October 12, 2025 7:05 am PDT by
Apple plans to announce new products "this week," according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple's "Mac Your Calendars" teaser last October In his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said the products set to be updated this week include the iPad Pro, Vision Pro, and "likely" the base 14-inch MacBook Pro, with all three likely to receive a spec bump with Apple's next-generation M5 chip. Gurman...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Preparing iOS 26.0.2 Update for iPhones

Saturday October 11, 2025 6:59 pm PDT by
Apple's software engineers are internally testing iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions. iOS 26.0.2 will likely be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet. The update will likely be released within the next few weeks. Last month, Apple released iOS...
10

Apple to Launch New Products Starting Next Week, Claims Dubious Leak [Updated]

Friday October 10, 2025 5:57 am PDT by
Update: the Naver account appears to be referencing a speculative post on X by Vadim Yuryev, dated October 6. The original article follows. Apple will announce new products through a series of press releases beginning as soon as next week, according to a dubious claim posted on the Korean blog Naver. The Naver blog account yeux1122, which aggregates rather than originates Apple...
iPhone 17 Pro Colors

iPhone 18 Pro Already Rumored to Have These 6 New Features

Saturday October 11, 2025 10:10 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are still nearly a year away, a handful of new features and changes have already been rumored for the devices. Below, we have recapped some of the early iPhone 18 Pro rumors so far. Smaller Dynamic Island The standard iPhone 18, iPhone 18 Pro, and iPhone 18 Pro Max will be equipped with a slightly smaller Dynamic Island, but the devices will...
All AirPods 2025

Apple Reportedly Working on New AirPods Pro, AirPods 5, and H3 Chip

Sunday October 12, 2025 9:24 am PDT by
After releasing AirPods Pro 3 last month, Apple is already working on the next AirPods Pro, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. It is unclear if the new AirPods Pro would be branded as AirPods Pro 4, or if they would be considered an updated version of AirPods Pro 3. Gurman did not take a position, opting to describe them as a "new version" of the "high-end in-ear buds." AirPods Pro 2...
Tim Cook MacBook

Apple's Next CEO Identified

Wednesday October 8, 2025 12:30 pm PDT by
Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus remains the "leading contender" to become the company's next CEO, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Ternus is 50 years old, so he is still young enough to have a long run at the helm of Apple, after current CEO Tim Cook retires. He is already a key decision-maker at Apple, according to Gurman, and he appears to have a charismatic...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Rumored to Launch MacBook Pro With M5 Chip Before M5 Pro and M5 Max Models

Friday October 10, 2025 1:18 pm PDT by
Apple is planning to release a base MacBook Pro with a standard M5 chip before higher-end models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, according to AppleInsider's sources with "knowledge of macOS Tahoe development and hardware testing." The report said a MacBook Pro with an M5 chip is "nearing release," and Apple has apparently been testing this model with an unreleased macOS 26.0.2 version....
10

Apple Event This October? Here's the Latest on What to Expect

Thursday October 9, 2025 7:00 am PDT by
While it is unclear if Apple will host an October event this year, or stick to press releases, rumors suggest it will announce several new products this month. The graphic for Apple's "Unleashed" event in October 2021 Below, we have recapped everything to know about a potential Apple event this October. When The table below outlines when Apple teased its October launches over the past...
vivo liquid glass

iOS 26 Liquid Glass Design Copied by Android Smartphone Maker

Thursday October 9, 2025 4:07 pm PDT by
Chinese smartphone maker Vivo has taken some inspiration from Apple's Liquid Glass design language for its latest operating system update, OriginOS 6. Unveiled this week, OriginOS 6 has the same rounded buttons and translucent glass look as iOS 26. In a demo video, a Vivo smartphone features an interface that could be easily mistaken for iOS 26. There's a Liquid Glass clock, Control Center,...

Top Rated Comments

SMIDG3T Avatar
117 months ago
PLEASE READ - EMOJIS

We all like to rant, that's fine, but all this business about Apple adding new Emojis and not focusing on anything else (which is false anyway) is just stupid. I'd just like to put it out there as a lot of people don't understand.

Unicode are behind Emoji, not Apple. Apple are simply updating the Emoji to keep up with what's out there. Apple do the artwork and they obviously have a very high standard.

Stop complaining about Apple and their addiction to Emoji. There's no addiction, they're simply keeping up with the standard.
[doublepost=1478635481][/doublepost]
One annoying tidbit in 10.2, Apple is pushing Live Photos way too hard and it's getting obnoxious that it's turned on by default every time you launch the camera app. Once this update is pushed out to everyone I know there's going to be a lot of complaints about this.

Luckily you can turn that off in the camera settings (Photos & Camera > Preserve Settings > Live Photo). Nobody I know with an iPhone ever uses or takes live photos. o_O
The reason it's on by default is because they've doubled the frame rate and they're obviously really happy with it. I hate to state the obvious but it's a photo and the fact that it's really smooth now (and looks like a mini video) is impressive.

But the setting is there for those who don't want it enabled by default.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C DM Avatar
117 months ago
Just an emoji update for us in the UK then...
Along with all the other things that are in iOS 10.2:

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/10/31/whats-new-in-ios-10-2-beta-1/

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/11/07/whats-new-in-ios-10-2-beta-2/
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bacillus Avatar
117 months ago
Hail Emoji
The 1 feature that works across all iDevices. Unrestricted, transparently, across all dongles.
Our Apple VP's LOVE it !!
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DrumApple Avatar
117 months ago
They focus on making emoji's prettier when their Mail app completely blows and is unusable. This is a device for children.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BSben Avatar
117 months ago
Just an emoji update for us in the UK then...
Just get a life, emojis have been updated, but more importantly the operating system is getting better. The UK version of iOS should have 25% of features removed to reflect the massive drop of the pound.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
C DM Avatar
117 months ago
oh good. More emojis.... Innovation where it counts. :rolleyes:
And let's ignore everything else as usual and weirdly focus on one of the smaller things that was updated. Quite the logic there.
[doublepost=1478630914][/doublepost]
They focus on making emoji's prettier when their Mail app completely blows and is unusable. This is a device for children.
Is that why plenty of people use it just fine?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)