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 watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

iPhone Driver's Licenses: These 17 U.S. States Offer Them or Will Later

Thursday June 19, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states and Puerto...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Wednesday June 18, 2025 10:24 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a few days after Apple provided the betas to developers. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. When the...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Says iOS 26 Won't Be Available on These iPhone Models

Tuesday June 10, 2025 6:58 am PDT by
Apple this week revealed that iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. That means that iOS 18 is the end of the road for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which were all released in 2018. However, those devices will continue to receive security updates for at least a few more years. iOS 26 is compatible with the following iPhone models: iPhone 16e iPhone...
new iphone lockscreen ios 26

iOS 26: Five Changes Coming to Your iPhone Lock Screen

Tuesday June 17, 2025 8:46 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has made some additions to the iPhone Lock Screen that aim to make it more customizable than ever. Of course, things can always change before the software makes its way to the general iPhone-owning public, but here are five new things iOS 26 can do on the Lock Screen as of the current developer beta. Widgets Top or Bottom In iOS 18, the row of widgets on your Lock...
ios 26 call holding

iOS 26 Beta is Hiding a New Ringtone — Here's What It Sounds Like

Thursday June 19, 2025 7:25 pm PDT by
Apple is hiding a new ringtone within iOS 26. The new ringtone is an alternative version of the existing Reflection ringtone, which has been the default ringtone since the iPhone X was released in 2017. It was discovered within the code for the first developer beta of iOS 26, but it remains hidden, so you will not find it in the list of ringtones available in the Settings app for now. It...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
Craig Federighi No

John Gruber Reacts to Apple Declining His Interview After His Criticism

Wednesday June 18, 2025 8:10 pm PDT by
Every year between 2015 and 2024, at least one Apple executive agreed to be interviewed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber for a special WWDC episode of his podcast, The Talk Show. Last year, for example, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and top AI researcher John Giannandrea joined Gruber on stage at the California Theatre in San Jose to discuss...

Top Rated Comments

SMIDG3T Avatar
112 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
112 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
112 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
112 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
112 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
112 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)