Apple Releases Third Public Betas of iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 With New Emoji and Shazam Control Center Options

Apple today seeded the third public betas of upcoming iOS 14.2 and iPadOS 14.2 updates to its public beta testing group, two weeks after releasing the second betas and a day after providing the third betas to developers.

iOS 14
Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program can download the iOS and iPadOS‌ 14.2 updates over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website on an iOS device.

Apple in iOS and iPadOS 14.2 is adding new Emoji 13 emoji characters, with options that include smiling face with tear, ninja, pinched fingers, anatomical heart, black cat, mammoth, polar bear, dodo, fly, bell pepper, tamale, bubble tea, potted plant, piñata, plunger, wand, feather, hut, and more, with a full list available here.

2020emoji
iOS 14.2 introduces a new Music Recognition control for the Control Center, deepening the integration of the Apple-owned Shazam app in the iOS operating system. Music Recognition lets you discover music playing around you and it can recognize music playing in apps even when you're wearing AirPods.


The Shazam Music Recognition feature can be added to Control Center through the Control Center options in the Settings app. To use the feature, open up Control Center and then tap on the Shazam icon to initiate a single recognition.

musicrecognitioncontrol
The update brings a redesigned Now Playing widget for the Control Center that lists recently played albums that you might want to listen to when you have no music playing. There's also a redesigned interface for AirPlay, making it easier to play music across multiple ‌AirPlay‌ 2-enabled devices in the home.

For those who have low vision, Apple added a "People Detection" feature in the Magnifier app that uses the camera to let iPhone users know how far away other people are, which can be useful for social distancing purposes.

magnifierpeopledetection
For Apple Card users, the iOS 14.2 update adds a yearly spending history option so ‌Apple Card‌ holders can see how much they've spent in the current calendar year and how much Daily Cash they've earned. Prior to iOS 14.2, ‌Apple Card‌ offered spending activity information in a weekly or monthly summary.

apple card yearly spending activity
As for smaller but interesting tweaks, iOS 14.2 brings a new icon for the Apple Watch app, with the watch now sporting one of Apple's new Solo Loop bands.

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The new iOS 14.2 beta will likely be in testing for some time as Apple works on releasing new iPhones, with the new iPhones debuting starting next Friday.

Related Forum: iOS 14

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Top Rated Comments

markfc Avatar
62 months ago
And still no health app fix.
Thousands of complaints in apples own support forums and they can’t even acknowledge the issue and at least tell people they’re working on a fix.

The secrecy **** at Apple will be their downfall.

Just admit the issue, confirm a fix will be available and get in with it.

By not acknowledging the issue it just infuriates their customers.

It started with the “battery fix” for the older phones that slowed down the processor. Yes there was a perfectly reasonable technical explanation for why they did it but instead of being open about, they secrelty installed it and now the whole world thinks that Apple purposely puts out updates to slow down your phone to make you buy a new one.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sjsharksfan12 Avatar
62 months ago

Last year I read an article written by a former Apple developer. He described that many bug reports never get touched by a developer because they simply don't have time for that, among other things because of the yearly release cycle.
I wonder if Apple would be better off going to an every other year release cycle. Yeah they lose money for the holiday season, but the phone really hasn't been innovative in the last few years. Heck, the highlight of the event yesterday wasn't really the phone itself, it was 5G, which unless you live in a city won't be reliable anytime soon. I like Apple, and the organization of the OS, but man I wish they had better attention to detail. It's basically my biggest issue with the company.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sdf Avatar
62 months ago

Did I miss 14.1?
No, Apple just has multiple releases in their pipeline.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sdf Avatar
62 months ago

This seems to be Apple's MO lately. Can't fix the basic stuff so lets have more cute animals and hope no one notices that the basic stuff still sucks.
Pleasing features like this drive many users to actual installing updates faster than mere "Bug fixes, including…"

And those who are driven by bug fixes will install a release that fixes bugs and adds a few emoji just as fast.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
easy4lif Avatar
62 months ago
Did I miss 14.1?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scouser75 Avatar
62 months ago
When I shazam from the control centre, where do the shazams get stored?

sure hope I can now play videos again on WhatsApp!
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)