Apple today seeded the second beta of iOS 16.1 to developers for testing purposes, with the beta coming one week after the release of the first iOS 16.1 beta. The iOS 16.1 beta is also joined by the third beta of iPadOS 16.1, which is on a slightly different schedule as Apple started testing it prior to the launch of iOS 16.
Registered developers can download the iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 profiles from the Apple Developer Center, and once installed, the betas will be available over the air.
iOS 16.1 introduces support for Live Activities, the interactive notification feature that lets you keep an eye on things happening in real time right from the Lock Screen and, on the iPhone 14 Pro, the Dynamic Island.
Live Activities cannot be used at the current time as developers still need to update their apps to add support, but it will be available when iOS 16.1 launches. Developers have access to an ActivityKit API to begin getting their apps ready.
The update also introduces a new Clean Energy Charging feature in the United States that is designed to selectively charge when lower carbon emission electricity is available, plus it lays the groundwork for Matter, a new smart home standard that Apple plans to begin supporting this fall.
Matter will allow for interoperability between smart devices from different companies, and Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, and others are working on support.
Other new features include a deletable Wallet app, changes to the Lock Screen customizing interface, and more, with details available in our iOS 16.1 feature guide.
Top Rated Comments
Just tested it, and it’s finally working. Not taking my chances with the camera, though ?
Apple really needs to release it to the public same day though, if this fixes GPS and the permanently damaged camera.
Edit: Indeed, public is out!
[HEADING=2]Apple Pay[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* Tapping the payment summary might cause the Apple Pay session to close unexpectedly. (99938299)
[HEADING=2]CoreGraphics[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* To improve security, CGImageCreate enforces parameter correctness on macOS 13 Ventura, iOS 16, iPadOS 16, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16. Passing an incorrect CGImageByteOrderInfo is no longer supported, and will result in images failing to load. (94855401)
[HEADING=2]DeviceDiscoveryUI[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* Devices running beta 4 or later aren’t backwards compatible with devices running earlier beta versions. (95233878)
[HEADING=2]Emoji[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* The search field for the emoji Lock Screen editor is missing. (88603664)
[HEADING=2]Home[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS 16.1 beta 2[/HEADING]
* Fixed: To pair Matter accessories, a profile must first be installed on your device. (99832852)
* Fixed: Removing Apple Home from the Matter accessory Connected Services menu in Home doesn’t remove the accessory tile. (77681079)
* Fixed: You might be unable to pair a Matter accessory if the accessory is already paired to a third-party ecosystem. (99671133)
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* You might receive an alert to turn on Wi-Fi when pairing a Matter accessory. (98460235)
Workaround: Ensure your device is connected to your Wi-Fi network.
* Adjusting the color or color temperature might result in an unexpected color set on a Matter accessory. (98578966)
* Accessory details might not open if a Matter accessory is unreachable. (99232316)
* You might be unable to pair using a Matter ECM code via the Matter Support Framework pairing API. (99232681)
Workaround: Use “More Options” in the QR code pairing flow to select the accessory you’d like to pair.
* Uncertified accessory notifications might appear when pairing Matter accessories. (99502842)
* The device that initiates the pairing needs to use the same iCloud account as the home hub. Only the owner of a home, not an invited user, can pair Matter accessories. (76012945)
[HEADING=2]Mail[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* Moving a Remind Me message to another mailbox doesn’t remove the Remind Me banner. (93671992)
[HEADING=2]Memory Allocation[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* The system memory allocator free operation zeroes out all deallocated blocks in iPadOS 16 beta or later. Invalid accesses to free memory might result in new crashes or corruption, including NULL-pointer dereferences and non-zero memory being returned from calloc. (97449075)
[HEADING=2]Maps[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* Don’t use MKMapLandscape, MKStandardMapConfigurationMapMode, [MKMapView configuration], and [MKStandardMapConfiguration showsBuildings]. Use their functional equivalents MKMapElevationStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mkmapelevationstyle'), MKStandardMapConfiguration.EmphasisStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mkstandardmapconfiguration/emphasisstyle'), and preferredConfiguration ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mkmapview/4010601-preferredconfiguration'), instead. Additionally, showsBuildings is now deprecated. (93449747)
[HEADING=2]Metal[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* When using the new Metal mesh shaders feature, render pipeline state objects (PSOs) created with a mesh shader stage but without a object shader stage can fail to compile or fail to work correctly on some devices. (89836551)
Workaround: When creating render PSOs with a mesh shader stage, also include a (potentially trivial pass-through) object shader stage.
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* The MTLResource.gpuHandle is deprecated. Use gpuResourceID ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/metal/mtlaccelerationstructure/3974095-gpuresourceid') instead, which functions as a replacement. (92862429)
[HEADING=2]Metal Offline Compiler[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* MetalFX effect outputs aren’t designed to be consumed by the CPU. Outputting to a texture that is read only by the CPU might result in synchronization issues. (91515075)
Workaround: If a CPU reading of the MetalFX output is desired, instead of encoding the MetalFX effect as the last item in a command buffer, encode a dummy blit that consumes the MetalFX output texture (a 1-pixel region blit is fine) in the command buffer. After the command buffer with the dummy blit is finished, reading of the MetalFX effect output texture with CPU synchronizes correctly.
[HEADING=2]Networking[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* FTP is deprecated for URLSession and related APIs. Please adopt modern secure networking protocols such as HTTPS. (92623659)
[HEADING=2]StoreKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* Deprecated the SKDownload API and removed the option to upload nonconsumable in-app purchase assets for Apple to host. In addition, support for managing these assets in App Store Connect is no longer available as of April 2022. (89764253)
[HEADING=2]SKAdNetwork[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in iOS 16.1 beta 2[/HEADING]
* Fixed: Postbacks might have an expectedly long time delay. (99637298)
[HEADING=2]SwiftUI[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* Providing actions to a navigationTitle modifier has been deprecated. Use the toolbarTitleActions() modifier or ToolbarTitleActions type in a toolbar modifier instead. (93658035)
* Lists and tables might not clear their selection when exiting Edit Mode. (94093589)
[HEADING=2]UIKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]
* [UIViewController shouldAutorotate] has been deprecated is no longer supported. [UIViewController attemptRotationToDeviceOrientation] has been deprecated and replaced with [UIViewController setNeedsUpdateOfSupportedInterfaceOrientations].
Workaround: Apps relying on shouldAutorotate should reflect their preferences using the view controllers supportedInterfaceOrientations. If the supported orientations change, use `-[UIViewController setNeedsUpdateOfSupportedInterface
[HEADING=2]Wallet[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]
* American Express cards might need to be removed and re-added to Wallet after updating to iPadOS 16 beta 6 or later. (97990752)
[/SPOILER] aka iPadOS 16.1