Apple Releases First Public Betas of iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5

Thursday March 30, 2023 10:07 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5 updates to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test out the software head of its official launch. The public betas come two days after Apple provided the betas to developers.

iOS 16
Those who have signed up their accounts for Apple's free beta testing program can enable the beta by opening up the Settings app, going to General, selecting Software Update, tapping on Beta Updates, and selecting the iOS 16 Public Beta option.

iOS 16.5 appears to be a relatively minor update, and few changes were found in the first developer beta. There is a new Sports tab located in the Apple News app, and Siri can now be asked to start a screen recording.

Development on iOS 16 is slowing down as Apple prepares for the upcoming June debut of iOS 17, the next-generation version of iOS.

Apple has also seeded a new public beta of watchOS 9.5 to public beta testers.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Popular Stories

November 20 to Mark the End of an Era at Apple

Wednesday November 11, 2026 7:51 am PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple has announced that the long-running Apple Support Community discussion forums for user-to-user tech support will be permanently closing on Friday, November 20. The forums have existed in some form for nearly 30 years, so it is the end of an era. Effective immediately, the Apple Support Community forums are in a read-only state, with new posts no longer being accepted. The final message ...

Apple's Johny Srouji Eyed to Replace Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

Thursday November 12, 2026 4:29 am PST by Hartley Charlton

Apple's chief hardware officer Johny Srouji is being considered as a potential successor to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang as the chipmaker's board prepares to remove its co-founder, according to Semafor. Citing a person familiar with the matter, the publication identified Srouji as one of the people under consideration for Nvidia's top job. It is unclear if Srouji has yet been approached or...

• 112 comments

Apple Releases New AirPods Firmware

Tuesday November 10, 2026 12:11 pm PST by Juli Clover

Apple today released new firmware for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, AirPods 4, AirPods 5, and AirPods Max 2. The firmware has a build number of 9B47, up from 9A348/9A350. Apple has been beta testing the new firmware for the last several weeks. In a support document, Apple merely mentioned the new firmware contains "bug fixes and other improvements." Firmware updates can be downloaded...

• 60 comments

Top Rated Comments

Johnny907

47 months ago

Siri lets you start a screen recording now.
She still can’t so much as adjust headphone volume without an internet connection, and half the time getting her to reply to a text message requires unlocking the bloody phone first which defeats the entire point, but ooooo now she can save you a pull down gesture and button push.
Progress!

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

sjsharksfan12

47 months ago

If you disable public beta to off, I would think you need to power off the device. Then turn it on again after it being off for so many seconds. Then it shouldn’t prompt the update.

I did it the old way and removed the device from the Beta process.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

d4cloo

47 months ago

Siri lets you start a screen recording now.
She still can’t so much as adjust headphone volume without an internet connection, and half the time getting her to reply to a text message requires unlocking the bloody phone first which defeats the entire point, but ooooo now she can save you a pull down gesture and button push.
Progress!

Exactly. Siri often even doesn’t get triggered on my phone until I shout HEY SIRI for third time.
Many of my attempts aren’t understood and often she tells me “I can’t do that on this device” or responds audible on the wrong device (e.g suddenly on my HomePod instead of phone).
It’s extremely hard to discover what she is capable of and what not, and it’s quickly getting ridiculously outdated now that I’m interacting with OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Whisper.
A while back my internet was down but my WiFi was working just fine. Even the most simple commands required an internet connection.
Siri feels like a completely failed technology for years that has only has been patched and had no clear vision or direction since its inception.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Johnnyponken

47 months ago

Siri lets you start a screen recording now.
She still can’t so much as adjust headphone volume without an internet connection, and half the time getting her to reply to a text message requires unlocking the bloody phone first which defeats the entire point, but ooooo now she can save you a pull down gesture and button push.
Progress!

I am hoping that they till iOS 17 retires Siri altogether and puts out the next generation of voice assistant called “Alpha” that works using 4gpt

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Read All Comments

Apple Releases First Public Betas of iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5

Popular Stories

November 20 to Mark the End of an Era at Apple

Apple's Johny Srouji Eyed to Replace Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang

Apple Releases New AirPods Firmware

Top Rated Comments

Next Article

Videos

Guides

Upcoming

Other Stories