Apple Seeds iOS 18.5 Developer Beta 3 Update for iPhone; Public Beta 2 Also Released

Apple on Monday rolled out the iOS 18.5 Developer Beta 3 update to developers and beta testers. In line with the previous iterations, it arrives as a minor update for the iPhone with similar features in tow. Alongside, it bundles fixes for a bug that caused black screen to appear on the new Apple Vision Pro app in some cases, alongside other known issues. Shortly after, Apple also released the iOS 18.5 Public Beta 2 update with a handful of changes compared to the publicly available iOS 18.4.1 version.

iOS 18.5 Developer Beta 3 and Public Beta 2 Updates: What’s New

As per Apple, both iOS 18.5 Developer Beta 3 and Public Beta 2 updates carry similar changes to the Developer Beta 1 update which Apple released earlier this month. There’s a new option for toggling Contact Photos right from the Mail app’s UI, by tapping the three-dot option from the top-right corner of the screen. While the same functionality was previously available via the Settings app, the update adds a new shortcut in the Mail app too.

Users can also turn off Group by Sender, categories, and AI priority messages options in the app by invoking the same three-dot menu. There are visual enhancements to the AppleCare and Warranty Coverage page and a new banner for AppleCare coverage now appears in the Settings app. It enables them to learn more about the coverage they’ve purchased by tapping the link. Apple says iPhone users can also manage their AppleCare plan by heading over to their Apple Account and selecting a device from the device list.

Alongside the features, there are a handful of bug fixes too. As per the Cupertino-based tech giant, the latest updates bring a fix for an issue affecting the Apple Vision Pro app that caused it to launch with a black screen when downloaded from the App Store. They also fix a previously existing issue where the availability of C APIs, which provide direct access to system resources and hardware functionalities within the hvf framework, was not being properly checked.

Another bug that was previously discovered and rectified was related to the StoreKit, a framework used by developers to provide features and services for their apps and in-app purchases via the App Store. It resulted in the isEligibleForIntroOffer(for:) function returning false if the user was not signed in on the device in the StoreKit. Although the aforementioned issues were resolved with the iOS 18.5 Developer Beta 1, the latest Developer Beta 3 and Public Beta 2 updates fix it on devices still affected by them.

The updates also highlight a new bug. Apple says it is aware of an issue which might cause failure when requesting Siri to play a song in Apple Music across multiple platforms.