Apple on Friday seeded the first betas of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 to developers. The beta release comes one day after the launch of iOS 15.3 and iPadOS 15.3.
Beta builds of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 are available to developers through the Apple Developer Center or over the air on the devices with the proper configuration installed.
Some of the new features in iOS 15.3 include:
- Face ID With a Mask: There is now an option to unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask. Apple warns users that full-face ID is a more secure option, but mask Face ID is now available. Face ID with a mask is designed to use the area around your eyes for authentication purposes. It works with glasses, but it is not compatible with sunglasses.
- Universal Control: iPadOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3 finally enable the Universal Control feature, which is designed to allow you to use a single cursor and keyboard to control the iPads and Macs that are signed into your iCloud account.
- Emojis: The beta brings support for Emoji 14, adding 37 emoji and 75 skin tone additions for a total of 112 new characters. New emoji include melting face, saluting face, face with open eyes and hand over mouth, face with peeking eye, face with diagonal mouth, dotted line face, biting lip, bubbles, heart hands, rightwards hand, leftwards hand, palm down hand, palm up hand, hand with index finger and thumb crossed, index pointing at the viewer, an update to the handshake emoji, and many more.
- Apple Card Widget: A new Apple Card widget is available in the Today view, which can be added to the Home screen. The Apple Card widget shows your current balance and your daily spending in different categories.
- iCloud Keychain Notes: iCloud Keychain users can now add notes to any password entry.
As usual, MacTrast and Apple both warn users to not install any betas on their daily driver iPhone or iPad. Instead, only install betas on a device set aside for testing purposes. This is especially true when it’s an early beta of a new operating system.