Apple Seeds third public betas of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5

Apple today seeded the third betas of new iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates for public beta testers, with the new betas two weeks after the release of the second betas and just a day after Apple ships the third beta software to developers.

Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s beta testing program can download the iOS and iPadOS‌ 14.5 updates wirelessly after installing the appropriate certificate from the Public Beta website on an iOS device.

iOS 14.5 adds a new feature that allows you to unlock your iPhone with your Apple Watch when wearing a mask, eliminating the need to use a passcode to access an ‌iPhone‌ with Face ID when wearing a mask. Both iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4 are required to use this feature and you can sign up for them. It can be activated in the Settings app under Face ID & Passcode.

Dual-SIM 5G support is now available worldwide on iPhone 12 devices, so if you have more than one phone number associated with your ‌iPhone‌, both lines can now take advantage of 5G networks. Previously, Dual-SIM functionality was limited to LTE in all countries except China.

With iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4, AirPlay 2 support is available for Apple Fitness +, which allows a workout played on the iPhone or iPad to be played via AirPlay on an AirPlay 2 compatible smart TV or set-top box.

The latest PlayStation 5 DualSense and Xbox Series X controllers are compatible with the ‌iPhone‌ and the ‌iPad‌ after updating, and there is a new feature that allows Siri to make an emergency call for you.

iOS 14.5 includes a Waze-like crowdsourcing feature for reporting accidents, hazards, and speed traps along a route in Maps when requesting directions.

There is a new “Report” button available in the Apple Maps app that allows you to tap to report an accident, hazard or speed camera at your location in the Apple Maps app, a feature provided by the Waze map app. This is available directly on the ‌iPhone‌ and in CarPlay.

iOS and iPadOS 14.5 add a new feature to choose a default streaming music service to use with ‌ Siri. So, for example, if you prefer Spotify over Apple Music, you can now choose Spotify as the default app to use with ‌ Siri‌ and all ‌ Siri‌ song requests will go through Spotify without adding “on Spotify” to the end of ‌ Siri requests. add.

While not in the update yet, iOS 14.5 has code that suggests Apple is adding Family Sharing functionality to the Apple Card, allowing multiple users to share a single card. iOS 14.5 is the update where Apple officially enables App Tracking Transparency, so developers will need to request and obtain a user’s consent to track their activity on apps and websites for ad targeting purposes.

There are new emoji characters, new shortcuts, Apple Music tweaks and more, and a full list of changes in iOS 14.5 is available in our iOS 14.5 guide.

The iOS 14.5 beta fixes the green tint issue experienced by some PiPhone‌ owners, with Apple confirming that the beta has ‘optimizations’ to fix the issue.

“iOS and iPadOS 14.5 beta 2 includes an optimization to reduce the appearance of a faint glow that might appear at reduced brightness levels with black backgrounds,” read Apple’s iOS 14.5 beta notes.

Some iPhone 11 and iPhone 12‌ models show a gray or green glow when viewing black wallpapers, an issue Apple said it was investigating in November. For some users there are improvements thanks to the optimizations, but for others the problem still seems to exist so Apple may have a little more work to do.

Apple has said that iOS 14.5 will be released to the public in early spring, so we can expect the launch to take place sometime in March, with the spring season officially starting on March 20. Apple has also released a new beta of tvOS. 14.5 to 4th and 5th generation Apple TV users signed up for the public beta.