Ten Takeaways from iOS 12 Beta

The public beta for iOS 12 is here! That means it’s time to dig in and talk shop. First things first, remember this is a beta, so don’t go installing it on your main phone. Grab an old iPad or something if you wanna try it out. That said, we’ve got a list of the top ten takeaways from the iOS 12 beta for those without a device to try it out with. From what’s awesome to what’s not, to what’s flat-out missing, we’ve got you covered. Alright, let’s get into it! 

The Good Stuff: 

Memoji 

Photo Credit: Mashable 

Let’s kick it off with some of the coolest features in the beta. The Memoji is available on iPhone X, and it’s great. It’s sort of like the Mii feature from Nintendo, where you can create a personal cartoon avatar. Then you can use that avatar in different apps to represent you, and you can type in to people in messages. It’s adorable, it’s meaningless and you know you want it. 

Animoji

Photo Credit: Refinery29 

On the topic of meaningless adorable emoji things, new Animoji are also available on iPhone X with this update. If you already didn’t love this feature, this isn’t going to blow you away. That said, if you liked it, there’s some new ones to play with soon! There’s a new koala, a tiger cub, a dinosaur and even a ghost! Kids, especially, will love this. 

Screen Time

Photo Credit: Apple 

This new feature aims to help you use your phone less. Screen time allows you to see how much time you’re spending on various apps, and you can even set time limits. If you want to create Downtime, as iOS 12 calls it, the phone discourages you from using apps at certain times. There’s also a new feature that allows parents to lock certain apps or time gate them for their kids. If your little one is staying up all night playing Fortnite, this is a great addition. 

The Changes: 

Notification Changes

Photo Credit: 9to5 Mac 

This one is a pretty great overall quality of life change. Now, like notifications will be grouped together, making it easier to parse what notifications you’re getting. This is great for cutting down on clutter. You can also mass-silence notifications of different type with a tap. More advanced Do Not Disturb options are also available for those who want to get picky with their notifications. 

Voice Memos App

Photo Credit: iTunes 

Some changes to the voice memos app are welcome. They include fast forwarding and rewind controls, which are great. They also added iCloud storage for your voice memos. If you use this fucntionality a lot, you’ll be really happy to see these changes. Nothing major, just great to see. 

Photos Search and Suggestions

Another general quality of life change, this beta has introduced new functionality to the Photos App. The first is a new photo suggestion mode that suggests which pictures you may like to share with others via social media. The other is a new suite of search terms to help find your pictures. If you use Instagram a lot and take tons of pictures, these are awesome new features! 

Group FaceTime

Photo Credit: AppleInsider 

FaceTime now supports up to 32 users at once. Awesome! It also now switches focus based on who’s talking which makes this great for meetings or more informal conversations. Speaking of informal, you can also add your Animoji or Memoji to these massive group conversations. Sounds chaotic, wacky and fantastic! 

What’s Missing?

ARKit 2

Photo Credit: Apple 

Apple’s big push for augmented reality isn’t present in the beta. While the Measure app uses the new augmented reality functions, other apps that do this already exist. We’ll have to wait until the third party apps that support the new ARKit ship when the OS launches. 

Siri Shortcuts

Photo Credit: 9to5 Mac 

This feature currently works haphazardly with a few different first-party apps. Third-party support for the new Siri functionality hasn’t launched yet, though. Creating your own shortcuts for Siri is likely to be one of the biggest draws to the new OS when it launches. Apple has been trying to keep up with Alexa and Google Assistant, but Siri has been lagging behind. Seeing these features aren’t ready for full beta-testing yet doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.  

What We Wanted in the iOS 12 Beta: Better Siri Overall 

Siri was the first virtual voice assistant, but she’s changed little since she launched seven years ago. When Siri launched, phones didn’t have biometric scanners and smart homes sounded like a sci-fi future. Apple hasn’t rolled out the kinds of changes to Siri we’d have liked to see in this beta. Hopefully they have more changes, and more uses, coming later in the beta. For now though, we’re disappointed to see this cutting edge company lagging behind in this field. 

Feature Image Credit: Apple