iOS 18.2 Public Beta 3 brings more than just AI to your iPhone

Apple has released the third public beta of iOS 18.2 on November 20, the same day the company released the fourth developer beta of the software. The beta will be released about a month after Apple releases iOS 18.1 to the general public. While iOS 18.1 brought a few new features and fixes to all iPhones, and a few Apple Intelligence features to others, the latest beta brings more AI features to some developers and beta testers. There are also a few new features and upgrades in the beta that aren’t part of Apple Intelligence, so everyone can access them.

Read more: An expert guide to iOS 18

Since this is a beta version, I recommend only downloading it on something other than your primary device. Because this is not the final version of iOS 18.2, the update may contain bugs and battery life may be short. So it is best to keep these issues on a secondary device.

Please note that the beta version is not the final version of iOS 18.2, so more features may appear on your iPhone when iOS 18.2 is released. There’s no word yet on when Apple will release iOS 18.2 to the public.

Here are some of the features that could soon arrive on your iPhone with iOS 18.2. As a reminder, for now only developers and beta testers with an iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max, or the iPhone 16 series can access the AI ​​features. If you have another iPhone, you won’t have access to these features.

Find my improvements

The Find My app can be used to locate things like your AirPods and MacBook, and with the iOS 18.2 beta, Apple is making it easy for anyone to get help finding lost items. In the beta, if you go into it Find My > Items and tap on one of your items, you have two new options: Share item location And Show contact details.

If you enable Share item locationFind My creates a link that you can share with others so they can notify you if they find your lost or missing item. This can be especially useful as we head into the holidays, as more and more people travel and lose luggage at airports or leave items behind. However, these links expire after a week, which may not be enough time to find them.

Turning on Show Contact Info allows others to connect to lost items so they can find ways to contact you and return your item.

New email categories

The Mail app on every iPhone is also getting an upgrade in the iOS 18.2 beta. Apple announced in September that Mail would soon be able to sort emails into multiple categories to keep your important emails in one place and ads or promotions in another, like Gmail and Outlook do. The new layout ensures that everything remains largely tidy, but Mail doesn’t always get it right. For example, I found an email for digital tickets that I had previously ordered in the Promotions category instead of the Primary category.

You don’t have to use the new layout if you don’t want to. To reset your email layout, go to Mail and tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner and tap List view.

The volume slider is back on your lock screen

Apple previously removed the volume slider on the iPhone’s lock screen. You could still use the volume buttons on the side of your iPhone, but they weren’t as precise as the slider. However, with the iOS 18.2 beta, you can add the slider back to your lock screen.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio & visual and tap the switch next to Always show volume control. Whether you’re listening to a podcast or music from one of Apple’s apps or a third-party app, the volume slider is present on your lock screen.

iPhone speaker volume limit

If you have kids who like to play games or watch videos on their iPhones and they turn up the music at full volume, it could damage their device’s speakers – not to mention it could be annoying for you. The iOS 18.2 beta lets you set a maximum volume limit on your or your child’s iPhone.

Go to to set a limit Settings > Sounds & haptics > Volume limit and tap the switch next to Limit the maximum volume. A scale will appear and you can select what you want as your limit. Apple does note that this limit doesn’t apply to things like phone calls, FaceTime calls, emergency calls, or Find My Sounds.

Genmoji

There are more than 3,000 emojis you can use, but sometimes you can’t find the emoji you really want. Genmoji is here to help. The Apple Intelligence Genmoji feature lets you describe the emoji you’re looking for and iPhones with Apple Intelligence will attempt to generate a new emoji based on your description.

To use Genmoji, go to a message and tap the emoji keyboard in the bottom left corner of your keyboard. Then type the emoji you are looking for in the search bar. If there are no emoji that match your description, tap Create a new emoji just below the search bar. Your iPhone will then show you a few examples of what it came up with based on your description. You can swipe through the emoji and when you find a Genmoji you like, tap Add in the top right corner to permanently add that new emoji to your keyboard.

Visual intelligence

This is Apple’s answer to Google Lens. Visual Intelligence is an Apple Intelligence feature that lets you point your camera at something, like a dog, and your iPhone then uses the photo to search online to help you identify it. The feature can also be used to detect phone numbers to create contacts, scan QR codes and translate languages.

You can also integrate this feature with ChatGPT to help you identify items and help you better understand what’s on a page or screen. It’s important to note that you don’t need a ChatGPT account to use the integration.

This feature is also only available on the iPhone 16 series as it uses the series’ new side camera control button. If you have one of the new iPhones, long-press the new side button where the SIM tray used to be to quickly open Visual Intelligence.

“Camera controls provide instant, easy access to the camera with just one click. You can adjust various camera features with the simple swipe of your finger,” Apple said at its “Glowtime” event in September. “The handy design ensures that it is always within reach.”

Image Playground

This Apple Intelligence feature takes Genmoji one step further and lets you create entire images from text prompts, called Image Playground. This feature is a standalone app and can also be found in Messages by tapping the plus sign (+) to the left of your text box.

Image Playground is filled with quick suggestions, themes, places and more to get you started. You can enter multiple prompts to make the image more specific, but when I entered seven prompts a pop-up appeared telling me to use fewer. There is also an option to change the art style from the standard cartoonish 3D images to illustrations.

If you would like to include yourself, friends and family, or your pet in one of these images, you can. Tap the plus sign (+) in the bottom right corner, then tap either one Choose Photo or Take a photo. You will still have to choose or enter a prompt next to the photo.

The feature can create some simple images, and it can be unintentionally funny because other images are weird. In one case, I selected the prompts astronaut, artist, and lighthouse. One of the results showed what I can only describe as half a stronaut, leaning on an easel surrounded by rafters opposite another easel with a drawing of a lighthouse on it. Stellar work.

You can also draw a sketch in Notes, select your sketch and use it with Visual Playground. That way you can clean up your sketch, or if you’re not an artist (like me), you can use the feature to flesh out your sketch.

Read more: Apple Intelligence’s new notification summary feature may be absurdly wrong

Glowing Siri and ChatGPT

Apple announced at WWDC in May that its virtual assistant Siri would soon enter a “new era” thanks to improvements to Apple Intelligence. With the iOS 18.2 beta, Apple is bringing most of these improvements to some iPhones.

With Apple Intelligence, you won’t see a logo appear on your screen when you activate Siri, but you will see a glowing light around your screen. You can use Siri as you normally would, and you can also use ChatGPT for your questions.

I asked Siri to use ChatGPT to show me how to brew a cup of coffee, and the company wrote out a seven-step process for brewing drip coffee in a standard coffee maker. The instructions were a little clunky and told me to measure out my water and coffee grounds before grinding my coffee beans. At the bottom of these ChatGPT requests is a disclaimer that reads: “Please check important information for errors.”

You can also copy what Siri and ChatGPT show you by tapping a button in the top right corner of the window that shows two pieces of paper. You can then paste this into a message or note if you wish, but again, you will need to verify the details of your request.

Requires Screen-to-camera switch

If you have iPhone 16 series phones, you have the Camera Control button. You’ll need to press this twice to open your camera when your screen is sleeping or inactive, but Apple introduced a new toggle in the iOS 18.2 public beta so you can press the Camera Control once to open your camera , even when your screen is off.

To do this, go to Settings > Display & brightness and tap the switch next to Requires screen on to disable the function. Now if you press Camera Controls while your screen is off, your iPhone will open your camera without a second press. However, it can also lead to you accidentally opening your camera more often.

These are some of the new features that public beta testers can try out with the third public beta of iOS 18.2. There will likely be more beta releases before this version of the operating system is released to the public, so Apple still has plenty of time to change these features. At this point, there’s no word yet on when Apple will release iOS 18.2 to the general public, but… Apple said this in October that more Apple Intelligence features will be released in December.

For more information about iOS, read my iOS 18 review, what you need to know about iOS 18.1, and our iOS 18 cheat sheet.

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