- iOS 18.2 is currently being tested by developers
- Numerous new features are being spotted
- Upgrades are coming to Find My and Camera Control
With iOS 18.1 now available to everyone, iOS 18.2 is at the developer beta stage – and as that testing continues we’re discovering more new features that are on the way, on top of the ones already spotted in the next release.
First up, there’s an interesting upgrade coming to the Find My service: the option to share the location of lost items with anyone you like (via 9to5Mac). At the moment, you can only share an AirTag location with trusted friends or family.
The example Apple gives is being able to share your lost luggage location with an airline, but there are a variety of other ways this could come in handy. There’s the option to stop sharing at any time, and at most the sharing link will only be live for several hours.
Another feature is a little more behind-the-scenes, with Apple giving app developers the opportunity to share what’s on screen with Siri (via MacRumors). That means you’ll be able to give Siri (and possibly ChatGPT) commands related to what you’re looking at inside an app, whether it’s documents or photos, if the developer adds this kind of support.
More camera control
iOS 18.2 beta 2 adds a new AE/AF Lock option for Camera Control pic.twitter.com/OTSYZjvJeQNovember 4, 2024
The third upgrade is to the new Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 series. As spotted by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris, a new auto-exposure and auto-focus lock option is on the way for the button – so the current exposure and focus settings would be fixed once the button is pushed.
On top of that, we’ve got a new double-click speed setting for Camera Control, so you’ll be able to change how rapidly your iPhone expects a double click. The new options listed in the iOS 18.2 developer beta are Default, Slow, and Slower.
All this adds to the current functionality of the Camera Control, including zoom and exposure settings. As this is a beta release though, we can’t be fully sure that any of these features are going to be kept once the software is pushed out for everyone.
The latest reports suggest that iOS 18.2 is going to roll out to the masses in the first week of December. We’re also going to get ChatGPT integration (including a Plus upgrade function) and image generation in this release, by the looks of it.