iOS 18.2 Beta 2: Features, Performance, and Battery Insights

iOS 18.2 beta 2 introduces valuable features like improved battery intelligence and Face ID trust for devices.

### iOS 18.2 Beta 2 Updates: Features, Performance, and User Feedback
* 📱 iOS 18.2 beta 2 has introduced various features, including **battery intelligence that predicts charging times**, which many users have been eagerly awaiting.
* 🔋 Users report mixed experiences with battery life, with some noting **improvements** while others still face issues like **excessive heat** during intensive tasks.
* 💻 The beta allows Face ID to be used for trusting a Mac or PC when connecting devices, **enhancing user convenience**.
* 📊 A recent YouTube Community poll with over 20,000 votes revealed diverse user experiences, highlighting both **stability improvements** and **lingering bugs**.
* 🚗 Apple is working to reintroduce the **blood oxygen sensor** on the Apple Watch, which has been **disabled since January last year**, amidst ongoing legal battles.
* 📧 New features in Mail include icons next to emails to indicate the **sender's company**, a change that aligns with **existing practices in other email apps**.
* 🎮 Apple Arcade has added new games like **Wheel of Fortune** and a **Veterans Day activity challenge** for Apple Watch users is set for **November 11th**.
* 🛠 The self-service repair program now includes parts for the iPhone 16 models, reflecting Apple's **commitment to user repairability and transparency**.

Hi everyone, Aaron here for Zotech, and iOS 18.2 beta 2 has been out for a few days, along with public beta 1 and iOS 18.1 released to the public well over a week ago. But there's even more features to talk about since the iOS 18.2 beta 2 is out. What's new video? We'll talk about some Apple news and also talk about the overall experience, not just my experience but your experience based off the YouTube Community poll, where at the time of this video, there's over 20,000 votes and 268 comments. I've gone through all the comments to determine what the overall experience is like for many of us, so be sure to stick around toward the end of the video as we go over a couple of those. Now, as far as the overall news this week, well, Apple is actually trying to get the Apple Watch to have the blood oxygen sensor in the US again. We lost it on newer watches as of about January last year, and it's not available on this.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 in Black titanium. So, some of the watches don't have it, but it looks like they're actually fighting back in court with Masimo to work on sort of getting this legally reestablished. It looks like they still have the sensors, possibly in the current Apple watches. They've just got the overall sensor disabled. So, hopefully, they can enable it in a future update. But the sensors that are already enabled never got disabled, as that's not part of the overall lawsuit. So, if you already have it, updating won't affect it whatsoever. But as of about January of this year, Apple disabled them on all of the ones being sold new in the store. Apple Arcade gained a few new games this week with Wheel of Fortune and a few others you'll see here. Wheel of Fortune, Daily Drive, Head Carcade, Texas Hold'em Poker, and Arkanoid vs. Space Invaders. So, those are available now if you subscribe to Apple Arcade. There's also a new Veterans Day activity challenge coming to the Apple Watch very soon on November 11th, and you can see that here.

listed on Mac Rumors. So, Veterans Day Apple Watch activity challenge is set for November 11th, and you can see a few different achievements here that you can get. So, if you want to earn these badges, they'll be available then. You just have to work out for 11 minutes or more to earn these. Apple today also released some new parts for self-service repair, specifically for the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro Models. So far, they hadn't made those available, and they're now available on their self-service repair website. So, if you want to go into iPhone, you can select your product, and you'll see the iPhone 16 models there. So, if you want to maybe replace your battery or display, they make the tools and parts available on their website to do that. I'll link this in the description below. Now, with Image Playground as part of Apple Intelligence, many people have been trying this out or waiting for access. Originally, there was supposed to be a couple of different styles: an illustration look, an animation look, and a sketch look. Apparently, there's no sketch look at

this time, and Apple may bring that back, may turn that on, or activate that. But if you go through the Apple intelligence look, you can see different views or versions that have the sketch look. So, they haven't really said it's not going to be brought back, but currently, it's not enabled. So, I thought I'd just mention that now. As far as new features this week in beta 2, well, there's a couple of things worth mentioning. You can actually now disable video looping in photos. So, if you're in a photo and you have a video and it's just looping on its own and you want to stop that, go into your settings, and at the bottom of settings, go to apps, then go down to photos, and under photos, scroll down until you get to Loop videos. If you want to keep them looping, leave it enabled. If you don't, disable it, and they'll no longer loop in the photos app. If you live in France, I'm hearing from a few different people on different carriers that RCS is now working with beta 2. I'm

not sure if everyone's having this, but quite a few people have messaged me saying that's enabled. So, let me know what carrier you have if you see RCS in your messages. Within mail, you'll see that we're starting to see the overall icons show up next to email. This just shows what company it is, and many different email apps already have this, and Apple is adding this with this update. This doesn't require Apple intelligence, but you can see that we have the Apple logo here, and some other companies are starting to show up. Not everyone yet, but it looks like we're going to have that. Some people, though, have wanted to disable this. iOS 18 introduced an all-new feature in accessibility for motion for vehicle motion cues. There's an update with this with beta 2. If I enable it, you'll see it's now in the dynamic Island, so they've moved it up there. We can turn it back to automatic, turn it back on, and you'll see it here. Press and hold, you'll see the different motion Q icons around here, and it really seems to

help me. I know it doesn't help everyone, but it definitely helps if someone else is driving. I'm looking at my phone. It reduces the overall feeling of nausea or anything else. It makes a big difference, at least for me. So now it's just in the dynamic Island. If you're downloading a file within Safari and you swipe home, it now goes into the dynamic Island. You can see it at the top here. I'm downloading a test file, and it just stays there until it's done. You can cancel it, of course, and then it will go away. At last, with iOS 18.2, it appears we're finally going to get some intelligence when it comes to the battery. We should know the overall charge time it will take to complete, whether that's to the 80% mark or whatever you've set, or to just full. We don't have that as a status on the lock screen or anywhere in the dynamic island or anything else, but it's something we've had for years on Pixel phones and other Android phones. If I

plug it into the Pixel 9 Pro XL. It actually tells me it will be fully charged by 8:00 p.m. It knows the status of the battery now and when it will be full. This is pretty basic. It works in all electric cars for the most part. Works in just about everything we have, even the Mac for the most part. So, it's something that we need on the iPhone. It makes sense, and hopefully, they don't limit it to something else. Many have been calling it battery intelligence. I think it's just battery in general, something we should have had all along. But this would be a feature that many people would think is fire. They would love it, and it's something that I think people would value. But again, it's something we've seen elsewhere for a long time. You can now use Face ID to trust a Mac or PC when you're plugging in your device instead of using a passcode. Plug it into your Mac or whatever you're using, and then it will ask you to trust it instead of having to

put in your passcode. It will just prompt you with Face ID and then verify. This is something that's working great in iOS 18.2. And if we go into messages, this is something very subtle but very nice. Within messages, if we press the plus button, the animation has been updated to be a little bit more whimsical. You can see it jump back into the plus. You'll see it here, sort of jumps back in. It just looks a little nicer. So whoever's working on animations, again, they're the team that really should be working on making everything look great because it looks phenomenal. All of the animations throughout, whether it's the flashlight or anything we're using in the European Union, it looks like iPad OS 18.2 is finally getting some updates such as iPhone is. So what that means is basically when you're selecting a browser for the first time, it's going to prompt you with a bunch of choices. This is part of the Digital Markets Act requirement, and Apple added this with iOS 18 with iPhone, but they're

apparently implementing it on the iPad very soon if they haven't already. So, I just wanted to make you aware of that. Also, iOS 18.2 code indicates that Apple is planning to implement the Siri onscreen awareness feature. Apple added a new API for developers to make onscreen content within their apps available to Siri using Apple intelligence in the future if the developer wants them to. So, that's something coming soon. We don't know if it's going to be in iOS 18.2 or not. If we go into our settings and then go to Apple intelligence and Siri or just Siri in general, when you go to the voice responses, it sounds like they've updated this to be a little bit different. Some people have said it sounds dramatically different in Australia. If we go in here, The colors of the sky fade with the setting sun. The colors of the sky fade with the setting sun. So, they've updated that. It sounds a little bit more real, but some people say with less emotion. So, let me know what you think if you're in a country where

you've changed those around what you think of the overall sound of those and to go along with notifications but mail specifically. If you go to your notification settings under mail itself, there's a new option for badges. So we had Banner style sound, now we have badges. So you can see that and show on Mac. So that's something that's been updated. A couple other things I wanted to mention before we talk about the next releases have to do with tvos. It looks like tvos 18.2 will finally contain the Snoopy screen savers they talked about at WWDC. So the code was found by aaronp613 on X. And also, it looks like we have 21 by 9 aspect ratio support for projectors in the latest update. So those things are coming soon when iOS or tvos 18.2 and iOS 18.2 launched to the public. As far as releases this week, well, there's a couple things that happened. Apple stopped signing iOS 18.01 and iOS 17.7. Now, unfortunately

it's difficult to downgrade to iOS 17 now. You still may be able to do it through 17.6 and then upgrade to 17.71, but Apple's not making it easily accessible as far as the files you need to do that. iOS 18.01 can no longer be downgraded to either, and that leads me to believe maybe we'll have an iOS 18.11 before the release of iOS 18.2 in December. So, maybe we'll have that within the next week or so. Typically, when they unsign something, it seems like within one to two weeks we have a new update, so that seems likely. And then iOS 18.2 beta 3 I would expect as soon as next Monday, given the tight response or release date. I would expect it basically next week, then the week after the RC on the 25th, and a final release on the 2nd. That's typically what we think is going to happen according to Mark Gurman, saying that the release date could come earlier this year when it comes to the overall.

experience well. iOS 18.1 definitely has some bugs. I'm hearing from many people that they're still experiencing touch bugs. Even if they have a screen protector on and they remove it, they still have those issues from time to time. I'm still seeing it in iOS 18.2 betas, so there's definitely an issue there. They didn't fix it with iOS 18.01 like they thought. We've also had a lot of other issues with maybe crashing and rebooting with iOS 18.1, but those should hopefully be fixed with iOS 18.2, as the experience seems to be improved. For example, Bluetooth seems greatly improved in the latest beta with public beta 1 or beta 2, whether that's with AirPods or HomePods or something else. And also, text-to-speech is much improved. So, if you're using text-to-speech, whether you're messaging someone or maybe recording a note, if we record a note using voice dictation, it seems to be much more accurate. But sometimes, it has this bug.

where it doesn't work, so we'll try it again. We'll see if it works now. If I'm talking and text-to-speech again, it's not working. But when it does work, it works great. I've run into this issue when I connect my AirPods, connect other Bluetooth headphones. Sometimes it just doesn't work properly. So if we close it, go back in, let's try it again and see if it works. And again, it's not working properly. I don't have anything set other than the iPhone, and there's definitely some issues here. So hopefully, they'll resolve this pretty quickly with the next beta. But the overall dictation seems to be much more accurate now. Supposedly, Apple has actually fixed battery life and improved heat, according to Mac Rumors and something they've seen. So they listed it on their website, and it looks like for some, that's the case. For me, battery's definitely improved. We'll talk about that more in a moment. And heat is as well, unless you're doing specific things. But when it comes to

bugs. Well, I've seen quite a few of them around. Air tags. Tracking not working. Also, things such as image playground. Maybe they got accepted to it, but now it won't work for them, or they have to wait again, or it's just not working properly. So, there's a few little bugs that typically seem to be around, maybe the new features of Apple intelligence, but those that are not running Apple intelligence seem to say it's much more stable and pretty great overall. So, definitely some odd issues here and there. When it comes to battery life, well, first, let's take a look at 18.1 and see how it's done now that it's been a couple of weeks. Thanks to Cameron for sending in his battery life. This is on iOS 18.1 on a 16 Pro Max with 100% battery health. He had 5 hours and 47 minutes of screen active time, 4 hours and 2 minutes of screen idle time. He used about 65 to 70% of its battery the next day, 4 hours and 18 minutes, and used

about 50 50% so it's pretty good overall. I've definitely seen better, and I think it's getting worse for some people, especially if you're using Apple intelligence with iOS 18.2 beta 2. I've been using it full-time on this device, and if we take a look at battery health, I have 100% with 43 cycles. You can see additional details here with coconut battery. And as far as the overall battery life, yesterday I had 3 hours and 31 minutes of screen active time, 6 hours of screen idle time, and used about 75% of my battery. The day before, again with 75%, I had almost 5 hours of screen active time. In general, it's actually getting me through the day much better than beta 1. I don't find that I need to charge it at night. And let's take a look at someone else's battery as well. This is from Lieutenant Chupy 75 on my Discord channel, and I'll link that in the description. But this is on an iPhone.

15 Pro with 92% battery health. They had 5 hours and 10 minutes of screen active time, 8 hours and 37 minutes of screen idle time, and used about, well, 150% of their battery. They had to charge to get that battery usage. If we take a look at the next day or the day before, 5 hours and 30 minutes, again using over 100%. And then again, 5 hours and 23 minutes. So, in general, it was using a lot of power for them, but that's what's going to happen with the latest version, especially once you enable Apple intelligence and some of those new features. As far as overall performance, they seem to be pretty good overall on older phones. If you first boot them up, it's going to be a little bit slow, but if you give them a little time, they seem to speed right up, no issues there. Things are fairly smooth overall, and many people have said that this smoothed out a lot of issues with this particular update. So, people that were having stuttering or slowdowns have

said that it's definitely much faster with 18.2 beta 2 now. As far as overall heat, well, this varies greatly depending on what you're doing. If I go into visual intelligence on my iPhone 16 Pro Max, maybe we'll search for this iPhone. Let's flip it over here. We'll search for it. This will heat up the phone in a huge way. So, we'll give it just a moment. You'll see we can report a concern. Maybe we'll ask chat GPT what this is again. We'll give it a moment. And my phone is already starting to heat up quite a bit. Sometimes it heats up so much that it's extremely hot. Now, I'm sure Apple's aware of this. It's okay. The processor is working, but it shouldn't get so hot that you can't touch it. So, it never seems to get to that point, but this definitely makes it hotter than I've seen before. So, again, let's bring this one in. We'll continue to use visual intelligence. It will scan the phone, and it gets it right.

with iPhone 11. But again, let's check the overall heat now and see what it's at. And on the 16 Pro Max that we just ran visual intelligence with 18.2 beta 2, we're at about 35.7 or maybe even 36° C on the 16 Pro Max running 18.1. At the hottest point, we're at about 28.1° C. So overall, 18.1 definitely seems to be handling heat better, unless again you're using Apple intelligence features. Otherwise, it seems to stay nice and cool if you're not using Apple intelligence. So that's definitely heating it up, using the neural engine. As far as overall benchmarks, well, I did run them on all these devices, so let's take a look. On the left, we have the iPhone 16 Pro Max with iOS 18.1. In the middle, we have iPhone 11 with iOS 18.2 beta 2 or public beta 1. And on the right, we have a 16 Pro Max again with the same version.

iOS 18.2 beta 2 overall results seem to be pretty good. Definitely the best overall, at least on the 18.1 public release, but pretty good in general on 18.2 as well. I actually got a little bit higher scores before when I ran this. You'll see, at least for multi-core, but single-core seems to be better this time around. So, it goes back and forth, but overall performance seems to be nice and smooth. Now, let's take a look at the comments and see what you had to say. Macky Roll said, iOS 18.1 on iPhone 15 Pro Max had a couple of issues immediately post-update, but they resolved themselves after about 40 minutes. Must have been a delay of some sort for functionality to return. Battery life is okay, but seems a bit worse compared to iOS 18.0.1. Master Graphics TM99 said, I'm on iOS 18.1, and battery life on my iPhone 13 is not perfect, but far from being bad. Yesterday, I had an issue where it drained 70% overnight when idle. I

rebooted the phone, and now it seems to be working properly. I also noticed that sometimes the phone gets warm for no reason. Marwan Universe said battery life on 18.2 beta 2 is not bad. I still think there can be some improvements to it in the future betas. Dave bunge 4101 18.2 PR, or I think public beta 1 on 15 Pro, no issues yet. Haven't had it long enough to tell about battery life. It seems that the Bluetooth connectivity issue with 18.1 has been fixed. I zervis says hi Aaron. I'm on iOS 18.2 beta 2 on my iPhone 15 Pro Max. It's been very smooth and fast for me so far. Battery life is great. Also, I live in Europe, and I've noticed that because of lacking Apple intelligence here, the phone's performance remains great, even better than iOS 18.01. F1 or 14 NN said iOS 18.2 beta 2 on my iPhone 15 Pro Max battery life is

okay, getting about 6 to 7 hours with 80% of use performance feels okay. But I actually hit the highest Geekbench scores I've ever had. Image creation features use a lot of power, and my device heats up a lot. So overall, it's okay. UFC fan 777 said, Updated my iPhone 15 Pro Max to iOS 18.2 beta 2. For me, it's a very smooth process. I had a lot of stutters and battery drain on beta 1. After updating, everything is fine again. No more stutters, and my battery life is completely fine again. So far, I'm very impressed. When it comes to overall storage, some people have been concerned about that. So if we go to General, and then we take a look at iPhone storage, scroll to the bottom, you'll see that iOS is using 18 GB. 3.62 GB is just Apple intelligence, so it is a large install. And when it comes to system data, well, it's cache, and it's going to go up and down. It actually explains it here where it sort of goes

up and down and uses it as needed, but in general, you'll see it change from time to time. Sometimes it uses less, sometimes it uses a lot more, and it seems to be glitching a little bit here and there for some reason. So, that's everything with iOS 18.2 beta 2 and public beta 1 and iOS 18.1. Hopefully, will be updated soon with iOS 18.1.1. Now, if you found additional features I haven't mentioned in this video, I'd love to hear from you in the comments below. And of course, I'll link this wallpaper in the description like I normally do. If you haven't subscribed already, though, please subscribe. And if you enjoyed the video, please give it a like. As always, thanks for watching. This is Aaron. I'll see you next time. [Music]

iOS 18.2 - At Last They Did It!

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Upcoming Features and Performance of iOS 18.

Apple is planning to implement the Siri onscreen awareness feature and has added a new API for developers to make onscreen content available to Siri.

The voice responses for Siri have been updated, with some users reporting a more realistic but less emotional tone.

Overall performance on older phones has improved, with users experiencing smoother operation and fewer bugs, while battery usage has been high for some users with the latest version.

2 beta 2 is improving, with 100% battery health and 43 cycles, while the user experiences better overall performance compared to beta 1.

New features in this update include the ability to disable video looping in the Photos app and the activation of RCS for some users in France.

Apple has also released new parts for self-service repair for the iPhone 16 and 16 Pro models, and the Veterans Day Apple Watch activity challenge is set for November 11th.

2 beta 2 is noticeably faster, but the phone's heat varies depending on usage, especially during intensive tasks like visual intelligence.

The update introduces file download progress in the dynamic island and aims to provide battery charge time intelligence.

There are some issues with dictation and Bluetooth connectivity, but overall, battery life and heat management have improved.

2 beta 3 is expected next week, with a final release planned for December 2nd.

2 beta 2 is showing improved performance and battery life on the iPhone 15 Pro Max, with issues from the previous version being fixed.

Apple Arcade has added new games, and a Veterans Day activity challenge is coming to the Apple Watch.

2 update will introduce Snoopy screen savers and 21 by 9 aspect ratio support for projectors.

Performance and Updates on iPhone 15 Pro Max

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is getting 6 to 7 hours of use with 80% performance, while also achieving high Geekbench scores.

2 beta 2 has resolved stutters and battery drain issues, leading to improved performance.

The device's storage usage shows 18 GB for iOS, with 3.

62 GB for Apple intelligence, and the update has also brought subtle animation enhancements and browser selection prompts in line with the Digital Markets Act.

2 beta 2 and public beta 1 have introduced several new features, including battery status updates and Face ID for trusting a Mac or PC.

Apple is also working to restore the blood oxygen sensor on newer Apple Watches and is adding company icons next to emails in the Mail app.

Additionally, the accessibility feature for vehicle motion cues has been updated and moved to the Dynamic Island.