We’re far past the initial stages of iOS 14’s Beta testing since Apple released the iOS 14 Beta 4 yesterday. Things seem to have been settled down as most bugs that were introduced with the first Beta have been squashed and almost all the features that had been initially removed have been reinstated.
iOS 14 Beta 4 is the fourth iteration of the Beta testing phase of Apple’s latest operating system for iPhones and iPads. You need to have a developer profile installed in order to receive this update. Furthermore, you’ll need to visit the “Software Update” tab under General Settings within the Settings app on your device.
Note that this isn’t a Public Beta and that one will be released as soon as next week. That said, the last Beta — iOS 14 Beta 3 — launched with a bevy of bug fixes and improvements, including a controversial change in the Music app’s icon.
This week, with Apple releasing Beta 4, there are some welcome improvements. For one, 3D Touch has been reinstated after it was disabled in Beta 3 for some reason. Then, Apple has also finally added support for Exposure Notification APIs to work within iOS 14 Betas. Exposure Notification APIs were disabled since the first developer Beta that Apple launched minutes after the June WWDC event. Finally, there’s also a new Apple TV widget.
Apart from the highlights, like every other Beta release, iOS 14 Beta 4 also sports some under-the-radar improvements and changes. Here are all of them.
Of course, you can read Apple’s Beta Release Notes for iOS 14 Beta 4, but they often don’t cover every detail.
Note: These changes have been accumulated from different sources and aren’t necessarily found by us. A special thanks to EveryThingApplePro and thanks to everyone who unknowingly contributed. Keep refreshing this page as new items are being constantly added to the list. If anything remains left out or is incorrect, please let me know in the comments section below!
Here’s everything new with iOS 14 Developer Beta 4
- There’s a new widget for the TV app:
- Editing a widget changes the background hue to the associated app icon’s base color:
- 3D Touch has been reinstated.
- Support for Exposure Notification APIs, including a separate tab for Exposure Notifications in the Settings app.
- Weather icons inside the Weather app have been slightly tweaked. Particularly, the thunder glyphs have been moved beneath the cloud glyphs; the droplets within the rain icons have been limited, and the glyph for the Sun has been shifted to the opposite — to the right:
- The (+Add) button within playlists in the Music app has been updated to look more simple.
- The Music app now displays a checkmark instead of the text “Downloaded” on the top right corner when all the songs in a playlist have been downloaded to the device:
- The Weather widget layout has been slightly changed once again.
- The home screen glyph is now smaller while haptic touching an app icon.
- The back icon in the Settings app is slightly less intense.
- The icon for low brightness within the Wallpaper tab in the Settings app is tweaked.
- The Display Zoom preview now shows iOS 14 wallpapers as opposed to displaying outdated ones previously.
- Various elements within the zoomed interface are now properly aligned.
- The sequence of some Widgets including the Clock and News widgets in the widgets choosing screen on the home screen has been changed.
- Folder background is more responsive to the background wallpaper and adjusts its color based on the color in the background.
- The Widgets editing interface on the home screen is now much more refined and reliable.
- Search results within Spotlight search are presented better with icons, offering a less confusing way to navigate through the search results.
- New Splash screen within the Reminders app for when you open it the first time.
- The Flag icon within the Mail app while swiping left on an email has been reverted back to the orange background.
- The search bar within the Maps app is once again slimmer as it was in Beta 2.
- You can now “Report a concern” by haptic touching an article within the News app.
- The text “Learn more about Apple Watch” that shows when you don’t have an Apple Watch paired is now orange within the Watch app.
- The Chronograph Pro watch face now has white as the default color option instead of blue.
- The erroneous blue text within the Podcast settings in the Settings app has now been reverted to black.
- A lot of people are reporting performance improvements. In that, devices have gotten smoother. Of course, Safari has gotten snappier. 😉
- App Store will no longer randomly shut while using a third-party keyboard with Full Keyboard Access enabled.
- Section headers in the App Library are now correctly positioned for right-to-left languages.
- You can now once again access all the HomeKit accessories even while your device is locked.
- Mark Blocked Sender won’t disable repeatedly after each update within the Mail app.
- You can now let your 4th Gen 12.9-inch iPad Pro and 2nd Gen 11-inch iPad Pro automatically measure a person’s height using the Measure app potentially taking advantage of the LiDAR scanner.
- Pen tools will no longer randomly pop up while typing with an external Bluetooth keyboard on the iPad.
- FaceTime video will no longer pause after viewing it in Picture-in-Picture.
- The conditions displayed in the Weather widget will now match with those in the Weather app.
- The Weather widget will no longer randomly switch to displaying temperatures in Celsius even when set to Fahrenheit.
- The Shortcuts app has got a new 2x2 widget. Doesn’t work yet, though.
iOS 14 brought about a new home screen and introduced the App Library with an option to view apps in an alphabetically sorted list. It also allows you to add widgets right among your home screen app icons, making it easier to get insights within apps from the home screen itself.
Other important features introduced in iOS 14 involve support for third-party applications to be set as default, a new form of lightweight apps called App Clips, and extended Pencil-based scribbling features for the iPad.
iOS 14 is expected to launch to the masses alongside the iPhone 12 in September or October. As always, you can rely on us for unique coverage of these.
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