Apple Releases iOS 15 Beta 2 for Developers, Includes 'SharePlay' Feature for Sharing Music & Videos on FaceTime

Apple released the second beta for iOS 15 on Thursday, June 24. The update includes FaceTime's "SharePlay" feature for the first time, a new Maps icon, updates to Focus mode, in addition to many other changes and bug fixes.

SharePlay, one of iOS 15's most ambitious new features, lets you share content from your iPhone to other people on a FaceTime call. For example, during a FaceTime call, you can open the Music app and tap the "Share 'Music'' pop-up to begin sharing your tunes with your friends. Likewise, open the TV app and tap "Share 'TV'," and you'll be able to share your movies and TV shows with your contacts.

The Health App now lets you set up iOS 15's new "Walking Steadiness" feature, which analyzes your walking to warn you of a potential fall, as well as guide you on ways to improve your steadiness. Health Sharing is also now active, so you can share your health information from the Health app with friends and family.

Here are some other new features Apple added with beta 2:

• New Maps icon
• Updated Focus mode window when long-pressing the Control Center icon
• New splash screen when you open Weather for the first time
• New splash screen when you open Notes for the first time
• When you select a wallpaper to test, you now see a "Loading" pop-up
• AirPods settings icon in Accessibility now reflects AirPods Max, instead of AirPods Pro
• New "Follow iPhone" option for Spatial Audio with AirPods Max and AirPods Pro
• Memoji now have updated features like hats, eyewear, etc.
• "IP Address Location Settings" now feature "Maintain General Location" and "Use Country and Time Zone" options
• New "Receive What's On Screen" option in Shortcuts
• Apple omitted the "Lossless audio" option for HomePod mini in the Home app, since lossless audio isn't available just yet

The update comes 17 days after Apple released the first beta for iOS 15. As with beta 1, beta 2 is only for developers — Apple confirmed that the iOS 15 public beta will hit the scene sometime in July, but we don't have a set date yet. Until then, public testers will just have to wait, or beta test iOS 14.7.

iOS & iPadOS 15 Beta 2 Release Notes

Overview

• The iOS & iPadOS 15 SDK provides support to develop apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 2. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 13 beta, available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 13, see Xcode 13 Beta Release Notes.

General: Known Issues

• Finder might become unresponsive when installing iOS 15 beta using Restore Images. (78834202) Workaround: Install Device Support for iOS 15 beta, available from Beta Software Downloads
• iPadOS 15 beta 2 isn't available for iPad Pro (9.7 inch) (WiFi + Cellular). (79629736)

App Store: New Features

• The jws instance properties on Transaction and renewalInfo are now jwsRepresentation. (78734829)
• The request(with:) type method on Product has been renamed to products(for:). (79410910)
• The listener type properties on Transaction, Product.SubscriptionInfo.Status and Storefront are now updates. The nested AsyncSequence conforming structures are now Transactions, Statuses, and Storefronts respectively. Both TransactionSequence and TransactionListener are now Transactions. (79034347)
• StoreKitError.userDidNotAuthenticate is no longer available; use StoreKitError.userCancelled instead. (78270199)
• Subscription renewals aren't automatically pushed to your app through the StoreKit 2 APIs in the App Store sandbox environment. Transaction and renewal information may not be immediately available. (78463355)

App Store: Known Issues

• Purchases made using the Sandbox environment return VerificationResult.unverified(_:). (79053760)
• Subscription renewals aren't automatically pushed to your app through the StoreKit 2 APIs in the App Store sandbox environment. Transaction and renewal information may not be available immediately. (78463355)
• When testing interrupted in-app purchases in the App Store sandbox environment, you can't agree to the Terms & Conditions prompt. (79153177)

App Store: Resolved

• Fixed an issue in client apps that used the status listener and didn't recieve status updates. Changing the Product.SubscriptionInfo.Status of a subscription now correctly invokes the listener. (78375457)
• Fixed an issue that occurred when calling latest(for:) on Transaction, or accessing the latestTransaction property on a Product value, the method called didn't return the latest Transaction for the given productID. (78466898)

Authentication Services: Known Issues

• allowedCredentials isn't respected. (79221358)
• Passkeys are unavailable in Simulator. (79358627)

AVFoundation: New Features

• iPadOS apps can now continue using the camera while presenting multiple windows and being the only application on screen. (77522226)

AVFoundation: Known Issues

• You can call and build against the new AV Control API; however, the User Interface of the resulting call isn't functional. (79160982)

AVFoundation: Deprecations

• recommendedVideoSettings(forVideoCodecType:assetWriterOutputFileType:) now returns nullable NSDictionary, id> instead of nullable NSDictionary * in Objective-C and String: Any? instead of AnyHashable: Any? in Swift. (33784279)
• cgImageRepresentation() and previewCGImageRepresentation() now returns CGImage? instead of Unmanaged? in Swift. (44734827)
• recommendedAudioSettingsForAssetWriter(writingTo:) now returns nullable NSDictionary, id> instead of nullable NSDictionary * in Objective-C and String: Any? instead of AnyHashable: Any? in Swift. (50450334)

Camera: Known Issues

• Live Text might be unavailable. (79693579)
• Panorama mode might produce unexpected results if Low Power mode is enabled. (79424047)

CarPlay: Known Issues

• When sharing your screen in a SharePlay session, connecting your phone to CarPlay might fail. (76385907) Workaround: Stop screen sharing before connecting your phone to CarPlay.

CarPlay: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused Mute and Route Overview buttons to not appear in certain vehicles. (78223409)
• Fixed an issue that caused Siri to dismiss unexpectedly when invoking Siri after an announcement completes, but before the banner has dismissed. (78412579)
• Resolved an issue that caused an announcement request to end unexpectedly and leave the banner onscreen. (78118849)

Core Graphics: Resolved

• Fixed images or thumbnails that exhibited an unexpected black or white grid overlay. (77994242)

Create ML: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that made MLStyleTransfer model assets unavailable for download. (78126303)

Debugging: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that crashed processes in libdispatch when running apps with the LIBDISPATCHCOOPERATIVEPOOL_STRICT environment variable set to 1. (78177966, 78184764)

FaceTime: Resolved

• Fixed spatial panning of audio in Group FaceTime calls; it now initiates when starting a call. (78537333)
• Fixed an issue that appeared when using the rear camera; the zoom level indicator didn't reflect the actual zoom level. (75041234)
• Fixed the outcome of tapping the Portrait effect button during a Group FaceTime call. Your video no longer zooms unexpectedly. (78062565)
• Fixed an issue that caused FaceTime to become unresponsive when starting a FaceTime call with a contact name that contained non-roman characters. (78742488)

Files: Known Issues

• Files might quit unexpectedly if you choose Open in New Window for a file. (79449679)
• Duplicating files on certain USB drives might fail, incorrectly alerting there isn't enough free space available. (78785200)

Find My: Known Issues

• Notify When Left Behind isn't supported for Intel-based Mac computers or Apple Watch. (79188374)
• Text indicating the Find My network is active when your iOS device needs to be charged only displays if the device language is set to English. (78547946)

Fonts: Known Issues

• Some text might render illegibly in PDF documents. (79370423)

Focus: Known Issues

• You're unable to switch to a Focus other than Do Not Disturb using Siri. (78263540)
• Autoreply doesn't work. (77510470)

Focus: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused searching for a location to fail to return results. (75850587)

Foundation: Resolved

• Fixed an issue in NSAttributedString and AttributedString that caused the system to throw an exception when parsing Markdown that contained tables that didn't explicitly specify table alignments. (77476077)
• Fixed an issue with english pronouns, both traditional and specified via Morphology.CustomPronoun, that didn't contribute to inflection. (77621682)

Guided Access: Known Issues

• When using Guided Access with VoiceOver, you might be unable to enter the Guided Access passcode to end Guided Access. (79370792) Workaround: If a device passcode is set, force restart your device to end Guided Access.

Guided Access: Resolved

• Resolved an issue with Guided Access that caused it to fail to start after tapping the start button. (78229283)
• Fixed an issue that caused Phone to quit unexpectedly when making outgoing calls while Guided Access was active. (78474289)

Health: Known Issues

• You can only share Health data with up to three people, and receive Health data from up to three people. (77534149)

Health: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that required you to open Health to receive sharing invitations. (74996608)
• Fixed an issue that caused a delay after you tapped Stop Sharing. (77030574)
• Fixed an issue that caused an error when you attempted to share Health data. (78508260)
• Fixed an issue that caused shared Health data to appear to go missing for a particular person. (77943795)
• Fixed an issue that caused you to receive an error when attempting to set up Health Sharing. (78007265)
• Fixed an issue that produced unexpected results when you received Health data from two people with the same first name. (78520265)

Home: Known Issues

• The API to connect a Matter accessory with a third-party home hub isn't currently available. (79729460)
• You can't pair with Matter accessories that use Thread. (74458377)
• Thread accessories might not use Thread following initial setup and instead use Bluetooth LE. (79214660) Workaround: Move the accessory near the home hub, then toggle the accessory state several times.
• Matter accessories might enter a "No Response" state after pairing. (76019163) Workaround: Remove the accessory from Home, reset the accessory, and add it back to Home. If the issue persists, reboot your Home hub. If the issue persists, remove your Home hub from Home and re-add it. If the issue persists, remove the home and create a new one.
• The initial pairing attempt with a Matter accessory might take an unexpectedly long time and eventually fail. (77967587) Workaround: Retry pairing the accessory.
• You can pair up to five Matter accessories in a home. (77967671)
• Only the owner of a home, not an invited user, can pair Matter accessories. (76012945)
• You might stop receiving notifications from Matter accessories. (77514813) Workaround: Restart your device.
• Thread accessories in an existing home might fall back to Bluetooth if you create a new home with the same iCloud account. (78129824) Workaround: Remove affected Thread accessories from the home and re-add them.

Home: Resolved

• Removed the "Package Detection" switch in camera settings when it's not available. (78020938)
• Fixed an issue that prevented you from creating additional HomePod alarms in Home. (78279213)

Home Screen: Known Issues

• The widget gallery might display the wrong widget category after selecting a category from the side bar. (78882533) Workaround: Dismiss and reopen the widget gallery.
• Home Screen might quit unexpectedly when dragging a widget from the widget gallery. (79360336)
• Large pinned favorite widgets in iPadOS 14 don't migrate correctly to iPadOS 15 beta. (78419030) Workaround: Re-add your pinned widget to the Home Screen using the widget gallery in Edit Mode.
• After canceling a search in the widget gallery, the cancel button remains visible which might blank out the widget gallery. (78572049) Workaround: Dismiss and reopen the widget gallery.

Home Screen: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused the entire App Library to be dismissed when swiping up in App Library search or an expanded category. (75298316)
• Fixed an issue that caused unexpected layouts when dragging widgets on the Home Screen in iPadOS. (78461690)
• Fixed an issue that resulted in no space between small widgets in the Today overlay. (78476875)
• Fixed section headers in App Library search to properly fade while scrolling. (78028831)
• Fixed an issue that caused Separator lines between sections in App Library search to be missing. (78251426)
• Fixed Screen Time indicators adjacent to app icons on the Home Screen to be the correct color. (76013929)
• Fixed an issue that caused Home Screen pages to appear in an unexpected order after moving a page to become the last page while a Focus was active. (78426963)

iCloud: Known Issues

• When you decline a recovery contact invitation, you might see a message indicating you accepted the invitation. The invitation isn't accepted, it's declined as intended. (79401130)
• The network location that iCloud Private Relay provides to websites might be less precise than expected. Update the IP geo-databases for servers you operate to obtain the correct location information. (77291090)
• During development, iCloud Private Relay falls back to a direct connection if traffic can't be routed privately. (78433904)

iCloud: Resolved

• Made iCloud Private Relay settings available. (78603429, 78287769)
• Fixed an issue that required all devices signed into your iCloud account to be running iOS 15 beta or macOS Monterey 12 beta to set up an Account Recovery contact. (78401415)
• Resolved an issue that failed to send an invitation when setting up an Account Recovery contact using a phone number. (78483506)
• Resolved an issue that caused iCloud Private Relay to function unexpectedly. (78516754)

Keyboard: Resolved

• Resolved unexpected behavior of keyboardLayoutGuide when rotating while the keyboard wasn't on-screen. (78593028)
• Fixed the iPadOS keyboard shortcut menu appearances. It now appears every time you hold down the Command key. (74902281)

Language & Region: Known Issues

• Certain languages might display unlocalized text. (79373100)

Logging: Known Issues

• For every process crash, iOS generates two crash logs. (76650102)

Mail: Resolved

• Fixed the document scanner to function as expected. (77522226)
• Fixed an issue that caused swiping down on the title bar of an email to save a draft locally, but it didn't sync it with other devices. (77525588)
• Fixed an issue that failed to add the attachment to the new message when you chose to reply or compose a new message with an attachment you opened in Quick Look. (77721532)

Maps: Deprecations

• MKPinAnnotationView and MapPin are marked as deprecated in this beta. (78536295)

Maps: Known Issues

• Scrolling the Reports view might produce unexpected results. (78823129)

Nearby Interaction: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused an error during the creation of NINearbyAccessoryConfiguration when using configuration data provided by an accessory. (78430145)

Networking: Deprecations

• Support for cleartext HTTP URL schemes for Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) is now deprecated. Use only HTTPS URL schemes for PAC. This affects all PAC configurations including, but not limited to, configurations set via Settings, System Preferences, profiles, and URLSession APIs such as connectionProxyDictionary, and CFNetworkExecuteProxyAutoConfigurationURL(::::). If you configure a cleartext HTTP PAC URL, the system may upgrade it to HTTPS during PAC file loads. Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) Protocol via DNS isn't affected. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Option 252 WPAD may attempt to upgrade cleartext HTTP URLs to HTTPS during PAC file loads. (61981845)

Notes: Resolved

• Fixed sharing to Messages via Quick Note, it correctly presents a visible Send button. (75712983)

Photos: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused "Shared with You" to appear even when the Automatic Sharing switch in Messages was turned off. (78181276)
• Fixed an issue that made sharing unavailable in Memories. (78163273)

Privacy: Known Issues

• Record App Activity logs might contain duplicate entries for the same access. (77168882)
• Record App Activity defaults to off after a software update or restore from backup. (77466774)
• Resolved in iOS & iPadOS 15 beta 2
• Fixed Reset Location and Privacy that didn't clear Record App Activity logs. (76568242)
• Fixed Record App Activity log timestamps that didn't accurately reflect timezone changes. (78278614)
• Fixed Record App Activity logging for link previews for an app network connection that were incorrectly attributed to Safari. (77288250)
• Fixed an issue that didn't ask you to confirm deleting recorded data when you turned off Record App Activity. (76404276)

Reality Composer: Known Issues

• You might be unable to create new projects in Reality Composer. (79418400) Workaround: Create a new project in Reality Composer on macOS and transfer the .rcproject file to your device via AirDrop or Mail.

Safari: Resolved

• Fixed an issue with Safari that didn't load websites as expected when Hide IP address from Trackers was on. (78529425)
• Fixed an issue that caused Safari to quit unexpectedly when tapping the search bar. (78582318)

Setup Assistant: Known Issues

• Previously known Wi-Fi networks might be unexpectedly lost. (79368806) Workaround: Rejoin the network and try again.

Schoolwork: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused an error when opening a document in Schoolwork. (77528937)

SharePlay: Known Issues

• SharePlay might appear unavailable. (79306972) Workaround: Sign out of FaceTime, and then sign in again.
• Media audio volume might be unexpectedly high while speaking during a call. (77856932)
• Shared activity might not start if the activity metadata is larger than 27KB. (78776780)
• If you leave and then rejoin a SharePlay session, you might not rejoin at the same point in playback. (79431429) Workaround: End, and then restart playback for all participants.
• SharePlay performance might be affected if a session has more than five participants. (79466576)
• When ending a screen sharing experience, FaceTime audio and video might lose synchronization. (79106154) Workaround: Toggle the microphone off then on.
• If you start a SharePlay session on your Apple TV, the confirmation request might not appear on your iOS device. (79425227) Workaround: Unpair your iOS device from your Apple TV, then pair it again.
• Notifications received while sharing your display will be visible to other SharePlay participants. (79456016) Workaround: Enable Do Not Disturb during the SharePlay session.
• On some devices, the FaceTime camera turns off when a screen sharing session begins. (78620351)
• Playback might not resume on your iOS device after ending playback on Apple TV. (79456371)
• The AirPlay device list on iOS can't be used to bring SharePlay content back from tvOS. (77996544) Workaround: Use Control Center on tvOS.
• Sending SharePlay content to Apple TV doesn't work if the iOS device isn't PIN-paired. (76149579) Workaround: Pair the iOS device with Apple TV using a PIN before transferring SharePlay content to Apple TV.

ShazamKit: Known Issues

• Media items added to the default instance of SHMediaLibrary don't appear in Shazam. (77785557) Workaround: Touch and hold the Music Recognition Control Center module to view SHMediaLibrary contents.

ShazamKit: Resolved

• Fixed an issue with the availablity of the songs property. (78589271)

Shortcuts: Resolved

• Fixed drag-and-drop in the Shortcuts editor; it now works reliably. (77395180)
• Resolved unexpected behavior of variable entry in text fields in the editor. (78119853)

Siri: Known Issues

• On-device speech recognition only supports the following languages: Chinese (Mandarin - China mainland), English (Australia), English (Canada), English (United Kingdom), and English (US). (78483609)

Siri: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused Siri to incorrectly handle follow-up requests for new announce notification types. (78177497)

Sleep: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused your Apple Watch to enter Sleep Lock when Wind Down began. It now waits until the start of Bedtime to enter Sleep Lock. (77529487)

Software Update: Known Issues

• You might be unable to update your device using Software Update if less than 500 MB of storage is available. (78474912)

Swift: Known Issues

• The async Task APIs in macOS, watchOS, and tvOS differ from the async Task APIs in iOS. As a result, Task API calls on Actor objects in multi-platform projects may cause async functions to hang at a suspension point. (79378627)

SwiftUI: New Features

• You can now initialize Text with a FormatStyle. (72159423)
• While searching, if you tap a suggestion that uses the searchCompletion(_:) modifier, the suggestion list now disappears rather than displaying the single suggestion you selected. (76965399)
• Customize the prompt of a search field that a searchable modifier configures using the prompt parameter instead of the previous title parameter. (77988967)
• SwiftUI now supports textSelection modifiers. (77827592)

SwiftUI: Known Issues

• You can't push to a third screen after popping from a third screen in the navigation stack. (79076444)
• If you create a Text view from an AttributedString that contains a morphology attribute and then interpolate the Text view inside a LocalizedStringKey, the attributes of the AttributedString don't affect the displayed text. (78914478)

For example:

• Text("\(Text(attributedString)) friend(s)")
• AsyncImage in List sometimes cancels image downloads prematurely. (78187465)
• Providing a binding to an OutlineGroup might require including wrappedValue in the init(_:children:content:) key path parameter, and isn't available in iOS and iPadOS 14 and earlier. (77890799)
• BorderlessButtonMenuStyle and BorderedButtonMenuStyle aren't available as static members. Syntax such as .menuStyle(.button) doesn't compile. (78606888) Workaround: Provide the initialized style type instead. For example, menuStyle(BorderlessButtonMenuStyle()).
• Focusing a view in a newly added List row using FocusState requires deferring the update to the focus state property to the next time the main runloop runs. (78607356)
• LocationButton might draw incorrectly when customized via SwiftUI. (79370118)

SwiftUI: Resolved

• Push to detail in collapsed multi-column navigation view now works to arbitrary depth. (77919440)
• Fixed an issue that caused a TextField in a ForEach to update the incorrect text binding. (78168257)
• Fixed an issue that caused a List to incorrectly apply safeAreaInset(edge:alignment:spacing:content:). (76889711)
• Fixed an issue that caused an exception using the underline color attribute of an AttributedString in AppKit and UIKit. (78409689)
• Fixed an issue that caused a ToolbarItem with keyboard placement to not appear if the toolbar modifier was on the root view of an app. (77936794)
• Buttons in toolbar items now respect custom styles or customizations to their labels. Buttons within navigationBarItems(leading:) have improved spacing, hit testing, and default hover effects. (77303539)

SwiftUI: Deprecations

• The Function (Fn) shortcut modifier is deprecated and reserved for system usage. (78627099)

Third-Party Apps: Known Issues

• Third-party apps might not open after restoring a device from a local backup, where the Apple ID of the host differs from that of the device. (77336986) Workaround: Restart your device.

Third-Party Apps: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that prevented selection of Voice Isolation or Wide Spectrum mic modes for some apps. (78534920)

Translation: Known Issues

• System-wide translation sends requests to the server, even if On-Device Mode is on. (75374469)

UIKit: Known Issues

• Collapsing the hardware keyboard shortcut bar doesn't properly invoke leading and trailing edge changes for UIKeyboardLayoutGuide. (74440016)

UIKit: Resolved

• Fixed UIKit text views such as UITextView and UILabel to correctly render text styles (bold, italic, code, and strikethrough) when rendering Markdown. (74107883)
• Fixed the availability of UISheetPresentationController property on UIViewController. (77943286)

Ultra Wideband

UIKit: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused ranging to produce unexpected results. (78168600)

Weather: Resolved

• Fixed an issue that caused unexpected precipitation notifications to appear. (77269918)

WebKit: Resolved

• Fixed ASAuthorizationSecurityKeyPublicKeyCredentialAssertionRequest to correctly provide ASAuthorizationSecurityKeyPublicKeyCredentialAssertion. (76554090)

Xcode: Known Issues

• MusicKit functionality, such as loading content with music requests, doesn't work in simulated devices. (78559381)

Xcode: Resolved

• Fixed apps authored by Interface Builder to correctly display CLLocationButton. (78186685)
• Fixed an issue with apps localized using older localization codes such as English or using a common variant code such as ko_KR that broke CLLocationButton with textual labels. (78268837)

How to Download & Install the Latest iOS 15 Beta on Your iPhone

You'll need an Apple developer account to update your iPhone. You can get the restore image from your dev portal, then install it with iTunes or Finder. Otherwise, install the configuration profile, then update by going to Settings –> General –> Software Update. Finally, you can simply wait for it to auto-install if you have a dev profile and "Automatic Updates" is enabled.

Cover image by Apple