News: Apple's First iOS 14.2 Beta for iPhone Developers Adds New Control Center Tile for Shazam Music Recognition

Apple released the first beta for iOS 14.2 to iPhone developers on Thursday, Sept. 17. A significant new feature that iOS 14.2 brings to the table is a new Control Center tile for Shazam music recognition. A simple tap of the tile will launch the operating system's built-in Shazam capabilities, scanning for music playing in the immediate area.

You'll also find an updated design for the Now Playing Control Center tile, alongside music suggestions when no song is currently playing. In addition, the Magnifier app now features a "People Detection" feature that can help those with vision issues identify how far away people in their space are.

• Update: Apple's iOS 14.2 Developer Beta 2 for iPhone Now Available

The update comes one day after the company seeded iOS 14 to the public. Apple released this new beta to developers just after 3 p.m. PDT and took the beta community off guard. The company's standard release time for developer software updates is 10 a.m. PDT. As for public beta testers, iOS 14.2 public beta 1 was released four days later on Sept. 21 at 10:30 a.m. PDT.

You didn't miss iOS 14.1, by the way — iOS 14.2 is the first beta following iOS 14. Why Apple skipped iOS 14.1 is unclear. It's possible the company is saving 14.1 as a public release to fix some outstanding bugs and issues with iOS 14 or to add a feature that they meant for iOS 14.0 but wasn't ready in time.

iOS & iPadOS 14.2 Beta Release Notes

Update your apps to use new features, and test your apps against API changes.

Overview

The iOS & iPadOS 14.2 SDK provides support to develop apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS & iPadOS 14.2. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 12.2 beta 2, available from Beta Software Downloads. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 12.2, see Xcode 12.2 Beta Release Notes.

General: Known Issue

• iPad (8th Generation) isn't currently supported in iOS & iPadOS 14.2 beta. Support will be added next week.
• Apps built with the iOS 14 SDK that import SwiftUI and StoreKit in the same file will crash on launch. Attempting to build with the iOS 14.2 SDK will result in an error. (69094398)

Apple Pay: Known Issue

• Apple Cash Family isn't currently available in iOS & iPadOS 14.2 beta. (68740022)

Messages: Known Issue

• You currently can't use Siri to send audio messages. (67725415)

Networking: Known Issue

• Your app might quit unexpectedly if it uses ASIHTTPRequest. (68370078)

To update your iPhone to iOS 14.2 dev beta 1, you'll need to be a registered developer. You can use the restore image for your iPhone available in the Developer portal (install with iTunes or Finder) or install the configuration profile, then update over the air. If you already have the profile installed on your iPhone, head over to Settings –> General –> Software Update to start installing the latest beta build, or you can wait until it installs automatically if "Automatic Updates" is enabled.