News: Apple Releases iOS 13.3 Public Beta 2 to Software Testers

Apple is often unpredictable when it comes to beta releases, especially with public betas. Developers receive their updates first, then public testers have to wait and see if Apple will do the same for us. Sometimes, the iPhone OEM makes us wait until the following day, but not with iOS 13.3 public beta 2. This update is now available to download and install.

Apple seeded 13.3 public beta 2 at 4 p.m. EST (1 p.m. PST), three hours after the release of 13.3 developer beta 2. Because of this delay, we do know much about what public beta 2 has in store. The answer? Not that much. Unfortunately, it appears 13.3 beta 2 is mostly a stability update, with virtually no new public-facing features or changes. It does confirm a new 13.3 in general, though — Safari now supports NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys. This feature was available in beta 1, but beta 2's release notes acknowledge it for the first time.

• Update: Apple's iOS 13.3 Public Beta 3 Now Available for iPhone

Unlike this release, the first beta for 13.3 brought a handful of goodies to the beta-testing table, such as a new Screen Time feature named "Communication Limits," making it easy to block alerts from contacts during certain timeframes. Also new was an option to disable Memoji stickers in Messages, and "View Album" changed to "Show Album" in Apple Music, with a new icon replacing the original arrow. The Watch logo changed to a grey crown instead of a black one, and Apple added an updated AirPods Pro icon in Find My. We also found the News app has "Thumps-Up" and "Thumbs-Down" buttons, as well as back-and-forth options for switching between pages.

Apple's release notes this time around are about as barebones as the update itself. Apple mentions new Networking and Safari features, the former of which really only applies to developers. You can see for yourself in the release notes below:

iOS & iPadOS 13.3 Beta 2 Release Notes

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

Overview

The iOS & iPadOS 13.3 SDK provides support for developing apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS & iPadOS 13.3. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 11.2 available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 11.2, see Xcode 11.2 Release Notes.

Networking - New Features

• Certain top-level domains (TLDs) such as .dev and .app are now in the Foundation URLSession and NSURLConnection HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) preload list. An app which uses URLSession to visit a matching URL will always navigate to the URL as https://, and never as cleartext http://. See the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) Specification for more information about HSTS. (56247242)

Safari - New Features

• Now supports NFC, USB, and Lightning FIDO2-compliant security keys in Safari, SFSafariViewController, and ASWebAuthenticationSession using the WebAuthn standard, on devices with the necessary hardware capabilities.

To download and install iOS 13.3 public beta 2, sign up through Apple's beta site, download and install the configuration profile, then update over the air. If you already have the profile, go to Settings –> General –> Software Update to begin the installation of the latest beta build, or you can wait until it installs automatically if "Automatic Updates" is enabled.