The wait is finally over! Apple kicks off the first public beta of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16. Yes, anyone can now taste the features of iOS 16. If you’re not a registered developer, then you can now join Apple’s public beta testing program and download the beta of the upcoming iOS 16 on your iPhone for free.
The first public beta of iOS 16 is based on the re-release of last week’s third developer beta build. Yes, Apple has also re-released the iOS 16 Developer Beta 3. It might be because to match both public beta and developer beta so that it can not affect upcoming betas. Read along to know more about the iOS 16 public beta update.
As the update is based on the revised last week’s developer beta, the latest public beta is labeled with the same build number available in the new dev beta 3 – 20A5312j (same for both iOS 16 and iPadOS 16). The iOS 16 public beta update size is big around 5GB. And if you’re running on the developer beta, then the revised Dev Beta 3 upgrade weighs around 1.09GB in size. However, if you’re upgrading from iOS 15.5, then it will require more data for downloading.


The first iOS 16 public beta build comes with all the features from the last three developer betas along with all the changes made in the revised build of developer beta 3. This includes new lock screen personalization in iOS 16. iPadOS 16 Public Beta also gets similar features (except for the lock screen personalization which is iOS 16 exclusive). You can check all the major changes from our Beta 1, Beta 2, and Beta 3 articles.
Now let’s see the latest changes that can be found in the iOS 16 public beta and revised Dev Beta 3.
- Full-size media widget now available for notification and lock screen (e.g. Album art with media control buttons)
- The Siri Call Hangup option has been removed (it might come back at a later update)
- Copying text from an image to another place is now possible as drag & drop, similar to how we can copy one object from an image to share it with others. However, it is not available to all users as of now.
- Multiple bug fixes
Since this is the first public beta, the main focus of this update is the bug fixes for public release.
If you have an eligible iPhone or iPad, then you can install the public beta profile to get the first iOS 16 Public Beta. If you are not sure whether your device is eligible or not, check out our detailed iOS 16 article. The process to get the iOS 16 Public Beta is the same as other major iOS releases. First, you need to download and install the public beta profile on your device from the official beta page and then check for the update by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Or you can install iOS 16 Beta using this guide.
Before you update your iPhone to iOS 16 Public Beta or iPad to iPadOS 16 Public Beta, make sure to take a full backup of your device so that if you want to revert to iOS 15, you can get your data back. Also, make sure you have enough space available on your device and it is charged enough.
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