While iOS 16 is just around the corner, Apple is still releasing an update to iOS 15. iOS 16 will be announced at WWDC 2022 on June 6th. The WWDC 2022 event will be held online. You can watch the event live on Apple’s YouTube channel or Apple.com.
Apple has been releasing point updates to iOS 15, like iOS 15.1, iOS 15.2, iOS 15.3, iOS 15.3.1, iOS 15.4, iOS 15.4.1, iOS 15.4, and iOS 15.5, which brought new features and security patches. These updates were essential due to how buggy iOS 15 was. Now, we are expecting Apple to release the last point update to iOS 15.
Apple recently released the iOS 15.6 developer beta for iPhone and iPad, which gives us a preview of the next update. The public beta was released a day later. iOS 15.6 could be the last point update to iOS 15. iOS 15.6 will not be a major update like iOS 15.3 or 15.4.
Update 31/05/2022: Apple has released the iOS 15.6 Beta 2 to all developers. The build number is 19G5037d.
iOS 15.6 Features and Changes
Aaron from Zollotech has made a detailed video on iOS 15.6 beta 1. You can watch it from here.
As stated before, iOS 15.6 will be a minor update, more of a quality-of-life improvement update to iOS 15.4.1. Although the iOS 15.6 beta is out, Apple has not released a complete list of features in the release note. This means that developers have to find every new feature on their own.
The beta update is available to developers and the public via an over-the-air update in the Settings app. Head over to “Settings” >”General” > “Software Update” to download and install the iOS 15.6 beta update.
Some of the features of iOS 15.6 include accessibility features like the ability to hide the emoji search bar on your Apple keyboard and new visual changes to the Apple Wallet Account Card. There are more accessibility features within iOS 15.6, which could come to a stable release.
One thing to note is that iOS 15.6 is pretty buggy as of now. The app lock-up does not work very well. The battery life, too, is not great on iOS 15.6. It’s even worse on the iPadOS 15.6 beta. Issues regarding battery life can be really bad for many of us. However, this is just beta 1, and such problems are common. We hope that Apple fixes these issues soon.
The cellular data on iOS 15.6 works better than on iOS 15.5. You will witness faster download and upload speeds on both LTE and 5G. There have been no issues reported in regards to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity. They seem to work fine. The performance of iPhones and iPads has also been improved in iOS 15.6.
Should you install iOS 15.6 Beta 1?
Given the number of bugs and problems with the first beta release of iOS 15.6, we don’t recommend you install it. It’s not worth the number of issues, especially if you want to install the upcoming iOS 16 beta. However, if you are a developer or have a spare device and are enthusiastic about the update, you may install the beta.
As for beta 2, we may see the iOS 15.6 beta 2 by this week or before the announcement of iOS 16 at WWDC 2022.
Know issues: Xcode 13.4 cannot prepare iOS 15.6 beta devices for development.