iOS 16.5 Beta 3: A Look at Your iPhone’s Potential New Features – CNET [CNET]

April 29, 2023 Zachary McAuliffe technology

Nothing is guaranteed, but if you want to be a beta tester, sign up now to test out the latest features.

Zachary McAuliffe Staff writer

Zach began writing for CNET in November, 2021 after writing for a broadcast news station in his hometown, Cincinnati, for five years. You can usually find him reading and drinking coffee or watching a TV series with his wife and their dog.

Expertise Web hosting, operating systems, applications and software Credentials

Apple software beta tester, “Helps make our computers and phones work!” – Zach’s grandparents

Apple released the third beta version of iOS 16.5 on Thursday. The update, rolling out to Public Beta users as well as developers, brings more improvements to the OS, along with a sports feature.

The tech giant released the second beta version of iOS 16.5 less than a week after it pushed out an important security update with iOS 16.4.1 on April 7. Both iOS 16.5 beta versions brought smaller, more incremental changes to beta testers’ iPhones. Based off what I’ve seen in these betas, iOS 16.5 will probably bring small tweaks to iPhone features compared to the host of changes that hit iPhones with iOS 16.4.

New iOS features can be fun, but we recommend downloading a beta only on a device other than your primary phone, just in case the new software causes problems. Apple also provides beta testers with an app called Feedback, which they can use to notify the company about any issues in the new software. That way, problems can be addressed before general release.

Here are the new features beta testers can try now with iOS 16.5 beta 3.

Apple News gets a Sports tab

The Apple News app launched in 2015, and the first iOS 16.5 beta brought a Sports tab to the app for the first time. The tab can be found in the toolbar across the bottom of your screen when you open the app. Before, the toolbar displayed tabs for Today, News Plus, Audio, Following and Search. The iOS 16.5 beta 1 got rid of the Search tab to make room for the Sports tab.

Ask Siri to start a screen recording

With iOS 16.5 beta 1, you could ask Siri to start a screen recording for you. Prior to that beta, you had to go to add the screen recording tool to your Control Center, then turn on the tool manually. Now asking Siri could save you time, since you won’t have to edit out the beginning and end of your videos where you turn the recording on and off.

There’s no word on when iOS 16.5 will be released to the general public. There’s also no guarantee these beta features will be released with iOS 16.5, or that these will be the only features to come out with the update.

For more, check out the important security fixes in iOS 16.4.1, what you may have missed with iOS 16.4 and how to become an Apple beta tester so you can try out new iOS features before others.