What’s New in iOS 14.5 Beta [VIDEO]

Apple’s iOS 14.5 now makes it possible to unlock Face ID iPhones even with masks on.

Last year, when everyone started wearing masks, it became difficult to use Apple’s Face ID feature to unlock iPhones. The company made unlocking slightly faster by immediately bringing up the passcode screen when your iPhone detected you’re wearing a mask.

Now, it plans to let you unlock the phone with Face ID while wearing your mask — but you would need an Apple Watch. The new iOS 14.5 developer beta allows you to do that if you’re wearing an unlocked Apple Watch.

As long as the Watch itself is already unlocked, you’ll just need to look at your iPhone as usual; after that, you’ll get a haptic buzz on your wrist letting you know that the unlock was successful.

Here are a number of new features included in the iOS update beyond the aforementioned improvement, further detailed in the video below.

• Dual sim 5g now available.
• Redesigned library and search sections in Podcast app with new icons, new structuring.
• PS5 and Xbox Series X/S controller support.
• Apple Fitness+ now supports AirPlay 2 streaming.
• Privacy tracking requests now enforced with iOS 14.5.
• New sorting options for lists within Reminders.
• Apple News+ sorting redesign, magazines, and “For You” tab, new dedicated “Search” tab, new ordering for News widgets.
• New emergency alerts options in Notification settings.
• New notification for when your iPhone unlocks an Apple Watch.
• Smaller, redesigned Siri interface for messages and type to Siri, New Siri interface for locating friends on Find My.
• Apple Music – albums now display specific date they released, long song titles now cycle through while on Lock Screen music player, new “Made for You” section in the music library.
• Apple Maps – Maps collections interface revamped, new shortcuts interface during navigation, hidden “End” button, new “Add Stop” shortcut when navigating.
• Messages – “Send” button is now greyed out when no text is present.
• New splash screen for Screen Time when setting up iPhone.
• New “Checking for Update” interface in both Settings and Apple Watch.
• New navigation options icons in Watch app, “Discover” tab is now “App Store” in Watch app, new “Explorer” and “Hermés” watch faces.
• iPad boot and software update screens now properly oriented when in landscape mode, emoji search now available on iPad.
• Joint Apple Card account may be coming in future iOS 14.5 betas.
• Widespread “green tint” screens on iPhone 12 Pro Maxes could be fixed with this update.

Here’s a video that outlines all the changes present in the latest version of iOS:

Once developers test the betas, Apple will iron out any bugs and officially release the software to the public. That could happen in a matter of weeks.