In a sure sign that we're getting into the short strokes before a public release, Apple has just pushed out the fourth developer betas and third public betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2.

These not only continue the near-weekly cycle of beta releases that lead up to a public release, but the same-day debut of a developer and public beta suggests that Apple is confident enough in the stability of iOS 18.2 to unleash it to a broader group of beta testers without the safety net of a more limited developer beta release (Apple typically releases developer betas 24-48 hours before public betas so it has time to deal with any show-stopping bugs that might appear).

Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), this also means there aren't too many big surprises in the latest betas. At this point, iOS 18.2 and the rest of the gang should be considered nearly feature-complete. The Apple Intelligence features slated for 2024 have all been there since the first developer-only betas landed in October, just before the public iOS 18.1 release, and later betas have been mostly minor adjustments to those.

Nevertheless, while iOS 18.2 will be most exciting for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 owners, who can take advantage of new Apple Intelligence toys like Image Playground and Genmoji, new features are also coming for all iOS 18-compatible iPhones.

While the latest iOS 18.2 beta is mostly about polishing things up at this stage, there are a few smaller changes that have already been reported:

More significant changes have unfolded over the last three betas, showing the arrival of the next phase of Apple Intelligence features for AI image generation and ChatGPT integration, as well as other new features like categories in Apple Mail, new Sudoku puzzles for Apple News+ subscribers, and the return of the volume slider when playing music from the Lock Screen.

The Camera Control on the iPhone 16 also gets the promised Visual Intelligence lookup features, the ability to lock autofocus and autoexposure with a light press, just like you can on most traditional DSLRs, plus a new setting that will let you launch your favorite camera app with a single press, even when the iPhone's screen is off.

You'll also be able to set default apps for email, messaging, calling, browsing, filling passwords, and contactless payments. Some of these were possible before, but iOS 18.2 unifies them into a single Default Apps section under Settings > Apps and adds new categories such as messaging, calling, and wallet apps. While there are no options available beyond Apple's own first-party apps, these will undoubtedly start to appear once iOS 18.2 has been released to the public and developers can make the necessary changes to show up here.