Developers received a big batch of updates this morning as Apple dropped the third set of betas of its upcoming software updates for iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS.
iOS 11.4 beta 3 was made available to developers today, bringing a host of bug fixes and performance improvements to the iPhone and iPad. The new update adds a number of features that were missing from iOS 11.3 while also adding some crucial new goodies.
Registered developers can grab the third betas of iOS 11.4, macOS 10.13.5, watchOS 4.3.1 and tvOS 11.4 from Apple’s online developer portal. iOS 11.4 beta 3 can also be installed via an over-the-air update if you have the previous beta installed.
What’s inside iOS 11.4
The marquee features of iOS 11.4 so far are AirPlay 2, Messages on iCloud and ClassKit.
AirPlay 2 lets you stream the same audio to HomePod and Apple TV and should enable you to play music in stereo with two HomePods, if Apple can get that worked out. Messages on iCloud saves you space on your iOS devices by stashing your texts in the cloud. The ClassKit framework, which Apple unveiled at its educational event last month, gives developers powerful new tools for creating school apps.
While iOS 11.4 adds a number of features to iPhone and iPad, Apple also had to pull some features from the last update. The last beta removed the option for stereo pairing of the HomePod in Home app.
