Apple iOS 16.4 Developer Beta Includes New Emojis, Online App Alerts, and Other Improvements

Apple has published the iOS 16.4 developer beta, which contains improvements to a number of its software products, including keyboards, MapKit, Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, Passkeys and Authentication Services, Pencil, Safari Web Extensions, SKAdNetwork, and StoreKit.

What are the new keyboard enhancements in the Apple iOS 16.4?

Support for the newest Unicode 15.0 Emoji, autocorrect for the Korean keyboard for testing and feedback, and predictive text support for the Ukrainian keyboard are among the new keyboard enhancements. Transliteration patterns will also be available for Gujarati, Punjabi, and Urdu. Unicode 15.0 is the most recent set of emojis, and it features a variety of intriguing symbols, such as a trembling face, a pink heart, a moose, a goose, a donkey, and many more.

Mapping and location-based service in the Apple iOS 16.4

MapKit's performance of MKOverlay objects has been improved, which should improve the user experience for people who utilise the mapping and location-based service.

Protection for iCloud

Apple has also devised a workaround for consumers experiencing troubles with Pages, Numbers, and Keynote when Advanced Data Protection for iCloud is enabled.

Passkeys and Authentication Services

Passkeys and Authentication Services get new features such as passkey AutoFill within web browsers on iOS, a new AuthorizationController API for SwiftUI views, and a new WebAuthenticationSession API for web-based authentication flows from SwiftUI views. Several issues related to AutoFill and conditional mediation requests in web content have also been fixed.

The Apple Pencil

The Apple Pencil has received support for Tilt and Azimuth through the hover feature, enhancing the functionality of the accessory.

Manual and automatic Software Update

Another critical update Apple brings is the availability of manual and automatic Software Update support for Matter Accessories. Apple has also introduced a new feature in iOS and iPadOS 16.4 beta where Apple Developer Program members can enable developer betas through the Settings app's Software Update option.

The modifyHeaders action type

The modifyHeaders action type has been introduced to Safari Web Extensions for declarativeNetRequest rules, persistent content scripts, and browser.storage.session to store up to 10MB of data in memory. The current release also addresses a previously reported problem in which browser.webNavigation events were fired for hosts to which the extension did not have access.