It looks like Apple might be getting its much-anticipated Group FaceTime feature underway sooner than expected.
Just two days after releasing the first developer beta for iOS 12.1, Apple has now made its public beta of iOS 12.1 available, as well as tvOS 12.1. The latest betas comes with a few notable changes.
Following Group FaceTime’s being pulled from iOS 12, it’s now back in the latest beta. Apple has stated that the feature would ship “later this fall,” but it’s resurfaced in both the public and developer betas for iOS 12.1.
As noted by Steve Troughton-Smith, other changes include landscape orientation for Face ID (could be iPad only) and support for clickable thumb sticks on MFi gamepads.
Apple has offered the following release notes:
OVERVIEW
The iOS 12.1 beta SDK provides support for developing iOS apps for iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch devices running iOS 12.1. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 10.1 available from the Apple Developer Program download page. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 10.1, see Xcode Release Notes.
General
There are no notes or known issues for this software update.
New in iOS 12.1:
Group FaceTime is back in beta
In short, if you’re hankering for Group FaceTime, it might come a little sooner than expected following its removal.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.