As promised earlier today, Apple has released the first iOS 11.3 developer beta loaded with new features for iPhone and iPad. A free public beta version will be available in the future.

Apple previewed several new features this morning including:

  • 4 new Animoji on iPhone X: Lion, Skull, Bear, and and Dragon
  • ARKit 1.5 with support for vertical surfaces like walls, irregular shaped surfaces like circular tables, support for auto-focus, and 50% higher resolution
  • Business Chat for iMessage in beta with Discover, Hilton, Lowe’s and Wells Fargo on board
  • Health Records in Health app automatically updated from select partners
  • More prominent music video features in Apple Music
  • HomeKit software authentication without chip certification
  • Advanced Mobile Location for sending your location to emergency services when calling from iPhone

Apple has also promised new battery features on iPhones affected by performance throttling, although these won’t be in the initial beta.

A toggle to disable performance throttling on affected iPhones with older batteries will be in a future beta next month, and battery health stats will be added as well.

As always, we’ll dig in to the new beta and update with any other changes we unpack. Stay tuned.

🚨 Ah! Messages in the Cloud is available in beta! 🚨

  • New privacy page during setup (photo incoming) and a new Privacy icon in Settings (gray becomes blue)
  • Splash screen for Messages in the Cloud, backup can be disabled in Settings
  • iBooks is now just Books
  • App Store lists version number and update size on Updates screen
  • App Store following text size
  • Hello, Feedback app…
  • Apple TV shows up in Home app with tvOS 11.3, doesn’t work as hub for automation and remote access without tvOS 11.3 on iOS 11.3, AirPlay 2 also working
  • New ‘Confirm with Side Button’ prompt for purchases on iPhone X:

@_inside new in iOS 11.3. Confirm with side button. pic.twitter.com/u7vvdRFEA2

— 🇬🇭Jerry Sarpong (@jerryluti) January 24, 2018

Notes and Known Issues

3rd Party Apps

New Issues

  • Skype may crash on launch or after sign-in. (36501124)

ARKit

Resolved Issues

  • Continuing from a breakpoint while debugging an ARSession no longer results in VIO breaking. Visual objects placed in the world/anchor are now visible. (31561202)

Foundation

Known Issues

  • Clients of NSURLSessionStreamTask that use a non-secure connection fail to connect when an error occurs during PAC file evaluation and the system is configured for either Web Proxy Auto Discovery (WPAD) or Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC). A PAC evaluation failure can occur when the PAC file contains invalid JavaScript or the HTTP host serving the PAC file is unreachable. (33609198)

Workaround: Use startSecureConnection to establish a secure connection. Health

  • In beta 1, Health Record accounts and data are not synced to Health in iCloud. This results in data from the device not syncing to other devices. (35431094)

Workaround: Remove and then add the iCloud account on the upgraded device to restore Health data.

Maps

  • Maps may crash when tapping the “Destinations” UI while connected to CarPlay. (34862998)

Workaround: Either use Siri voice input to start navigation or start navigation on the device before connecting to CarPlay.

MediaPlayer

  • The start Item property of MPMusicPlayerMediaItemQueueDescriptorAPI is ignored resulting in the first song in a list being played for any request. (33567879)

Messages

  • Some Messages threads may take longer to load than expected. (35394897)

Mobile Device Management

New Features

Added new configuration settings for device management. For details of the new settings, see the Configuration Profile Reference and the MDM Protocol Reference.

  • Delay the ability to see and install iOS updates for up to 90 days.
  • Disable USB Restricted Mode.
  • Enable and disable Bluetooth if the Bluetooth settings are not restricted.
  • Find information for an installed app including update availability, if it is assigned to the device or the user, and if the source of the app is the App Store, an Enterprise app, or a beta.
  • Arrange WebClips to the Home Screen Layout payload.
  • Skip the Proximity Setup screen on first reboot after using the EraseDevice command.
  • Skip the Privacy screen during setup.
  • Require teacher permission for a student to leave an unmanaged class in Classroom.
  • Restrict the Apple TVs the Remote app can connect to.
  • Reinstall deleted system apps with the InstallApplication command.

Safari

  • WebApps saved to the home screen and webpages in SafariViewController can now use the camera to capture images. (35542231)

Single Sign On

  • Background tasks now correctly authenticate in an app that uses Kerberos for single sign- on. (36301557)

Siri

  • Siri control of AirPlay 2 isn’t enabled in iOS 11.3 beta 1. (36551796)

Vision

  • Facial landmarks identified by the Vision framework may flicker in temporal use cases such as video. (32406440)

Xcode

  • Debugging a disabled Messages extension may cause Messages to crash. (33657938)

Workaround: Before starting the debug session, enable the extension by tapping the More (…) button to show the list of apps, then tapping the Edit button, and then tapping the switch to turn on the extension.

  • After a simulated iOS device starts up, it’s not possible to pull down the Lock screen. (33274699)

Workaround: Lock and unlock the simulated device and then reopen Home screen.