iOS 16 sees another beta release: Is this the preview of the final stable release?

iOS 16 gets to see an eighth version in beta ahead of the Apple September 7 launch. Know what all it brings.

iOS 16 reaches its eighth beta version ahead of the iPhone 14 launch event. (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

We got to see the first preview of the iOS 16 first at this year's Apple WWDC 22 event and ever since then, it is known that Apple wants to let you customise your iPhone further. A vastly customisable lockscreen is what most people are attracted to but there are more nifty features placed elsewhere to make the experience smoother. iOS 16 even brought back the battery percentage battery icon back to most of the modern iPhone models. Now, Apple has released an eighth version of iOS 16 to beta users.

The eighth beta version of iOS 16 brings a couple of refinements and bug fixes and so far, no major new changes have been observed. The iOS 16 beta 8 also offers certain optimisations to improve the performance as well as power efficiency figures. Since the iPhone 14 launch is not too far away, this could very well be the preview of the first stable release of iOS 16 that is expected to go live after the launch of the iPhone 14.

iOS 16 beta 8 comes out

Several reports also suggest that Apple is done with the iOS 16 release for now and the team is focusing on the iOS 16.1 release at the moment. No idea on what the iOS 16.1 version will bring to the table but we can expect to see some of the big feature releases that won't make it to the first release.

While iOS 16 is expected to see a release soon after the iPhone 14 launch, the iPadOS 16 is now said to see a delayed release. In fact, Apple in a media statement has hinted at a delayed release schedule of the iPadOS 16. And by the time Apple is done, it could directly release the iPadOS 16.1 to stable users instead of the iPadOS 16. The issue is said to appear with the Stage Manager feature on M1 powered iPad models, which is Apple's newest way to do multitasking with multiple apps.

Along with iOS 16, we could also expect to see watchOS 9 and macOS Ventura release within the early weeks of September 2022. iOS 16 will be compatible with iPhone 8, iPhone X and newer models. Sadly, the iPhone 7, iPhone 6S, and iPhone SE 1st Gen will miss out on this year's iOS update.