Here’s what’s new in iOS 14 beta 4

The third developer beta of iOS 14 brought with it a few different changes and new additions. The fourth beta is doing the same.

On Tuesday, Apple seeded the fourth betas of iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 to developers. The company will continue to release these versions of the prerelease software throughout the year, ironing out the kinks and issues, improving the overall experience, and bringing new elements to the mobile operating system along the way. All of this is leading to the public launch which will happen sometime this fall.

So, here’s what’s new in this latest beta.

iOS 14 beta 4 new additions

The return of 3D Touch

  • Interestingly, in the third developer beta of iOS 14 Apple removed support for 3D Touch altogether. But that wrong has been righted now, with Apple bringing back the feature as of the fourth developer beta. While the feature might be removed in subsequent betas, it’s not likely Apple is removing 3D Touch for good and it will be in the final, public version of the mobile operating system when it launches this fall.

Changes for Apple TV app

  • You can see the new widget for the Apple TV app just above (via 9to5Mac). Apple teased this widget during its all-online Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this year, but it has been missing in the previous betas. With the fourth developer beta, Apple has added the new widget, which offers a much more robust view of content available to watch on Apple TV+ and via Apple TV Channels, films, and TV shows. It can also be resized into three options.

Exposure Notification arrives

  • Apple launched its Exposure Notification API, which it worked on in a partnership with Google, with the public launch of iOS 13.5 earlier this year. However, the API was not present in the previous versions of iOS 14’s beta. Now, in the fourth beta, the Exposure Notification support is now present, which means both developers and public beta testers (when the corresponding public beta arrives) using iOS 14 can access contact tracing apps if they are available in their regions.

Improvements to search results

  • During WWDC this year, Apple promised that the search function within iOS 14 is getting overhauled with major improvements. However, in early betas, that did not appear to be the case. And, in some instances, iOS 14 search appeared to be worse than the current and public versions of iOS 13. However, the improvements are finally here. As you can see in the image just above (shared by Federico Viticci), the search function will now show a more robust result. You’ll get Siri Knowledge, apps (if possible), Siri suggestions, and more. “Search in Apps” is still available at the bottom as well.

If any other additional changes are discovered in the fourth beta of iOS 14, we will update this post accordingly.

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