Second betas of iOS and iPadOS 18.5, macOS 15.5, watchOS 11.5, tvOS 18.5 and visionOS 2.5 are out

By TheBlindGuy07, 15 April, 2025

Forum
Apple Beta Releases

So we can all post our findings here.

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Comments

By Seamus on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 04:10

I’m not sure if this is a glitch, however, VoiceOver says quick NAV on or quick NAV off after going into a text field. I am not using an external keyboard. also, there is a very weird glitch when VoiceOver says that the text field is editing, but there is no keyboard on the screen. In fact, I had to completely restart my iPhone just so I can use the keyboard again.

By Seamus on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 04:10

I’m not sure if this is a glitch, however, VoiceOver says quick NAV on or quick NAV off after going into a text field. I am not using an external keyboard. also, there is a very weird glitch when VoiceOver says that the text field is editing, but there is no keyboard on the screen. In fact, I had to completely restart my iPhone just so I can use the keyboard again.

By Sebby on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 09:10

Getting consistent and reliable reports, but have not yet seen it for myself, that iOS 18.5 PB2 (recently released) hides the onscreen keyboard, unless the Braille option to Show On-Screen Keyboard is set. This is utterly weird, but if you do update and your keyboard is not there, despite you having no display connected at the time, that's why! Set the option and it reappears.

By Lee on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 10:10

I recently put up a post regarding the find my app and the fact I could not set up a tag using VoiceOver because when it came to choosing an emoji I got Emoji keyboard hidden and there was no way to activate it. Wonder if this was the issue mentioned in the post above. If so then this is 18.4. Can't prove this now because got sighted help and all set up but interesting if so.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 14:10

I wonder if the chatgpt website bug on safari on 15.4 has been solved on 15.5? I'll install the update on my second mac partition today.

By sechaba on Tuesday, April 15, 2025 - 17:10

Thank you for the heads-up to enable show onscreen keyboard in the braille settings.

By TheBlindGuy07 on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 03:10

So for this chatgpt bug with 15.4, on 15.5 beta 2 as long as we refresh the page after the final output is written we can read the output. For me it's frustrating for sure but way less bothering than before where it was simply impossible to read on safari with it. Plus refreshing the page is something common I'm used to do even on windows as well because because of teh generation speed and / or maybe with screen readers trying to follow everything the output sometimes gets partially trimmed. But I'll still consider this bug as being active.

By Amir Soleimani on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 05:10

@Sebby Yes, I'm facing the mentioned issue with the 2nd beta. Strange indeed.

By Lee on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 10:10

Well, just downloaded the public beta of 18.5 and so far it seems that the bug where notifications were being cut off when the locked screen was on is fixed. When they come through now vo is reading the full notification before locking again.

By Holger Fiallo on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 11:10

The beta is letter F. Next week it might another beta unless apple wait for 2 weeks release. Thanks for all for testing. Only have a primary phone so can not do beta testing. Will wait for the RC.

By SeasonKing on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 13:10

Not sure if anyone observed, but, on latest public release, I am observing that VO pronounces certain characters be it on keyboard or while reading character by character too loudly and completely out of tune with other letters. Mostly i've seen this with alphabets I and A, may be E as well.
I am using some US Siriri voice, style is set to default.
Does this persist on latest beta release as well?

By Lee on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 13:10

Just noticed on this beta now I get extra info when entering a password it tells you as you type how many characters you have entered. Also, on entering text you now seem to get extra sounds. Haven't checked but guess you could turn them off. Bit strange at first.

By Oliver on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 - 13:10

I've just emailed apple accessibility on the chat GPT issue but I'm just on the public release. Glad to hear it's sort of working again in the future.

I'm kinda furious they broke it. No doubt they'll come back and say it's down to the web developers to code specifically for safari or some rubbish..

Resorted to creating an app with edge and using that instead which, to be honest, isn't a great deal better. General web navigation seems a bit wonky.

Anyone know if we can downgrade easily?

By Joshua on Thursday, April 17, 2025 - 01:10

to downgrade you need to use a windows or mac with itunes or finder to downgrade to the stable version of IOS

By Blindxp on Thursday, April 17, 2025 - 09:10

One thing I hope comes to iOS, eventually, is the ability to downgrade through iOS itself, without the need for a computer.

I know this exists for the Google pixel android beta program, because I’ve done it before. So maybe one day Apple might introduce that as an option.

Question for people who use other android devices that aren’t Google pixels. I know beta programs exist for some, if not most android manufacturers out there. But is it essentially the same method to downgrade for those devices like it is for Google pixels?

Also good to hear the chat GPT bugg is, kind of, fixed. Wish it was completely resolved though.

By J.P. on Friday, April 18, 2025 - 00:10

The onscreen keyboard being turned off by default is very problematic. I did find the toggle in braille, but this has even bigger implications.
I had issues with the latest 18.5 PB release, and had to do a complete restore of my phone. The keyboard is turned off by default at setup. I think it was the third screen after entering country and language that you must turn it on within an Accessibility settings link. This is absurd and completely bad accessibility implementation for Apple. The keyboard should be on by default, with option to turn off. The user has to login to AppleID and network when there’s not another Apple device that you are transferring from.
I did report in the feedback assistant, but this is disappointing. Wanted to give a heads up to those restoring their device.