Apple Releases First Public Beta of iOS 16.1 With Clean Energy Charging, Live Activities and More

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 16.1 update to public beta testers, opening up the beta testing process to the general public. Today’s beta comes one day after Apple provided the beta to developers.

Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s free beta testing program can download the ‌iOS 16.1‌ beta over the air after installing the proper certificate from the Public Beta website.

Apple says that iOS 16.1 will introduce Live Activities, an interactive notification feature designed to let you keep an eye on things happening in real time. Live Activities will be available on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island, but you won’t see them in the beta because developers are still working on implementing support.

The update includes a Clean Energy Charging feature in the United States that causes the iPhone to selectively charge at times when lower carbon emission electricity is available, plus it lays the groundwork for Matter, a smart home standard that Apple plans to begin supporting this fall.

Other new features include a deletable Wallet app, changes to the Lock Screen customizing interface, and more, with details available in our iOS 16.1 feature guide. Apple has also seeded a new public beta of iPadOS 16.1.