Yesterday, Apple released the fifth developer beta for iOS 14. Included in this latest beta are targeted several new features for users, including an enhancement of the ability to hide specific photos in the Photos app. Watch our short hands-on video tutorial for the details.
What’s new in iOS 14 beta 5?
Hidden album in the Photos app can now be “hidden”
In iOS, users can stash selected photos in this album with the Hide option found in the sub-page. When you place a photo in the Hidden Photo Album, it will be removed from the previous library areas of the Photos app.
In earlier versions of iOS, the Hidden album would appear at the bottom of the Albums tab, making these photos relatively easy to spot. With this latest change in iOS 14 beta 5, hidden photos are still obscured by an option to hide the Hidden album as well. In Settings → Photos you will find a new button for Hidden Album that, if disabled, the hidden album will be removed from the Albums tab of the Photos app.
While this change is a nice addition to iOS 14, I think many users will appreciate more granular security options that revolve around using a password or Face ID. What do you think?
Video: iOS 14 beta 5 changes and features
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Time picker wheel comes back in hybrid form
Another change on the part of the users that people can be happy with is the return of the interface for time picker wheel. Until now, iOS 14 had abandoned the haptic feedback-enabled wheel interface for direct keyboard input.
In beta 5, both the direct input method and wheel style interfaces are combined into one, delivering the best of both worlds. Although I enjoy the hybrid setup, I found the tap targets for the wheel interface a bit too small. Hopefully Apple has solved this problem in an upcoming beta release.
Faster response time for background colors in the Music Nowing interface
As I noted in my hands-on walkthrough of 250+ iOS 14 features, the Music app has received a significant number of new updates and improvements. In the fifth iOS 14 beta, the Music app continues to get the attention of Apple engineers, with the Now Playing interface getting faster background color transitions when switching between tracks with different album artwork.
In addition to the three mentioned changes, you will also include the following changes and features in iOS 14 beta 5.
- Delete photos from the Featured Photos widget
- Extended News widget with trending topics in Today view
- Widgets request location access in 15-minute increments
- New exhibit notification onboarding
- Exposure notification alarms
- New keyboard shortcuts splash screen
- New keyboard shortcuts app icons
- Widgets blocked when parent app is blocked via Screen time
- Smells the folder
What do you think about iOS 14 beta 5? Sound off in the comments with your thoughts and observations.
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