Ahead of the upcoming public beta, Apple has released the third developer beta for iPadOS 18. Here’s the changes that have been noted so far:

More (Forced?) Dark Mode Icons

iPadOS 18 seems to be forcing Dark Mode on more simple app icons. At least, that what’s it seems like, there’s nothing mentioned in the release notes. I expect this will have the net effect of either encouraging app developers to update their icons to implement dark mode the way they want, or this automatic effect may be good enough that a developer wouldn’t have to bother doing it themselves.

Improved Dark Mode Maps Icon

The Maps icon has been steadily changing over the beta releases, and this version is more colorful and looks the nicest of the icons so far.

New Dynamic Wallpaper

The default collection of wallpapers adds a new dynamic variant. This wallpaper animates and changes colors throughout the day. You also have the option of different colored variants of the default wallpaper as well.

New Health App Lock Screen Widget

As part of the upcoming Vitals feature in Apple Health, there’s a new lock screen widget that show’s your overnight vitals information in small, medium, and large lock screen widget variants.

InSight in Available In the TV App

InSight, which is Apple’s version of Amazon’s X-Ray feature is live in Beta 3 for certain Apple TV + titles. This allows viewers to see information about the actors currently on screen, or songs currently playing. Tapping on one of the name cards searches the TV app for other content that actor appears in.

Leave a comment if you find things I’ve missed!