iOS 11 Public Beta 1 After-1-Week Review. What’s new, missing, what’s working and still broken.
So finally Apple has released its iOS 11 to the public for testing purposes last Monday 26th June 2017. It was like one week ago at the time this article is written. Should you interested to try yourself iOS 11 Public Beta 1, do check here how you can install it on your iPhone and iOS devices legally for FREE.
From Apple iOS 11 tag line “A giant step for iPhone. A monumental leap for iPad.” We knew that the there’s plenty (humble way of saying tons) of new features coming to iOS 11. Here are those new features, tested on Public Beta 1, where based on my testing this past 1 week I found some are working good while some are buggy and even some existing features are missing.
Currently I’m overseas with limited Internet access, sorry but I can’t post with so many pictures now. Going to update them soon once I have a good internet connection.
Here are list of iOS 11 new features that’s working good on the iOS 11 Public Beta 1:
1. New Control center
How you can find/use it: Just swipe up from bottom of your iOS screen.
I do expect to be able to move icons around like when you arrange your iOS apps and games, however there’s really no way to move around those icons from the Control Center window directly. Even you can’t add/remove icons from Control Center window. You can add/remove icons and arrange them, only via Settings. Under Settings > Control Center > Customize Control. Currently there’s only a few icon selections. Not sure whether Apple will add more things in the future and will open it to 3rd party apps.
2. New AppStore and iTunes icons
How you can find/use it: Easy peasy. Just look for AppStore and iTunes new icons on your home screen. Special for AppStore, not only its icon changing to a new look, the AppStore itself is getting a fresh redesign. Now it looks more like Apple News.
3. One Handed keyboard.
How you can find/use it: Activate One Handed Keyboard via Settings. Do check here how to find and use iOS built-in One Handed keyboard in details.
4. Built-in iOS Screen Recording.
How you can find/use it: Add the Screen Recording to Control Center and switch it ON via Control Center to start screen recording. Do check here how to set it up and use iOS built-in screen recorder in details.
5. Shortcut to switch ON/OFF Mobile/Cellular Data.
How you can find/use it: Activate Control Center then tap on the mobile data icon to turn it ON/OFF. Do check here how to use shortcut to switch your iOS mobile data ON and OFF in details.
6. Shortcut to switch ON/OFF Low Power Mode.
How you can find/use it: Add the Low Power Mode to Control Center and switch it ON via Control Center to enable Low Power Mode. Do check here how to find and use shortcut to switch ON and OFF the Low Power Mode in details.
7. New Shutdown menu your iPhone/iOS device.
How you can find/use it: Open Settings > General > Shut down. Do check here how to find and use new shutdown menu on iOS 11 in details.
8. New way to scan, capture and translate QRCode on iPhone/iOS device.
How you can find/use it: Open camera and point it to QR code. Do check here how to scan, capture and translate QRCode on iOS 11 in details.
9. 3G/LTE Signal now becomes bar
How you can find/use it: Just spot it on the upper-left side of your iPhone or cellular-iPad screen.
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Here are list of iOS 11 new features that’s still broken, not working properly and/or missing on the iOS 11 Public Beta 1:
Should you tried iOS Public Beta 1 and encounter broken/buggy features like what I listed below, try to do a restart and see if after restart it’s working fine. For most of the cases, it’s working fine for me after restarting.
1. Offload apps
Is it me being dumb or because the Offloading feature is not yet introduced in iOS 11 Public Beta 1, there’s no way I could find how to offload apps.
2. If connected to WiFi, the LTE/3G icon will disappear.
Well, I could say it’s really intermittent. Before connected to WiFi, 3G/LTE icon will appear beside the signal bar. Once connected, the 3G/LTE icon will somehow replaced with WiFi. Restart the iOS device will resolve the issue.
3. AppStore icon different between home screen and inside Settings
Well, it’s not really something broken, but it’s about consistency. Apple changed the AppStore icon with a brand new one in home screen, but somehow they forgot to change the icon inside the Settings. The AppStore icon in Settings is still the old AppStore logo.
4. Not all apps listed on Settings > Cellular
Each apps you installed on your iPhone and/or iOS device, will have their own cellular data control, whether or not you want certain app to use iOS cellular data.
If you go to Settings > Cellular and scroll down, by right you should find all the apps installed on your iOS device and a toggle to switch ON/OFF cellular data for each of them. My finding however, on iOS 11 Public Beta 1, not all my installed apps are listed here. So in my case, I turned OFF cellular data usage for certain apps, say Facebook, during iOS 10. And now I’m using iOS 11 Public Beta 1, the cellular data toggle for my Facebook is gone, so today I can only browse my Facebook with WiFi, I can’t use Cellular data, at least until Apple fix this issue on next iteration of iOS 11 Public Beta.
5. When double clicking home button to switch app (activating app switcher), the transition is not smooth
Give it a try yourself. Somehow it seems like the app switcher do a sorting and always refer to the missing home screen. A restart, however in my case, cure the transition-not-smooth issue, however home screen is still missing from app switcher. Does Apple do it intentionally on iOS 11? On iOS 10, you could see the home screen (the first on the list) when you double clicking home button to activate app switcher.
6. WiFi and Bluetooth icons in Control Center are not really turning OFF WiFi and Bluetooth
Open your Control Center, turn ON WiFi and Bluetooth. They will turned ON. Then tap again on both WiFi and Bluetooth icon. Look-wise from the icons, it seems they are turned OFF, however if you go and open Settings, you’ll find both WiFi and Bluetooth are still turned ON.
In my case I tried to restart but even after a few restarts, it didn’t resolve the issue. Now to turn OFF WiFi and Bluetooth, I need to go to Settings and individually turned them OFF.
7. Night shift icon is missing from Control Center
On iOS 10, you can activate Night Shift mode via Control Center. However that’s not the case with iOS 11. With the newly revamped Control Center, somehow the icon is missing from Control Center. And yet you can’t add the Night Shift menu from Settings > Control Center > Customize Control.
After few days, turned out Night Shift mode is hiding behind the brightness settings in Control Center. Tap and 3D Touch the brightness settings in Control Center and you’ll find Night Shift icon.
With this change to use 3D Touch to be able to see Night Shift mode, I’m just wondering, what about iOS devices without the 3D Touch such as iPhone 5S, iPhone 6, all iOS11-supported iPad and iPod Touch. Do they, going forward, need to always go to Settings > Display & Brightness to turn ON Night Shift?
8. Can’t slide the message to see and reply from lock screen
You can no longer slide the message from your lock screen, like it was done in iOS 10 and before, to quickly open and reply the message on its own native app.
9. Battery sucks
I’m using iPhone 7 Plus which isn’t 1 full year yet and I do use and maintain my iPhone carefully and yet the battery life is sucks since I upgraded to iOS 11.
In my case after I tried to restart, it helped me – battery life is getting better but still nowhere compare to iOS 10. This iOS 11 Public Beta 1 still needs some performance tuning on the battery life.
10. Screen recording is not working on browser. Tried on Safari and Chrome.
I don’t know if Apple did it intentionally so that we can’t record anything on the browser or it could be the screen recording feature is still buggy on iOS 11 Public Beta 1. Anyway, apart from it’s not fully working on browsers, I tried to record my home screen and opening a few apps, in between the process, the screen recording was also crashed. Need to retry 2-3 times to make it working on home screen and apps (but not browsers).
11. Selecting text by Select All, now have to wait for so long until copy, cut, paste menu appear
Open any apps that contains text to copy. Select all the text. Normally, the copy, cut and paste menu will appear shortly. However that’s not the case with iOS 11 Public Beta 1. I have to wait for a few seconds or retry to select all the text, only then the copy-cut-paste menu appear.
In my case I tried to restart. It helped, although intermittently I still encounter the issue.
iOS 11 Public Beta 1 Summary
Hey, it’s just Public Beta 1 and it’s still early July 2017. Apple still have time to improve the performance and fix all the bugs and issues.
My suggestion for those who have installed iOS 11 Public Beta 1 and encountering issues, bugs, slow and sluggish performance, is to give your iOS device a restart.
How you can help improve iOS 11
Submit any of your finding directly to Feedback app (yes you have it on your iOS 11 Public Beta) or put it on comment section below, I’ll compile and send it to Feedback app
My Recommendation: to install or to not install iOS 11 Public Beta 1
My recommendation is for you to try iOS 11, especially if you, like me, interested to try something new and before anyone else.
Some considerations:
Do install iOS 11 Public Beta if you want to taste and feel iOS 11 as early as today.
Do install iOS 11 Public Beta if you have spare and iOS-11-compatible iOS devices
Don’t install iOS 11 Public Beta if you can’t bear to have bugs, issues and performance decrease on your iOS device
For me myself, I did install iOS 11 public beta 1 on my main iPhone (since I don’t have spare devices) and can (and will) compensate on the bugs and performance issues because I love to try new things and like to show off a little bit to my wife, siblings and friends. What about you?
Do give your comments and thoughts down below on comment section.
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You do know that the second beta was released already, right?
Hi, yes I know. That’s a second beta and not second public beta. Apple introduced 2 versions of iOS beta: The Beta version (aka Developer version where you need to be a developer [cost $99/year]) and the Public Beta, which is FREE for public consumption.
The control center brightness doesn’t really sync with the actual screen brightness if set to auto brightness. There area occasions screen will be brighter that the setting shown in the control center
Hi Vignes, yes you are right. Mine the same. Most of the time, in iOS 11 Control Center, brightness settings will just show 0% brightness.