Apple released the seventh beta build of iOS 12 today. The update is focused on performance improvements on older devices—a tentpole promise of iOS 12—but the beta release notes reveal something unexpected about the public release of iOS 12 later this year: the Group FaceTime feature won't make the cut.
Demonstrated prominently in Apple's WWDC keynote event earlier this year, Group FaceTime would allow more than two people to participate in a FaceTime video call at once, with a presentation similar to that of longtime conference-call staple Google Hangouts. Apple has said Group FaceTime will support up to 32 simultaneous participants and that it will be supported on both macOS and iOS.
Apple's iOS 12 beta 7 release notes (PDF) note the removal of Group FaceTime from the beta (and from the eventual public release) with the following:
Group FaceTime has been removed from the initial release of iOS 12 and will ship in a future software update later this fall.
The same line appears in Apple's notes for the latest release of the macOS Mojave beta.
It is not unusual for features to be held back shortly before a major software release. In fact, iOS 11 initially launched sans several key features—most notably Messages in iCloud and the full feature set of AirPlay 2, which both eventually rolled out in iOS 11.4.
iOS 12 will likely arrive alongside new iPhone models this fall. Features we do expect to see in the release include ARKit 2 for more advanced augmented reality applications, an overhaul of the Photos app, Siri Shortcuts, grouped notifications, and most importantly, significantly improved performance on older supported devices like the iPhone 6. iOS 12 will support all the same iPhones, iPads, and iPods that were supported by iOS 11.
The current version of iOS is 11.4.1. Released last month, it added a USB Restricted Mode to keep unwanted individuals (including, potentially, law enforcement) out of iPhones, and it fixed bugs related to AirPods and Exchange mail servers.
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Ars Technica
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