Apple has released a third round of developer betas for iOS 11.4, tvOS 11.4, and watchOS 4.3.1. The release notes reveal only minor changes and fixes compared to the prior betas. iOS 11.4 brings back Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2 support — at least in the betas — but it remains unclear whether these features are planned to actually be included in the final release of iOS 11.4 or are once again being included solely for testing purposes; the release notes still state that Messages in iCloud is included “for testing and evaluation purposes.”
tvOS 11.4 similarly adds support for AirPlay 2, allowing multiple Apple TVs to act as AirPlay 2 targets to allow streaming to multiple devices simultaneously — a feature also expected to appear on Apple’s HomePod in an upcoming software update. As the more minor version number implies, watchOS 4.3.1 adds no user-facing features, although new warnings suggest Apple is taking steps to drop support for watchOS 1 apps at some point in the future, like with the release of watchOS 5, expected later this year.
