Oliver Haslam on September 28, 2022, 4:32 pm

iOS 16.1 Beta 3 App Store Setting Lets Apps Download In-App Content Automatically

Apple’s latest iOS 16.1 beta includes a new toggle that allows apps to automatically download in-app content in the background, without the user first needing to launch them.

The toggle, which can be found in the App Store’s download settings, gives apps the opportunity to download in-app content like media and game levels without any input from the user — normally content wouldn’t be downloaded until the app was launched for the first time.

A message alongside the toggle simply says “Automatically run apps in the background to download content before you first launch them.”

The new toggle was added as part of the latest iOS 16.1 beta 3 release and is also present in macOS Ventura beta 9. There’s currently no timescale for when iOS 16.1 will be made available to the public, but it’s currently available in beta form.

As for macOS Ventura, the update is expected to be released to the world at some point in October, likely alongside iPadOS 16.1. Apple skipped iPadOS 16, confirming that iPadOS 16.1 will be the first new release for iPad owners.

Changes in the latest iPadOS 16.1 beta also mean that non-M1 iPad Pro models can now make use of Stage Manager for the first time, although the external display support has been delayed until a later update. The Stage Manager feature has come in for some criticism of late, with the number of bugs thought to be behind the reason for the iPadOS 16 update to be scrapped.