If you've ever had a Mac that stopped working, then you know that restoring the OS is pretty easy. macOS has an Internet Recovery feature, which automatically downloads and installs the OS if you boot into recovery (Command + R) and there's no proper OS.
iPhones and iPads work a bit differently though. In order to restore the operating system on an iOS device, you need to plug it into a PC running iTunes, and do it through there. Apparently, that might be changing.
Apple released a new round of betas today, including the third builds of iOS 13.4, iPadOS 13.4, watchOS 6.2, tvOS 13.4, and macOS 10.15.4. According to 9to5Mac, there's some code in the new beta that suggests that a similar feature called OS Recovery is coming to iOS.
The change makes sense, as Apple continues to build out iPadOS to make it more comparable to macOS in terms of real-world features that people actually need. After all, if that's your only computer, then you don't have another one to plug it into to restore the OS. Of course, this could make sense for any device.
For example, there's no way to restore an Apple Watch without bringing it to an Apple Store. There's no Lightning port, and no way to connect it to iTunes. This can be a significant issue if you install a developer beta and it breaks your device, as it means that there's no way to roll back. Apple TV is easy enough to connect to a PC, but still, an Internet Recovery option is still easier.
One thing that's likely to be different between Internet Recovery on macOS and OS Recovery on iOS is that the latter will likely install the latest version of iOS or iPadOS. The former, on the other hand, will actually install the version that came with your PC.
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