Apple released the third iOS 13, iPadOS 13, tvOS 13, watchOS 6, and macOS Catalina developer betas earlier today. While new betas tend to focus on performance improvements and bug fixes, discovering new features is not uncommon.
Looking at the code changes between iOS 13 beta 2 and iOS 13 beta 3, we noticed some new assets in the Setup app that runs when you first set up or reset a new device. These new assets might suggest a new way for Apple to transfer data between devices.
You can now restore it from an iTunes backup or from an iCloud backup when you set up a new iOS device. The second option can be accelerated by connecting to your Apple ID account with another iOS device next to the new one. This enables wireless transfer of your data.
Apple is working on a way to transfer data directly from another iOS device using a cable, suggesting new assets and strings found in iOS 13 beta 3. One of the assets displays a picture of two connected iPhones using a cable. As current iPhones feature a Lightning port, it’s unclear how this could be achieved, and Apple doesn’t offer a Lightning-to-Lightning cable.
We tried to make the new transfer options appear on a device running iOS 13 developer beta 3 by resetting the device and manually setting up, but there were no new options. It is possible that for unreleased devices, the new data transfer methods are not yet ready or are being worked on.
