Apple Books gets reading progress bars and a new bookmark button in iOS 27.2 beta 3, ahead of iPhone DuoApple Books gets reading progress bars and a new bookmark button in iOS 27.2 beta 3, ahead of iPhone Duo

The third developer beta of iOS 27.2, build 24B5099f, changes the reading controls in Apple Books.

9to5Mac's Ryan Christoffel tested the changes after Beta Profiles first posted a clip of the new menu on X. All of them are inside a book, not in the library:

• A progress bar shows where you are in the book
• The menu at the bottom right has a three-dot icon and is now a standard Liquid Glass menu
• Bookmarking leaves that menu and becomes its own button at the top right
• The close button moves to the top left
• The back button moves to the bottom left and gets larger

Apple has not published release notes describing the changes. 9to5Mac expects iOS 27.2 to be released to everyone before the end of October.

What else is in iOS 27.2 beta 3?

Aaron Perris found code suggesting that nearby smart home accessories could show controls in the Dynamic Island, 9to5Mac reports. That is a code finding with no visible feature behind it, and one person's find, so it is Evidence grade but tells us nothing about whether or when it ships. Beta Profiles also spotted a slightly redesigned battery icon in Settings and elsewhere, and the Fitness and TV apps have new splash screens.

The rest of the beta's finds are already covered: the new Apple Music logo, and a separate switch for each Suggested Action in Messages.

Security release candidates for older Macs

Apple also released first release candidates of macOS Sequoia 15.8.2, build 24H219, and macOS Tahoe 26.7.2, build 25G320, with no betas before them, 9to5Mac reports. The notes say only that they provide important security fixes. AppleInsider gives the Sequoia version as 16.8.2, which does not exist; Sequoia is macOS 15, so we follow 9to5Mac. Last month's 15.8.1 and 26.7.1 fixed a CoreGraphics flaw Apple said may have been exploited, and these should ship with macOS 27.2.

Our take

None of the Books changes is large, but they all point one way. A progress bar and a visible bookmark are what a long reading session needs, and moving controls to the corners clears the middle of the page. That matters most on a wider screen, and the obvious one is iPhone Duo. Apple has already shown a two-page PDF view for iPhone Duo in its October developer newsletter, and a folding phone that opens to roughly the shape of a paperback is the best case Books has had in years.

We would not read much into the Dynamic Island code yet. Strings for home controls fit the 13 October home products, but code found in a beta often belongs to a feature that never appears. The fair test is whether it shows up in a beta after the home hub is announced. APPDOOK's view on the release candidates is simpler: anyone still on Sequoia or Tahoe should install them on release, because the last round fixed a flaw already being exploited.