The great iOS beta hiatus is over. After 28 days of waiting, Apple finally seeded the second developer beta for iOS 13.3.1 Tuesday, Jan. 14. Lucky for us public beta testers, we didn't need to wait long to get our version of the beta, as Apple just released 13.3.1 public beta 2.

Apple seeded this second 13.3.1 public beta at 4 p.m. EST (1 p.m. PST), just three hours after the release of 13.3.1 dev beta 2. Apple almost always drops the developer version of a beta before the public version, usually around 1 p.m. EST (10 a.m. PST), but the release time for a public beta can vary. Many times, Apple follows up the same day with a prompt 4 p.m. EST release, but other times the company holds on to the public beta until the next day. For example, 13.3.1 public beta 1 came out 24 hours after dev beta 1.

While a new beta update is always exciting, you might not find public beta 2 to be worth this long wait. Not much has changed here, at least on the surface. If there are any under-the-hood fixes and patches, Apple isn't telling us, as the release notes clearly state "There are no release notes for this software update:"

iOS & iPadOS 13.3.1 Beta 2 Release Notes Update your apps to use new features, and test your apps against API changes. Overview The iOS & iPadOS 13.3.1 SDK provides support for developing apps for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices running iOS & iPadOS 13.3.1. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 11.3 available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 11.3, see Xcode 11.3 Release Notes. General There are no release notes for this software update.

To download and install iOS 13.3.1 public beta 2, sign up through Apple's beta site, download and install the configuration profile, then update over the air. If you already have the profile, go to Settings –> General –> Software Update to begin the installation of the latest beta build, or you can wait until it installs automatically if "Automatic Updates" is enabled.