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Apple’s next-generation operating systems take their next step towards their release today. Apple today is releasing the first public beta builds of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15 Sequoia, tvOS 18 and HomePod Software 18. Apple’s Public Beta Program Once you enter your Apple ID, you’ll be able to select the public beta build from Software Update in the Settings app.
We’ve covered the highlights of most of these releases, which were announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Customizing your home screen On iOS and iPadOS, Window tiling and iPhone mirroring on macOS, RCS Text Messaging Support Across Apple platforms and beyond. Not ready yet The event was meant to show off a preview of Apple Intelligence AI features, including text and image generation and an improved Siri, many of which are expected to arrive “later this summer” and will likely be available in some form in the final release this fall.
Most devices capable of running iOS 17, iPadOS 17, or macOS 14 Sonoma can update to the new version. The last two generations of Intel Macs. but A few old phones and tablets and 2018 MacBook Air The new release also removes Series 4 and Series 5 models, as well as the first-generation Apple Watch SE.
Apple also hasn’t released a public beta build of VisionOS 2, the first major update to the Apple Vision Pro operating system, and users who want to try out the new Vision Pro features early will have to opt in to the developer beta, at least for now.
Beta Best Practices
The first public beta is similar (or identical) to the third developer beta build released last week. Because Apple typically releases new developer betas of its next-generation OS releases every two weeks, we can expect the fourth developer beta to be released early next week, followed shortly thereafter by a second, nearly identical public beta build.
Apple’s developer and public beta builds used to be more clearly separated, with a $99-per-year paid developer account membership separating the general public from the earliest, rougher preview builds. That changed last year, when Apple began offering basic developer accounts (and beta software access) for free to anyone who wanted to sign up.
Apple still releases separate developer and public betas, but this is more of an indication of who the beta is for, rather than an actual technical barrier. The developer beta is rough and obviously unfinished, but developers may have the extra patience and technical skill needed to work around these issues. The public beta is still unfinished and unstable, but you can expect at least most basic functionality to work fine.
Regardless of how stable these betas are, the standard warnings apply: make sure you back up your device before updating in case you need to restore an older, more stable operating system. And don’t install beta software on any mission-critical hardware that you absolutely need to operate correctly in your daily life. For iPhones and iPads that connect to iCloud, connect your device to a PC or Mac and Perform a local backup (if you can Encrypted) is a more reliable way to ensure you have a pre-upgrade backup than relying on continuous iCloud backups.
