Arriving a short time after the WWDC 2022 keynote, Apple has provided developers with the initial betas of its fall operating system releases, with builds for iOS 16, iPadOS 16, tvOS 16, watchOS 9, and macOS 13 Ventura.
Landing on Monday not long after their introduction in the keynote, the betas are the first opportunity for developers to try out the software that has just been presented to the world. This also gives a chance for developers to test out new features that will be arriving this fall under the usual public release schedule.
The new builds can be downloaded via the Apple Developer Center for those enrolled in the test program. Public betas for major OS releases tend to be made available a few iterations after the developer versions, but will be available via the Apple Beta Software Program website.
The first beta's build number for iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 is 20A5283p. The first macOS 13 beta is build 22A5266r. The initial build of watchOS 9's beta is 20R5287q. Lastly, tvOS 16's first beta is build 20J5299n.
AppleInsider, and Apple itself, strongly recommend users don't install the betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, as there is the remote possibility of data loss or other issues. Instead, testers should install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to make sure there are sufficient backups of important data before updating.
At the very least, members of the public should wait until the public beta program kicks into gear, instead of signing up for the developer version.
Find any changes in the new betas? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at [email protected].
