Wesley Hilliard
The fourth public beta for macOS Monterey is now available to testers with only bug fixes in this release.
The public beta testing program is available to all users interested in trying the software. Public builds usually arrive a short time after their developer counterparts, and can be acquired vis the Apple Beta Software Program.
Apple began offering the macOS Monterey public beta in July. It has since released the second and third public betas shortly after the third and fourth developer betas respectively. The fourth public beta arrives only one day after the fifth developer beta.
Updates set to arrive in macOS Monterey include Universal Control, Shortcuts, Quick Note, AirPlay to Mac, Focus, and other app-specific updates. These include SharePlay for iMessage, Safari tab organization, Live Text support for Photos, and new grid views and Spatial Audio for FaceTime.
The latest beta doesn't appear to provide any user-facing features. Only various bug fixes are listed in the release notes.
Both AppleInsider and Apple strongly suggest users avoid installing betas on to "mission-critical" or primary devices, due to the potential for data loss or other issues. Instead, the recommendation is to install betas onto secondary or non-essential devices, and to ensure there are sufficient backups of important data before making any major changes.
Find any changes in the new betas? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at andrew@AppleInsider.com.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Andrew Orr
William Gallagher
4 Comments
It's actually beta 5, not 4. Beta 1 was never released to the public at large, so the public beta actually started off with pubic beta 2. Presumably Apple does this to line the numbers up with the developer betas after it became confusing why it seemed developers had a newer beta.
Nearly every other news site calls this one Public Beta 5.
Public beta came out yesterday, downloaded and installed just fine. Thinking there was another one, I tried updating, to have Mac OS tell me I'm on the latest version my administrator would allow. Unusual verbiage as this is my home computer.
So are we as customers (developers too, if vested interest conflicted) happy with annual cycles of beta ware that never really exits beta? What if nobody signed on or showed up ?