Apple issues first macOS Monterey 12.3 developer beta with Universal Control

By Malcolm Owen

Apple has moved on to a new generation of betas of its Mac operating system, with the first developer beta of macOS Monterey 12.3 now available for testing.

The latest builds can be downloaded from the Apple Developer Center for participants in the Developer Beta program, as well as via an over-the-air update for hardware already used for beta software. Public beta versions of the developer builds are usually issued within a few days of their counterparts, and can be acquired from the Apple Beta Software Program site.

Apple has added early beta functionality for the long-awaited Universal Control feature to Monterey, as well as iPadOS.

The new round arrives after Apple released macOS 12.2 on January 26.

The previous beta introduced relatively few changes to the operating system, with the most notable being a version of the Apple Music app that uses AppKit instead of webviews. As a fully-native application, it should generally be faster and more fluid than in earlier releases.

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.

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.