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Apple seeds fifth developer beta of tvOS 16

Apple has handed over a new fifth developer beta of tvOS 16 to testers, with the latest build now available to trial on the Apple TV by program participants.

The newly-issued builds can be picked up from the Apple Developer Center for those enrolled in the Developer Beta program, or as an over-the-air update for hardware already using beta software.

Public beta versions of the developer builds are usually issued shortly after the developer versions, but typically not after the initial few builds of the initial milestone betas. When they do, they can be acquired from the Apple Beta Software Program website.

The fourth beta of tvOS 16 landed on July 27. Apple's third beta of tvOS 16 was distributed to testers on July 6. The second beta landed on June 22, while the first appeared after the watchOS 9 were introduced shortly after the WWDC keynote on June 6.

Final public versions of all of Apple's milestone operating systems are expected to be released by the fall.

The fifth tvOS 16 beta is build number 20J5355f, replacing the fourth, build 20J5328g.

While Apple didn't directly reference tvOS 16 during WWDC, it still does have a number of improvements. This includes Matter support for HomeKit, support for the latest HDR 10+ format, a new Remote Control app, Nintendo Switch controller support, and other UI refinements.

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 [email protected].