Apple is expected to release the iOS 17 public beta in July. While the company never announces exactly when a public beta will be made available, over the past few years, the Cupertino firm has been pretty consistent with its public beta release dates.
That said, understanding Apple’s pattern with developer betas is one way to determine when public betas will be made available. Thankfully, Thinky Bits offers just that. For the last few years, Apple released its first public beta about a week after seeding beta 3 to developers.
With iOS 16, Apple seeded beta 3 on Wednesday, July 6. iOS 16 public beta 1 arrived less than a week later, on Monday, July 11. Interestingly enough, the company released a new beta 3 build before making the public beta available on the same day.
With iOS 17 beta 3 released last week, we could see a similar pattern, and Apple could unveil its first iOS 17 public beta on July 11 – this Tuesday. With that, we can expect to see iOS 17 beta 4 the following week, and, eventually, Apple will seed developer betas a day or two before the public betas as it nears the end of its first big testing cycle.
While Apple didn’t release public beta 1 on July 10, Twitter user aaronp613 noted that the company accidentally released Xcode command line tools 15 beta 4 for an instant and then pulled it out. This could mean not only the public beta could be nearing, but beta 4 for developers could also be made available sooner than anticipated.
Once iOS 17’s first public beta is available, users need to enroll their devices in the Apple Beta Software Program. Once they download the public beta profile, they’ll start getting updates as they are made available.
The same is true for iPadOS 17 and macOS Sonoma. For watchOS 10, it’s not recommended to download the public beta version as you can’t downgrade to a stable version later. tvOS 17 beta has been available to all users since June 5, and the first public HomePod Software Version 17 should be available alongside the public beta of iOS 17.
BGR will let you know once the public beta is available to users.
