Despite the fact that Steve Jobs did not have a very high opinion of the intellectual abilities of ordinary users, and therefore believed that they should be given as little technical information as possible about Apple devices , everything changed after his departure. iOS began to gradually introduce advanced control mechanisms, a lot of APIs for developers to integrate their applications into the system, and, of course, a beta testing program. Thanks to her, everyone could get access to updates for the iPhone even before their official release. But now this will be more difficult.
What are beta versions of iOS
How it works now: Apple releases two versions of a batch of the same beta builds, which are identical in terms of innovations, but exist conditionally independently of each other. The first is intended for developers and comes out a week or two earlier than the public one.
It is needed to give them the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the composition of the update and adapt their applications to it. The second is the iOS beta for regular users who just wanted to try out the update and signed up for the pre-test program.
Despite the fact that Apple has always clearly separated betas for developers and ordinary users, no one has ever had problems getting access to the developer assembly. On sites like BetaProfiles.dev, you could always find a developer profile for any Apple operating system and use it to download any beta build.
Is it possible to install beta for developers?
Yes, and why, in fact, not, if in Cupertino they still did not put up any obstacles to this? The only restriction was for devices that the company distributed through the Apple Friends program to journalists of thematic publications. PR staff always warned that it was forbidden to install developer betas on such devices.
But with the release of iOS 16.4 , which Apple began testing this week, the ban will apply to everyone. Or rather, even, this is not a ban as such, but rather a restriction, because ordinary users will no longer have access to the developer’s profile. First of all, because there will be no profiles themselves, and the right to download developer beta versions will be determined by the Apple ID registered in the Apple Developer Program.
Now, in order to access the developer beta , you will need to create your own developer account and pay a $99 annual fee. In principle, there will be no other scenarios to roll up a test version of the OS intended for application creators. But few will obviously want to bother so much for the sake of being able to test updates before they are released.
How to install iOS 16 beta
Despite the restrictions being introduced, ordinary users will still have access to beta testing of operating systems. They will be able to download test builds intended for public testing, which come out with a fix relative to development builds. This does not require a developer profile. It will be enough to register in the pre-test program and download the betas as they are released.
Here’s what you need for this:
- Go to beta.apple.com from the device you want to enroll in the program;
- Log in with your Apple ID account;
- Scroll down and read the terms;
- Click on the register button and download the beta profile;
- Go to “Settings” – “Profile loaded” and install it.
How to exit iOS beta testing
After that, you will become a full member of the pre-test program and will be able to download beta versions of all updates. They will appear in the Software Updates section instead of classic releases. As a rule, test builds are released with an interval of 2-3 weeks, so get ready for the fact that you will have to update more often than usual. This is also necessary for the fact that each new beta is usually more stable than the previous one.
If you wish, however, you can opt out of further testing and switch to receiving release updates only. This is done simply by removing the profile installed in the first step:
- Open “Settings” on your device;
- Go to “General” – “VPN and device management”;
- In the “Configuration Profile” section, find the installed beta profile and open it;
- In the window that opens, click “Delete profile” and confirm the deletion.
After that, the device will reboot and you will no longer receive beta versions. If you are not going to roll back to the previous version, you can leave everything as it is. But, if you want to return to a stable build, you have to mess around a bit. We talked about what needs to be done so that the previous version of iOS works on iPhone again , we talked about it here – be sure to read it . Nothing complicated.
