Apple has confirmed that iOS, iPadOS, macOS betas will be free for all users. The news may come as relief for users who were worried about not being able to test the new software versions on their devices.
Last year, Apple took action on third-party websites that were sharing beta profiles for free. A user could download such a profile, and install them on their machine to get access to the beta updates. This was against its rules, the beta versions of its operating systems were only available for users who had an Apple ID that was enrolled in the Apple Developer Program. That unfortunately comes with a hefty price tag of $99/year.
The Cupertino company made an important change when it released
iOS 16.4 Beta in March. It prevented users from accessing the beta updates without an eligible Apple Developer ID. There was an uproar among users who criticized the move, because now they would not be able to test the beta OS updates without paying the fee to participate in the Dev Program. Apple changed this further by
allowing users to sign in with a different Apple ID, i.e. one that was enrolled in the Dev program, to download the beta version.
But Apple never really enforced the "Developer Account" requirement in the beta versions that were released since March. So users were able to access the beta OS updates for free. The consensus was that the rule would only kick in once Apple released
iOS 17,
macOS 14 and
iPadOS 17. Naturally, many people were quite upset that we wouldn't be able to test new versions of the operating systems. Apple has proved us wrong.
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