Apple has released the seventh public beta of iOS 14.5. Members of Apple’s Beta Software Program can download the previews and register devices now. iOS 14.5 will be the biggest update to iOS 14 to date, introducing several significant new features.
iOS 14.5 Public Beta 7 comes one week after Apple released 14.5 beta 6 to developers and public testers. There are no new release notes for this beta software update, so it appears beta 7 is a minor update, adding only under-the-hood changes to iOS 14.5.
How to sign up for a developer account or public beta membership
If you’re interested in becoming an Apple developer, you can visit developer.apple.com and join Apple’s Developer program. To get access to app distribution and developer betas, you’ll need to enrol in the company’s £99 year developer membership.
Developers tend to get beta software first, but that software can be unstable and bug-prone. If you only want a peek at Apple’s new software, but don’t want to take the risk of bricking your device on a developer seed, the company offers the public beta program for users.
Unlike Apple’s developer program, the Beta Software Program is free, and should offer more stable code than some developer seeds. Before you dive in though, you should note that this is an incomplete version of the operating system, with all the bugs and glitches that includes.
Developers can go head to the Developer program on the device upon which they which to run the beta, and download a developer beta profile. Those who aren’t developers can join the public beta by heading here using the device upon which you wish to run the beta, signing in, and downloading the beta profile.
Once you have the profile you must enable it by going to Settings > General > Profile. Your device will reset to enable the profile. After it has reset with the profile enabled, you can head to Settings > General > Software Updates to download the latest beta release.
Users should nevertheless be cautious about installing beta code on a primary device, since it can still potentially cause issues like crashes, battery drain, or slow performance.
