The first developer beta of Apple's new operating system, iOS 27, has been released, marking a significant milestone in the company's annual WWDC developer conference.
According to historical precedent, Apple typically releases developer-only betas for the first month or so before making the same build available to both developers and public beta testers.
The first public beta is now available, identical to Beta 3 released for developers last week, with build 24A5380h.
The big iOS 27 release this year focuses on three main areas: Trust and Safety, Performance and Refinement, and Apple Intelligence and Siri.
The new operating system brings significant improvements, including new parental controls to keep kids safe and control screen time, enhanced performance and refinement to speed up everything, and entirely new Apple Intelligence models to improve AI throughout the system.
In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements, Beta 3 brings the following changes: a Siri voice menu to control Pace and Expressivity is active on iPhone Air and 17 Pro, Apple Watch finally gets the new Siri, and some users have to redownload new Apple Intelligence models.
To install the developer beta, you'll need to be registered as an Apple Developer, but a free developer account will do.
Once you have a free developer account, follow these steps: Open the Settings app, tap General, then Software Update, and select the iOS 27 Developer Beta.
The first iOS 27 public beta is not available yet but is expected to arrive in July.
When it lands, you can follow these steps to test it out even if you're not a developer: Log in to the Beta Software Program, click Enroll your iOS device, and select the iOS 27 Public Beta in the Beta Updates section.
