Apple Releases First macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Public Beta With New Night Shift Mode - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Apple Releases First macOS Sierra 10.12.4 Public Beta With New Night Shift Mode

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.4 update to public beta testers for testing purposes, two days after seeding the first 10.12.4 beta to developers and three days after releasing macOS Sierra 10.12.3.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the 10.12.4 macOS Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store.

Those who want to be a part of Apple's beta testing program can sign up to participate through the beta testing website, which gives users access to both iOS and macOS Sierra betas. Betas should not be installed on a primary machine due to the potential for instability.


macOS Sierra 10.12.4 brings iOS's popular Night Shift mode to the Mac, allowing users to cut down on blue light exposure. Believed to affect sleep by upsetting the body's circadian rhythm, blue light is thought to be more harmful than yellow light.

With Night Shift, the Mac's display automatically shifts from cool to warm at sunset and then shifts back at sunrise. Users can also set custom times for the display's colors to shift, or toggle the effect on manually. A Toggle to turn Night Shift on is available in the Notification Center, and Siri can also be used to activate the feature. macOS Sierra 10.12.4 also includes Shanghainese dictation support, cricket scores for Siri, and PDFKit improvements.

Related Forum: macOS Sierra

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.5 Features: Everything New in iOS 26.5

Monday May 11, 2026 5:09 pm PDT by
Apple released iOS 26.5 after a few months of beta testing, and while it doesn't have the Siri features we were hoping for since those are being held until iOS 27, there are a handful of useful changes worth knowing about. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. End-to-End Encryption for RCS Support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhone and...
Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

11 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 18 Pro

Monday May 11, 2026 9:01 am PDT by
We're only four months out from the launch of Apple's premium next-generation smartphone lineup, and while we're not expecting a sea change in terms of functionality, there are still several enhancements rumored to be coming to the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. One thing worth noting is that Apple is reportedly planning a major change to its iPhone release cycle this year, adopting a...
Four iPhone 18 Pro Colors Mock Feature

iPhone 18 Pro May Have 'Aggressive' Starting Price Despite RAM Crisis

Tuesday May 12, 2026 6:53 am PDT by
While the ongoing RAM chip shortage is leading some Android smartphone makers to increase prices, one analyst believes that Apple will take advantage of the situation with the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max. In a research note with GF Securities today, analyst Jeff Pu said he expects Apple to outperform in the smartphone market by having an "aggressive pricing strategy" for the ...

Top Rated Comments

routine_analyst Avatar
121 months ago
How about a system wide "dark mode" that goes beyond the menu bar and dock?
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
willmtaylor Avatar
121 months ago
Can one of you fine people help me understand what the point of your posts are. I mean, they aren't funny, they provide no useful information. They turn away anyone who might come here for actual help or information. One can only get the impression that MacRumors is meant to be a joke and not taken seriously. Is that really what the owners want? How very sad.

Even after adding about a 100 to my ignore list, I still see this nonsense. I guess it's time to add more. However it would appear the supply of useless contributors is endless. How many ignored people can be added to the list by the forum software?
You're relatively new here, aren't you?

You see, this is a public forum where people can add their opinions and ideas concerning any given topic publicly.

If you don't like it, you're welcome to leave or continue ignoring anyone and everyone who rubs you the wrong way. Additionally, you may flag any comment you feel inappropriate, and forum moderators will take a look.

Best of luck, and may I suggest lightening up a bit?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mac Fly (film) Avatar
121 months ago
Can one of you fine people help me understand what the point of your posts are. I mean, they aren't funny, they provide no useful information. They turn away anyone who might come here for actual help or information. One can only get the impression that MacRumors is meant to be a joke and not taken seriously. Is that really what the owners want? How very sad.

Even after adding about a 100 to my ignore list, I still see this nonsense. I guess it's time to add more. However it would appear the supply of useless contributors is endless. How many ignored people can be added to the list by the forum software?
This forum was great 4-8 years ago. It's become overrun by teenagers and what appears to be people who genuinely just don't like Apple and as you know competing companies have been caught astroturfing before and my opinion is there is lots of that here too. Heck, if the NSA and GCHQ can do it then Samsung and other terrible entities are too. And they absolutely are.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
121 months ago
I hope Apple is working hard at this.
Probably at night to make sure it works.
[doublepost=1485456495][/doublepost]
How about a system wide "dark mode" that goes beyond the menu bar and dock?
How about just switching your machine off.
Works flawlessly without OS X issues..
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kaibelf Avatar
121 months ago
You're relatively new here, aren't you?

You see, this is a public forum where people can add their opinions and ideas concerning any given topic publicly.

If you don't like it, you're welcome to leave or continue ignoring anyone and everyone who rubs you the wrong way. Additionally, you may flag any comment you feel inappropriate, and forum moderators will take a look.

Best of luck, and may I suggest lightening up a bit?
Perhaps longtime readers don't appreciate users like yourself dragging down the discourse and content of the site with meaningless nonsense. If you have nothing to contribute, perhaps it is you who should leave instead of ruining it for the people who DO care about the site and the information here.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
hourglass111 Avatar
121 months ago
Can one of you fine people help me understand what the point of your posts are. I mean, they aren't funny, they provide no useful information. They turn away anyone who might come here for actual help or information. One can only get the impression that MacRumors is meant to be a joke and not taken seriously. Is that really what the owners want? How very sad.

Even after adding about a 100 to my ignore list, I still see this nonsense. I guess it's time to add more. However it would appear the supply of useless contributors is endless. How many ignored people can be added to the list by the forum software?
I haven't logged into MacRumors for so long I can't even remember what my account used to be, and I reregistered just to say

THANK YOU.

I love Apple of old, and I love Apple now. Maybe those who don't feel the same can switch to Windows and Android, or at least start adding value to the forum.

Regarding the actual topic, I've used f.lux for years, including on jailbroken iPhones back when I did that. Night Shift functions way more smoothly, and I'm expecting the same to apply to macOS.

I still have issues on there with f.lux, where sometimes it'll flicker, or if I quit it it won't disable. These are the cons of switching through color profiles to make it work.

However, the ability to disable per-app may be missing (anyone looked into it?), which I'll submit a feature request to Apple for.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)