Apple Releases New macOS 12 Monterey Public Beta

Thursday October 7, 2021 10:29 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded a new public beta of the macOS 12 Monterey beta to public beta testers, allowing non-developers to test the new macOS Monterey software ahead of its public release. The update comes just a day after Apple provided the ninth beta to developers.

macos monterey tidbits feature copy
Public beta testers can download the macOS 12 Monterey update from the Software Update section of the System Preferences app after installing the proper profile from Apple's beta software website.

macOS Monterey introduces quite a few major updates for the macOS operating system. When released, Universal Control will let a single mouse, trackpad, and keyboard be used across multiple Mac or iPad devices, and it's now possible to AirPlay directly to a Mac from an iPhone, ‌iPad‌, or even another Mac.

Safari has an updated tab bar and support for Tab Groups to keep tons of tabs organized, and FaceTime now features support for spatial audio, Portrait Mode (M1 Macs only) and Voice Isolation for cutting out background noise. A SharePlay ‌FaceTime‌ feature (coming in a Monterey update) will let Apple TV users watch TV, listen to music, and share their screens with one another.

Shared With You, another new feature, keeps track of the music, links, podcasts, news, and photos that people are sent in Messages, highlighting it in the relevant apps. Notes has a new Quick Note feature for jotting down thoughts, and the Shortcuts app is now available on the Mac.

A dedicated Focus mode helps people stay on task by cutting out background distractions based on what's going on, and there's an updated Maps app with a whole slew of new features. With Live Text, Macs can now detect text in photos or provide details on animals, art, landmarks, plants, and more in images. The new beta adds Live Text support for Intel Macs.

Mail Privacy Protection hides IP and prevents tracking through invisible pixels, and iCloud Private Relay keeps Safari browsing protected. There are many other new features in ‌macOS Monterey‌, with a complete overview available in our macOS Monterey roundup.

Related Forum: macOS Monterey

Top Rated Comments

turbineseaplane

26 months ago

Given how other Apple software is going right now...I'd sure wait a bit on this one..

Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Justin Cymbal

I’m going to wait until the official version comes out to install it

I recently bought the new M1 iMac so I’m looking forward to upgrading to this

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

nutmac

Is this beta stable enough to install on a 2015 iMac?

Monterey is not as ambitious as Big Sur, and as a result, significantly more stable. So while I think it's stable enough to be installed as a daily driver, the final version is probably just 2-3 weeks away. I would just wait.