iOS 15 Public Beta is Here: What You Need to Know

Apple released public betas for iPadOS 15 and iOS 15. Are you ready?

Hard to tell this is a beta (Credit: Lance Ulanoff)

There was a time when betas were for developers and daredevil tech journalists. No one in their right mind would run unfinished software on their primary hardware (A.K.A. “production systems”), let alone the smartphones we use to manage our lives.

As of this moment, Apple’s public betas for iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are now available for anyone who wants them. Obviously, no one is recommending everyone install them, but the more regular people who do test drive this code, the better it is for Apple, which can capture months’ worth of telemetry before launching the final platforms on, quite likely, new hardware in the fall.

I’ve been running the developer betas for a few weeks and will likely stay on that track, which puts me a tick or two ahead of those who download and install these more stable preview builds.

As has been the case in recent years, though, Apple’s unfinished code is probably better than some of the finished code you’ll encounter.

Keep in mind that, while Apple’s own apps mostly work smoothly on the platforms, your mission-critical ones might not. These are betas and should not be expected to work bug free or support your work output…