iOS 16: When will the first public beta be released?

When iOS 16 lands on your iPhone this fall, it’s going to bring a ton of awesome new features. But you don’t have to wait until September to try them out. If you’re brave, you can download and install the iOS 16 beta–just expect there to be some bugs and problems along the way.

Apple released a Developer Beta of iOS 16 on Monday, June 6, right after iOS 16 was announced at the WWDC keynote. But it’s a very early, buggy release, meant for registered developers that need to test their software and begin making use of new frameworks and APIs. If you’re not a registered developer, you have to wait for the public beta, coming sometime in July. Here’s everything Apple has said about the beta and what we can infer from past releases.

Update 07/11/22: The Public beta of iOS 16 is out now. Here’s how to sign up for the beta and install it.

When can we expect iOS 16 public beta 1?

During the WWDC Keynote, Tim Cook closed by saying “Our OS releases will be available as developer betas today, and each of them will have a public beta next month.” At a bare minimum, that means we can expect the iOS 16 Public beta in July.

Apple

But that doesn’t really narrow things down much, so let’s look at past releases to see if we can learn more about what we can expect.

• With iOS 15, the first developer beta was released on Jun 7. The second Developer beta was on June 24, and the first public beta came six days later, on Wednesday, June 30.
• With iOS 14, the first developer beta was released on June 22. The second Developer beta was on July 7, and the first public beta was just two days later on Thursday, July 9 (a Thursday). (WWDC was held later in 2020 because of the pandemic.)
• With iOS 13, the first developer beta was released on June 3. The second was on June 18, with the first public beta about a week later on Monday, June 24.

Looking at the modern history of iOS releases, then, we can see that a second Developer beta typically follows between two and three weeks after the first, and the first public beta follows within a week. Beta releases almost never come on a Friday. In a tweet on June 22, Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported that the first public beta “should be out the week of July 11.”

Our best guess, looking at the history, would be that the developer beta 2 would release sometime between June 27 and June 30, and the first public beta would release the following week–the first week of July.

How to sign up for the iOS 16 beta

While the first public beta of iOS 16 is still some weeks away, you can already register so your device will be ready when it’s available.

1. Click Sign Up on the Apple Beta page and register with your Apple ID.
2. Log in to the Beta Software Program.
3. Click “Enroll your iOS device.” (If you signed up for a previous version’s beta last year you may need to uninstall the profile for that and then re-enroll for the new one.)
4. Go to beta.apple.com/profile on your iOS device.
5. Download and install the configuration profile. You may need to jump over to Settings to enable the profile. Go to General > VPN and Device Management and tap on the iOS 16 beta profile there.

The beta profile is usually available well before the first beta release. If you have it installed, you’ll be all set when the Public beta releases in July. All you will need to do is go to Settings > General and tap Software Update to install the Public beta.

Read our complete guide on how to sign up for and install the iOS developer or public betas.