Apple Releases New macOS 12 Monterey Public Beta

Wednesday July 28, 2021 10:19 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the third 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 third beta comes two weeks after Apple released the second macOS Monterey public beta.

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. Universal Control, for example, lets 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 lets 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

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Top Rated Comments

Realityck

57 months ago

Just saw the MacOS 12 beta 4 was available for PB testers.
[HEADING=2][SPOILER="macOS Monterey 12 Beta 4 Release Notes"][/SPOILER][/HEADING]
[SPOILER="macOS Monterey 12 Beta 4 Release Notes"]
[HEADING=2]App Store[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Purchases made using the Sandbox environment no longer return VerificationResult.unverified(_:). (79053760)
* Fixed an issue that prevented the system from automatically pushing subscription renewals to your app through the StoreKit 2 APIs in the App Store sandbox environment. (78463355)
* The Dismiss button now appears correctly in the refund request window when calling the type method beginRefundRequest(for:in:) or the instance method beginRefundRequest(in:) on a transaction. (78987211)
* restoreCompletedTransactions() ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skpaymentqueue/1506123-restorecompletedtransactions') on SKPaymentQueue ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/storekit/skpaymentqueue') now functions in Xcode StoreKit Testing. (74015869)
* StoreKit configuration files are now detected in iMessage apps in Xcode StoreKit Testing. (76554158)

[HEADING=2]Authentication Services[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* allowedCredentials ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationservices/asauthorizationsecuritykeypublickeycredentialassertionrequest/3751832-allowedcredentials') is now respected. (79221358)

[HEADING=2]Focus[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* You’re unable to switch to a Focus other than Do Not Disturb using Siri. (78263540)
* The system won’t allow notifications to break through a Focus, even if “Allow time sensitive notifications” is selected. (80998661)

[HEADING=2]iCloud[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* If network connectivity is interrupted, the system no longer displays an inaccurate alert that iCloud Private Relay is incompatible with the network. (79853379)

[HEADING=2]Language & Region[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Certain languages might display unlocalized text. (78476984)
* Certain languages might exhibit clipped or misaligned layout. (78477103)

[HEADING=2]Live Text[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]New Features in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Live Text now works across all Mac computers that support macOS Monterey.

[HEADING=2]Logging[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* For every process crash, macOS no longer generates two crash logs. (76650102)

[HEADING=2]Mac Catalyst[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Setting the title color of a UIButton ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uibutton') doesn’t work regardless of whether you use baseForegroundColor ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uibutton/configuration/3750782-baseforegroundcolor') or titleColorForState: ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uibutton/1624017-titlecolorforstate'). (76566253)
* System buttons have a black background color if no color is set. (76910619)
Workaround: Set a color, or if you want the system default color, request a button using the iOS 14 and Mac Catalyst 15 or earlier API: buttonWithType: ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/uikit/uibutton/1624028-buttonwithtype').

[HEADING=2]macOS Recovery[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* You can now start up from macOS Recovery. (78334511)

[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* MKPinAnnotationView ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mkpinannotationview') and MapPin ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/mapkit/mappin') are deprecated in this beta. (78536295)

[HEADING=2]Maps[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* The Bay Bridge might scale incorrectly at high zoom levels. (79217316)
* Rounded building corners might disappear. (80468151)

[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Rivers no longer disappear at certain zoom levels. (79993916)

[HEADING=2]Messages[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Clicking the reply bubble in a Business Chat conversation now works as expected. (76702989)

[HEADING=2]Music[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* You might be unable to play Lossless or Spatial Audio tracks via Siri. (78277808)

[HEADING=2]Networking[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* Support for cleartext HTTP URL schemes for Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) is now deprecated. Use only HTTPS URL schemes for PAC. This affects all PAC configurations, including, but not limited to, configurations set via Settings, System Preferences, profiles, and URLSession APIs such as connectionProxyDictionary ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/urlsessionconfiguration/1411499-connectionproxydictionary') and CFNetworkExecuteProxyAutoConfigurationURL(_:_:_:_:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/cfnetwork/1426392-cfnetworkexecuteproxyautoconfigu'). If you configure a cleartext HTTP PAC URL, the system may upgrade it to HTTPS during PAC file loads. Web Proxy Auto-Discovery (WPAD) Protocol via DNS isn’t affected. Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Option 252 WPAD may attempt to upgrade cleartext HTTP URLs to HTTPS during PAC file loads. (61981845)

[HEADING=2]Python[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Deprecations[/HEADING]

* If an app uses Python 2.7, macOS now triggers an alert indicating that the developer must update the app to ensure it will work in future versions of macOS. (80221011)

[HEADING=2]RealityKit[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* The StreamingInput init on PhotogrammetrySession ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/realitykit/photogrammetrysession') isn’t supported. (78838906)

[HEADING=2]Safari[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]New Features in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Compact tab layout is an option in Safari Tabs preferences. (80972789)

[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Animation glitches might occur when opening and closing the sidebar in Safari. (80441779)
* Safari toolbar vibrancy and background color might adversely affect the legibility of tab buttons in the tab bar. (80417925)

[HEADING=3]Resolved in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* The Safari start page sync no longer requires devices that are on macOS Monterey 12 Beta 3 and iOS 15 Beta 3 or newer. (79385360)
* With Show Separate Tab Bar disabled, opening a new tab now shows a Start Page as expected. (80406212)
* With Use Separate Tab Bar enabled, the Reader Available button no longer appears too close to the edge of the Smart Search field. (80441578)

[HEADING=2]SharePlay[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* Sessions with more than five participants might affect SharePlay performance. (79466576)
* Notifications you receive while sharing your display are visible to other SharePlay participants. (79455578)
Workaround: Enable Do Not Disturb during the SharePlay session.
* Recipients of screen sharing content might see unexpectedly small windows and limited zoom behavior. (78431516)

[HEADING=2]SwiftUI[/HEADING]
[HEADING=3]New Features in macOS Monterey 12 beta 4[/HEADING]

* Added buttonBorderShape, which can be used to control the shape of bordered buttons. (79456465)
* New AttributedString ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributedstring') attributes underlineStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributescopes/swiftuiattributes/3862794-underlinestyle') and strikethroughStyle ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributescopes/swiftuiattributes/3862793-strikethroughstyle')were added to AttributeScopes.SwiftUIAttributes ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/foundation/attributescopes/swiftuiattributes'). (78437803)

[HEADING=3]Known Issues[/HEADING]

* You can’t push to a third screen after popping from a third screen in the navigation stack. (79076444)
* Providing a binding to an OutlineGroup ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/OutlineGroup') might require including wrappedValue ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/Binding/wrappedValue') in the init(_:children:content:) ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/OutlineGroup/init(_:children:content:)-2galq') key path parameter, and won’t back-deploy to earlier releases. (77890799)
* Focusing a view in a newly added List ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/List') row using FocusState ('https://developer.apple.com/documentation/SwiftUI/FocusState') requires deferring the focus state property update to the next time the main runloop runs. (78607356)

[HEADING=2][/HEADING]
[/SPOILER]
[HEADING=2][/HEADING]

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)

temhawk

57 months ago

Why is Apple even working on Monterey when Big Sur is still in beta?

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

TMRJIJ

57 months ago

I think this operating system is gonna be a dud.

Usually previous bata versions of macOS have been leaked to non bata testers to install.

This version of macOS has such little interest that no one has leaked a Bata version of it yet.

Unlike Windows 11 leaked bata which just about everyone has.

There’s no need to leak these ‘bata’ releases. Everyone has access to the public beta.

Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

hatchettjack

57 months ago

I think this operating system is gonna be a dud.

Usually previous bata versions of macOS have been leaked to non bata testers to install.

This version of macOS has such little interest that no one has leaked a Bata version of it yet.

Unlike Windows 11 leaked bata which just about everyone has.

Sounds like you need to be on windows forums! Apple leads, not follow!

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Alive76

57 months ago

I think this operating system is gonna be a dud.

Usually previous bata versions of macOS have been leaked to non bata testers to install.

This version of macOS has such little interest that no one has leaked a Bata version of it yet.

Unlike Windows 11 leaked bata which just about everyone has.