Daily drive a public beta?
Even though the changes to Apple’s various operating systems announced at this year’s WWDC21 were not as significant as last year, you might still be aching to try the new features. So how is it to daily-drive an OS on the public beta?
Even though WWDC21 left many wishing for more, especially in iPadOS 15, some new features make people eager to try them out before the official release somewhen in the fall.
However, even though installing the beta on your primary device is not advised, many who are tempted to try the new features do not have a second device to install the betas, so should you install the betas anyway?
What are public betas?
In order to understand why installing a public beta on a primary device might not be the very best idea, let’s first clarify what a public beta even is. Public betas are software in development that are made available for the public to be tested.
Of course, the software may still have some bugs, however, users can try out the newest features, whereas the company gets important feedback regarding errors and potential shortcomings of the upcoming software. Furthermore, because the beta is public, a relatively large amount of people try the new software, and as the workflows are as individual as the people using them, bugs hidden deep in the latest software may be exposed and can be addressed by the developers.
Hence, a public beta provides developers with important information regarding the real-world usability of the software, whereas testers get to experience the latest and greatest features ahead of their official release.
However, even though this is tempting, there are some risks associated with installing a public beta.
As previously pointed out, public betas are not yet officially released and hence have an experimental nature. As a result, there is the possibility that you run into bugs and errors while using a public beta. The gravity of those bugs and errors can vary widely, from the occasional crashing of Apps up to a complete freeze of the OS. Furthermore, due to the novelty of the software, some of your applications may not be compatible with the beta software and hence won’t open or run.
What can you expect from Apple’s public betas
In my experience, Apple’s public betas are pretty stable. I have run the public beta for iOS 14 and now have installed the iPadOS 15, iOS 15, and WatchOS 8 public betas on my devices. I use all of these devices daily, and they are my primary devices.
Over the whole iOS 14 public beta period and currently, I haven’t experienced any significant problems running the betas. Every first-party program runs smoothly, without any issues, and also, the vast majority of third-party applications run without any issues.
The only problem I had with an application was the application for my e-banking. As the app did not recognize the iOS 15 public beta as a safe OS (it just didn’t know it existed yet), I could not use mobile banking.
However, this was the only time I explicitly realized I was using a beta OS. There are some other instances, for example, recently, on my iPad, I could not split-screen view Quizlet and GoodNotes 5, but this is something minor that I could quickly workaround. Furthermore, I’d argue bugs like these are the stuff you’ll gladly have to accept when going for a public beta version in order to get the new features ahead of the curve.
On the other side though, the new features mostly work flawlessly, and it is a joy to try them out. Furthermore, 99% I don’t even realize it is the beta software I am running on, as it runs just as smooth as the regular OS does, the only exception being slightly worse battery life. Apart from that, all the Widgets on the iPad’s screen work, I can use the focus modes and also grouped notifications are like I imagined them.
So, overall normally running Apple’s public betas is very similar to running the regular OS except for barely noticeable worse battery life and occasional minor bugs but with the advantage of already having the newest features.
However, problems occur when something out of the ordinary. Last year, I had to replace a cracked screen with the iOS 14 public beta on my iPhone 11 Pro. For the repair, my device was reset, and I wanted to restore it from the backups, but as they were on iOS 14 and the reset phone was back to iOS 13. After researching for about half a day, I went ahead and reinstalled the public beta and then restored the device, but it definitely was a hassle.
Verdict
Apple’s public betas are very stable for such software. So running them on your primary devices is not an issue during everyday use. However, if problems like screen replacements or other repairs come up, having a public beta installed is certainly something that could become a more significant inconvenience.
Furthermore, even though I am reasonably confident in Apple’s public betas, I do not install them on my MacBook Pro, as I use it as the hub of my apple eco-system, and hence I do not want to risk any bugs.
So, all-in-all, it is safe to say, if you take care of your devices but want to try Apple’s latest and greatest features, installing the public betas after backing up your device is not something I would consider risky.
As always, stay safe
Raffael
