Apple releases macOS Sonoma 14.4 beta to developers before a public release within weeks

Apple's macOS software powers each and every one of its Macs and it regularly releases new versions to the public. But before that happens Apple sends the same software to developers to allow them to test their apps and report any bugs that they might find. That's what happened today, with Apple making the macOS Sonoma 10,4 software available to developers before releasing it to the public.

While Apple has yet to confirm when we expect that software to be released to everyone globally, it's thought that we should expect Apple to release it before March 6 - the date that Apple will also have to release iOS 17.4 to the public to comply with an EU Digital Markets Act requirement in relation to the App Store. If that's the case, we can expect more betas to be released between now and then. For now, though, we have the very first beta as a guide for what we can expect.

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Those who are registered developers can now download the macOS Sonoma 14.4 software update via the System Settings app but should only do so if they are using a Mac that is dedicated to testing - installing betas on mission-critical Macs is risky at best. And it doesn't appear that risk is worth taking - beta one only appears to have new emoji characters this time out.

Those emoji include a phoenix, lime, and a brown mushroom among other things and while there are sure to be bug fixes and other improvements, information on what is in this beta is so far hard to come by.