The third betas of iPadOS and iOS 16.4 reached developers a few days ago. This update is intended to be almost certainly the last major version before the presentation of iOS 17. In this latest beta it has been seen as Apple wants to change the way developers install betas on your devices. As of iOS 16.4 a user you won’t be able to install a developer profile that is not yours since the way to do it will be through the connection with an Apple ID registered in the Developer Center or in the Big Apple Public Betas Program.
Goodbye to a user installing a developer profile that is not theirs in iOS 16.4
This big change will affect many levels in the coming months. But before we start with the change, let’s see how the situation is currently. When Apple releases a developer beta there is only one way to install it on your device. Forks installing a developer profile on your device that detects the update and allows it to be downloaded. To have a profile it is necessary to be registered in the Developer Center. Hence a normal user cannot access that profile. However, until now we were able to use a developer profile not official thus being able to install the betas.
However, that’s not the case with the Public Betas Program, which follows the developer betas. Any user can sign up for that program and access those betas. But all that is going to change starting with iOS 16.4. Apple has implemented a beta access system (either public or for developers). That is, a user will have to sign in with a registered Apple ID in the Developer Center or in the Public Beta Program before you can access those versions.
Related article:
The third betas of iOS, iPadOS and tvOS 16.4, macOS 13.3 and watchOS 9.4 remove the NFC function for opening car locks
There will not be a way to install developer profiles, but iOS will determine if you qualify to access those beta versions. To do this, we will have to go to Settings> General> Software Updates and we can sign in with a different Apple ID than the one we use on our device. So this Apple ID is the key that allows access to the betas.
We can also select which program we want to be in if we are in both and those updates of the betas that correspond will be released to us, as you can see in the image of the article. This change will affect to all beta versions starting with iOS 16.4 including the entire period of iOS 17 developer betas that will begin in June after WWDC23.