Apple has now moved to the third round for the developer betas of iOS 27, macOS 27, and others of the 27 generation. Expect more to come before the eventual fall releases.

The developer beta program for the 27-gen operating systems is continuing with its third round of builds. All to make sure that the versions that ship in the fall are in top working order for the general public.

The third developer builds arrive after the second, which arrived on June 22 for most of the operating systems. The watchOS 27 counterparts landed later, on June 23 and June 25.

The third builds are:

  • iOS 27 beta 3 is 24A5380h, replacing 24A5370h
  • iPadOS 27 beta 3 is 24A5380h, replacing 24A5370h,
  • macOS 27 beta 3 is 26A5378j, replacing 26A5368g,
  • tvOS 27 beta 3 is 24J5315i, replacing 24J5305f,
  • watchOS 27 beta 3 is 24R5315i, replacing 24R5305g,
  • visionOS 27 beta 3 is 24M5316k, replacing 24M5306i

The first developer builds of iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and watchOS 27 were made available on June 8.

The initial changes included tweaks to Liquid Glass, the long-awaited overhaul of Siri, child-protective features, and many other smaller changes.

The second iOS 27 developer beta included an update to Apple TV in the Home app, showing it like a connected HomePod or HomePod mini. The Apple Wallet also added a new insights option, albeit in a non-functional fashion.

At your own risk

While AppleInsider regularly warns readers that people trying out beta software should do so on secondary, spare hardware instead of their mission-critical or daily driver devices, it's something that actually matters more this time around.

It's because Apple's early developer betas are for an operating system that is still under active development. There's a higher chance of buggy, broken, and potentially harmful elements being distributed.

The initial builds are also intended to help developers learn about the operating system changes before the final public release later in 2026. It's not meant to be used by consumers.

Unless you have a vested interest in using them, such as app development, don't install the early betas.

Members of the public wanting to try out iOS 27 on their iPhone should wait until the inevitable public beta. At that point, most of the major issues will have been found and fixed.

At a minimum, wait for a few developer betas to pass by.

The AppleInsider editorial team has experienced when things have gone wrong. We've also heard countless stories from others when the same happened to them.

Don't be like us.