Apple today released new public betas of tvOS 18.1 and HomePod Software 18.1, providing non-developers with the opportunity to test the software ahead of it’s release later this month. The third betas come one week after the release of the second betas.
Public beta testers who have signed up for Apple’s beta testing program can install the tvOS 18 public beta by opening up the Settings app on Apple TV, clicking on the “Software Updates” section under “System,” and then toggling on the “Get Public Beta Updates” option.
tvOS software releases are usually minor in scale compared to other operating system updates, focusing primarily on smaller improvements rather than outward-facing changes.
While Apple shares information about tvOS releases in its tvOS support document, which is updated after each tvOS launch, the company does not provide notes during beta testing, so we don’t have any information about what the beta brings.
As the HomePod and HomePod mini software is also based on tvOS 18.1, there is also no word on what’s in that update.
As usual, MacTrast and Apple both warn users to not install any betas on their daily driver Apple TV or HomePod, especially early betas of new operating systems. Instead, only install betas on a device set aside for testing purposes.
