iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan Public Betas Coming Soon

The third betas of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan launched today, and a new document outlining a revamped two-factor authentication feature built into the operating systems suggests we may be seeing public beta availability in the very near future. A support document accompanying the two-factor authentication changes explicitly states that it's designed for "the public betas of iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan."

When Apple introduced iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 El Capitan at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company promised that a public beta would be available beginning in July, so customers who are enrolled in Apple's public beta testing programs may not have much longer to wait to get access to the new software.

It is not clear exactly when the public beta will be seeded to customers, but the wording in the support document suggests beta testers will be receiving access to the same third betas of iOS 9 and OS X 10.11 that were seeded to developers this morning.

Public beta tests for major software releases are a relatively new feature from Apple, introduced for OS X with OS X Yosemite last year and iOS with the release of iOS 8.3 in March of 2015. iOS and Mac users can sign up for Apple's Beta Software Program on the company's dedicated beta testing site.