Apple Seeds Third Beta of macOS 14 Sonoma to Developers

Apple today seeded the third beta of the upcoming macOS 14 Sonoma update to developers for testing purposes. The beta comes two weeks after the launch of the second beta.

macos sonoma 4
Registered developers can download the beta through the Apple Developer Center and after the appropriate profile is installed, with the betas available through the Software Update mechanism in System Settings.

macOS Sonoma introduces new Apple TV-like screen savers that also serve as wallpapers after you log in, plus it moves widgets to the desktop. You can use the new widget gallery to choose from a range of widgets, and then drag them to your Mac's desktop.

Widgets can be arranged in any way that's useful, and when you're using an app, they are designed to fade into the background so they're less distracting. ‌Widgets‌ are more interactive than before, so you can use them to do things like play music, turn off the lights in your home, and more. Through Continuity, your iPhone's widgets can also show up on your Mac's desktop.

Video conferencing has improved with a new Presenter Overlay view that shows your desktop or project in new ways, plus Safari now supports web apps for the Dock and the option to create Profiles so you can separate personal browsing from work browsing.

Other new features include improved search that's faster and more responsive, password and passkey sharing, a revamped stickers interface for the Messages app, PDF integration in notes that makes it easier than ever to manage PDFs, and more.

macOS Sonoma will be in beta testing for several months, with a public release for the fall.

Related Forum: macOS Sonoma

Popular Stories

Apple Logo Zoomed

Tim Cook Teases Plans for Apple's Upcoming 50th Anniversary

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026. "I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...
wwdc sans text feature

Apple Rumored to Announce New Product on February 19

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by
Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...
Finder Siri Feature

Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by
In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do. The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up. Upgraded Architecture The next-generation...
maxresdefault

Apple Shows Off a Key Reason to Upgrade to the iPhone 17

Saturday February 7, 2026 9:26 am PST by
Apple today shared an ad that shows how the upgraded Center Stage front camera on the latest iPhones improves the process of taking a group selfie. "Watch how the new front facing camera on iPhone 17 Pro takes group selfies that automatically expand and rotate as more people come into frame," says Apple. While the ad is focused on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, the regular iPhone...
iOS 26

iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by
While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April. Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far. iOS 26.3 iPhone to Android Transfer Tool iOS 26.3 makes it easier...

Top Rated Comments

Realityck Avatar
34 months ago
Just for reference to show differences between betas

macOS 14 beta 3 (23A5286g)

* Safari Version 17.0 (19616.1.20.11.3)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.0.172.0.3 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.0.0: Fri Jun 30 17:48:23 PDT 2023; root:xnu-10002.0.168.505.3~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64

macOS 14 beta 2 (23A5276g)

* Safari Version 17.0 (19616.1.17.11.4)
* System Firmware Version: 10151.0.156.505.1 (M1 based Macs)
* Darwin Kernel Version 23.0.0: Tue Jun 13 21:17:22 PDT 2023; root:xnu-10002.0.116.505.3~3/RELEASE_ARM64_T8103 arm64
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
luispedrofonseca Avatar
34 months ago
Been using Beta2 for several days and it's pretty stable. Didn't find any software that didn't work either.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nicolhac Avatar
34 months ago
On major feature missing is Watch App for Mac OS - we shouldn't need to have iPhone only control - and updating
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
34 months ago
To devs today

* iOS 17 beta 3 (21A5277h) - July 5, 2023
* iPadOS 17 beta 3 (21A5277h) - July 5, 2023
* macOS 14 beta 3 (23A5286g) - July 5, 2023
* watchOS 10 beta 3 (21R5305e) - July 5, 2023
* tvOS 17 beta 3 (21J5303f) - July 5, 2023
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
NEPOBABY Avatar
34 months ago

Been using Beta2 for several days and it's pretty stable. Didn't find any software that didn't work either.
Stable OS is easy these days. Stable features and apps is another thing.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-14-beta-2-bug-fixes-changes-and-more.2393766/

There's a partial list of apps that don't work here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-14-supported-unsupported-apps.2391736/
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Darren.h Avatar
34 months ago
WELL. installing the latest developer beta for Sonoma totally killed my iMac 27 inch i9 2019.
will not boot up after tonight. good thing all my data was on an external drive and not the internal.

Big Brother is watching. and he can kill and disable your Mac remotely.

And They want you to move to Apple silicon where getting a dead Mac up and running is even harder than an Intel system.

NO THANKS

I had to boot up my i9 MacBook Pro 2019 with Ventura 13.4 to get back on the internet and type this.

I'll
stick with Intel Macs and my raptor 24 core 6 GHZ Intel 4090 Windows 11 pc.


At least you get good paying job knowing windows and windows server. MAC NOTTA.

I'm going back to college and don't need the Apple headaches of a dead machine trying to crank out a term paper at San Diego State University.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)