MacOS Catalina Beta 9 Released for Testing

Apple has released MacOS Catalina beta 9 for users involved in the Mac system software beta testing program. Both the developer beta and public beta versions are available.

Separately, Apple also released watchOS 6.1 beta 1 for users beta testing system software on their Apple Watch.

Mac users who are enrolled in the beta testing programs for MacOS can find the latest MacOS Catalina beta 9 update available to download now from the Software Update section of System Preferences.

Technically anyone can choose to install MacOS Catalina public beta onto an eligible Mac, but beta system software is less reliable than final builds and so therefore this is not widely recommended. If you are interested in doing so, consider this approach to dual booting MacOS Catalina and Mojave by using APFS volumes, and always backup your Mac before installing any software update

MacOS Catalina includes a variety of new features including Sidecar which allows you to use an iPad as an external display, the addition of some iPad apps on the Mac, the removal of 32-bit application support, stronger security mechanisms, the removal of iTunes in favor of three separate apps for Music, Podcasts, and TV, amongst other changes and improvements.

Some of the features in MacOS Catalina, notably Sidecar, require an iPad with ipadOS 13 or later as well.

Apple has said that MacOS Catalina will be released in October, and it will be available as a free update for all macOS Compatible Macs.

The most recent modern release of macOS system software is currently MacOS Mojave 10.14.6 with a supplemental update package.