Apple today seeded the eighth beta of macOS 10.15 Catalina to developers, two weeks after seeding the seventh macOS Catalina beta and over two months after the new Mac operating system update was first unveiled at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

The new macOS Catalina beta can be downloaded using the Software Update mechanism in System Preferences after installing the proper software from the Developer Center.

test macOS 10
macOS Catalina eliminates the iTunes app, splitting it into Music, Podcasts, and TV apps. The three new apps offer similar functionality to iTunes, but are split up by feature. iOS device management is still available on the Mac, but it's now done through the Finder rather than iTunes.

With a new Sidecar feature, you can turn your iPad into a second display for your Mac with just the click of a button. The Apple Pencil works with ‌Sidecar‌, so you can turn your ‌iPad‌ into a drawing tablet in apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Your Apple Watch can be used to approve security prompts for passwords and other info in macOS Catalina, and Macs with a T2 chip now support Activation Lock, making them more secure. There's a new Find My that brings the ‌Find My‌ Mac app to the Mac for the first time and even lets you track your devices when they're offline, or, in the case of notebooks, closed.

Screen Time is available on the Mac as well as iOS devices, and Project Catalyst, a new Apple initiative, will let developers easily port their ‌iPad‌ apps over to the Mac to increase the number of Mac apps available.

There's a new Photos interface that surfaces your best photos organized by day, month, or year, there's a new start page in Safari, Mail has new tools for muting email threads and blocking senders, and the Reminders app has been overhauled.

32-bit apps no longer work in macOS Catalina, which is something to be aware of before installing the beta.

For more details on macOS Catalina, make sure to check out our macOS Catalina roundup. Apple will release macOS Catalina sometime in October.

Related Forum: macOS Catalina

Top Rated Comments

schlitzz Avatar
73 months ago
Seriously?!?

https://www.apple.com/macos/catalina/
"SIRIously". Dammit people, get it right.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheSkywalker77 Avatar
73 months ago
The default Catalina wallpaper is fully dynamic now. And they added a bunch of scenic shots of the Catalina island.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mike Haas Avatar
73 months ago
And THAT is NOT a mess???
How much of a fan boy one has to be...
Why do people believe stories like this? Don't get me wrong - I think he really believes what he wrote, but an OS install doesn't cause that kind of damage or prevent one from upgrading their machine. The issues lie with the person installing, not the software and from what I've read here over the years regarding various beta releases, some people should never install them at all.

During the course of this beta I've read some of the wildest stories imaginable - just like you read every single Summer beta cycle. The first and second betas had issues with the 2018/19 hardware, that was about it. I have a 13" 2017 MBP, no taskbar. My installs went without a hitch. I had issues with overheating and fan speeds, iCloud was a mess (still is, was, and probably always will be because Consumer-grade cloud services are crap by their very nature) and I'd even go so far as to say that the Mojave beta cycle was probably a lot cleaner.

It's a BETA - what do people not understand about this idea? Catalina is shaping up to be a great iteration of MacOS - what do people want? I know exactly what's going to happen. By about 15.5 or 6 Catalina will be humming right along and I'll be stupid enough to participate in the next beta cycle knowing exactly what I'm getting myself into...
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghostface147 Avatar
73 months ago
I'm still waiting for Adobe to complete the Acrobat DC 64-bit transition. As of now, without using any tricks to install it, it opens and then closes on Catalina.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SMGreenfield Avatar
73 months ago
Not "postponed", but I wondered the same thing: normally, the release date for the next OS is given at the early September event. It's usually towards the third week of September. Then, the next OS (15.0) gets released, and there's a scramble to correct all the unfound defects and push out a 15.1 and 15.2 in early October.

MAYBE Apple is thinking, "Mojave just got pretty stable (14.5, 14.6)." There's no rush -- let's push the release of 15.x Catalina until the October event, where they release the new MacBooks (like 16" MacBook) and the finally-released Mac Pro, and whatever their Tile-competitor tracking tag is. That way, they have a whole event that doesn't compete with all the stuff they announced today, and Catalina gets and additional 3 - 5 weeks of road testing.

Anyone else think that's what's going to happen?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
SMGreenfield Avatar
73 months ago
I have few 32 bits apps I wonder if someone will create a patch to run those apps natively instead of doing it on a VM
A PATCH? I don't think any "patch" would work -- all the 32-bit Carbon code has been removed from Catalina.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
Magic Mouse Green

What to Expect From the Magic Mouse 3

Saturday March 29, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple is reportedly working on a new Magic Mouse. Below, we recap what to expect. The two key rumors for the Magic Mouse 3 so far include a relocated charging port, along with a more ergonomic design. It was briefly rumored that the Magic Mouse 3 would also feature voice control, but that was misinterpreted information. Relocated Charging Port While the Magic Mouse switched from...
top stories 2025 03 29

Top Stories: WWDC 2025 Announced, iPhone 17 Pro and iOS 19 Rumors, and More

Saturday March 29, 2025 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's big developer event is a little over two months away, and rumors about what we can expect to see in Apple's next major operating system updates are becoming increasingly frequent. A public release of iOS 18.4 is also imminent with a number of updates and improvements, although we won't be getting the major Apple Intelligence Siri upgrades that had reportedly been planned for this...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

Six Things to Know About Apple's Upcoming Foldable iPhone

Friday March 28, 2025 3:54 pm PDT by
We've been hearing rumors about a foldable iPhone for almost a decade now, but it looks like we might finally see the device come to fruition in 2026. We're going to be waiting many more months for the foldable iPhone, but so far we're hearing good things. Apple wants to make it creaseless. It's taken Apple multiple years to design a foldable iPhone that it's satisfied with because Apple ...
iOS 19 visionOS UI Elements

Apple Codename Provides Clue About iOS 19's Rumored New Design

Sunday March 30, 2025 6:40 am PDT by
Multiple sources have claimed that iOS 19 will introduce a new design with more translucent buttons, menus, notification banners, and more, and there is now another clue that points towards this glass-like appearance. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said the new design project is codenamed "Solarium" internally. A solarium is a room with glass walls that allow in plenty of sunlight, so this...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Homescreen

iPhone Foldable Display Said to Feature iPad-Style 4:3 Aspect Ratio

Friday March 28, 2025 3:44 am PDT by
Apple's upcoming "iPhone Fold" will feature a foldable screen with a 4:3 aspect ratio, according to a Chinese leaker who previously leaked the book-style device's display dimensions. The Weibo-based account Digital Chat Station claims that Apple will adopt a "roughly" 4:3 aspect ratio on the inner display in order to achieve consistency between the outer display, as well as to ensure parity...