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Apple releases beta 5 for iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, and more

Following an unusually long three-week wait, new beta updates are rolling out now for developers, including iPadOS 27 beta 5 and more. Here are the details.

Beta 5 is here for iPadOS 27 and more Apple updates

We’re a little more than one month away from iOS 27 launching to the public. That typically means the beta release cycle is about to ramp up.

Today Apple has shipped beta 5 for iPadOS 27, watchOS 27, tvOS 27, visionOS 27, and more.

Currently only developers can download and install the new updates. But if Apple follows its usual pattern, public beta versions of these same software builds should arrive in the next day or so.

At this point in the beta cycle, we’re not expecting to find any major user-facing changes in Apple’s software. Instead, August is usually when two main things happen with Apple’s betas:

  1. New betas release more often, typically every week but with fewer noticeable changes
  2. Apple’s focus shifts to bug fixes and performance improvements

Apple has emphasized that iOS 27 and more will deliver performance gains compared to their predecessors.

While that’s already true to some degree in the betas, expect to see Apple’s new software run even more smoothly and eliminate more bugs in beta 5 and the weeks ahead.

That said, we’ll let you know if any new features or noteworthy changes do arrive in today’s updates.

Have you discovered anything new in iPadOS 27 beta 5 or another release? Let us know in the comments.

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Avatar for Ryan Christoffel Ryan Christoffel

Ryan got his start in journalism as an Editor at MacStories, where he worked for four years covering Apple news, writing app reviews, and more. For two years he co-hosted the Adapt podcast on Relay FM, which focused entirely on the iPad. As a result, it should come as no surprise that his favorite Apple device is the iPad Pro.