Apple releases third macOS 14.4 beta

Apple on Tuesday released the third macOS Sonoma 14.4 beta to developers. This release follows the iOS 17.4 beta release on January 25, and the official Sonoma 14.3 release on January 22. This beta release is for developers only, with a public beta coming in the next few days.

macOS Sonoma 14.4: New features

While iOS 17.4 brought major changes to the iPhone and iOS App Store, it is not clear yet as to the contents of macOS 14.4. The release notes do not list the contents, and Apple has yet to post the developer release notes as of this writing. The iOS 17.4 beta contains new emoji, so the 14.4 release will likely include them as well. And it’s possible the update brings features related to the launch of Vision Pro this week. This article will be updated when the 14.4 beta contents have been determined.

macOS Sonoma 14.4 beta developer release notes

Below are the developer release notes. This is different from the release notes that accompany the official release to the general public. These notes contain details that developers need to be aware of.

Overview

The macOS 14.4 SDK provides support to develop apps for Mac computers running Sonoma 14.4 beta. The SDK comes bundled with Xcode 15.3, available from the Mac App Store. For information on the compatibility requirements for Xcode 15.3, see Xcode 15.3 Release Notes.

CreateML

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: When using the transfer learning algorithm option, the CreateML app and framework object detection template might fail to converge and cause poor model quality and produce more than expected false positives. (114480994)

Finder

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: Resolves an issue where tiling a window causes the desktop picture to turn black. (118044617)

Messages

Known Issues

• Memoji and 3rd party Stickers do not display in the tray. (120994483)

Software Updates

Known Issues

• Updates to macOS 14.4 starting from macOS 11.0–12.3.1 will not work. (120548971)Workaround: Update to macOS 12.4 or later, and then update to macOS 14.4.

StoreKit

New Features

• You can use the productDescriptionHidden(_:) API to configure the visibility of product descriptions in ProductView, StoreView and SubscriptionStoreView instances within a view hierarchy. When building with Xcode 15.3, you can use this view modifier even if your app is running on iOS 17.0, iPadOS 17.0, macOS 14.0, tvOS 17.0, watchOS 10.0, visionOS 1.0, or later.If you implement your own product view style, you can support this new view modifier by checking the descriptionVisibility property on the configuration value. (110414819) (FB12261973)
• You can use SubscriptionStoreView to present promotional offers by adding the subscriptionPromotionalOffer(offer:signature:) modifier.If you’re already using inAppPurchaseOptions(_:) modifier to support promotional offers for StoreKit views, you should adopt the new API instead when your app is running on iOS 17.4, iPadOS 17.4, macOS 14.4, tvOS 17.4, watchOS 10.4, visionOS 1.1 or later. Do not use both APIs to apply a promotional offer for the same view. (115358806)

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: The isEligibleForIntroOffer property and isEligibleForIntroOffer(for:) method now reflect ineligibility in cases where a customer would otherwise be eligible for the offer if they weren’t actively subscribed. This means a customer which is not currently eligible for an introductory offer may become eligible in the future.Customers who redeem an introductory offer for a given subscription group will continue to never be eligible for another introductory offer in that subscription group. You can detect this case this by checking if any one transaction with a matching subscriptionGroupID has the type property on offer set to introductory. (103604770) (FB11889732)

SwiftUI

New Features

• Table now supports dynamic numbers of columns with the new TableColumnForEach. (79492167) (FB9189673)

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: DatePicker in macOS reset focus to the first date component when its bound date changes and timeZone is overriden in the environment. (97376561)

Weather

Known Issues

• Weather might crash on launch on Intel macOS hardware. (121294923)

macOS Sonoma 14.4: How to install

Developer betas are available to anyone who has enrolled in Apple’s Developer Program. Apple usually issues a public beta a day or two after the developer beta has been released. We have a complete guide to downloading and installing the Sonoma betas if you are interested.

To access the public beta, go to System Settings > General > Software Update, then in the Beta Updates section, click the Info button (the “I” icon), click the pop-up menu for Beta Updates, and select macOS Sonoma Public Beta. You may need to restart the Mac.

While betas give early access to fixes and features to the operating system, they are issued with the idea that users will test the software and check for bugs. This means that the betas have some instability to them and may cause issues with your Mac. If you can’t afford to take the risk of a possible crash or a disruption of usability, you should not run the beta and wait for the release to the general public.