The second developer beta of macOS Sequoia is open for business and it includes Apple Intelligence features. It looks like anyone can try it out as long as you’re not in China. That includes people in the EU — even though theAI features might not launch thereright away. The features available for testing include Writing Tools, Siri, Safari and Mail summaries, Smart Replies, Memory Movies, transcription features, Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode, and a few more. If you want to have a look yourself, here’s everything you need to do to download the beta and activate Apple Intelligence.
Before you start, make sure you’ve backed up your Mac with Time Machine so you can restore the previous version if anything goes wrong. You can also use a secondary device if you have another Apple silicon Mac lying around because beta versions can go wrong and you have to download them at your own risk.
Once you’re signed up, head over to theSoftware Updatetab inSystem Settingsand click the information button next toBeta Updates. It should bring up a list of betas for you to choose from, but the one you want ismacOS Sequoia 15.1 Developer Beta. Click done and it should appear in theSoftware Updatetab with anUpgrade Nowbutton for you to press.
At this point, you have the beta, but there are a few extra steps if you want to activate Apple Intelligence. This involves finding theApple Intelligence & Siritab inSystem Settingsand:
Your Mac will want to restart at this point, so let it do that and then head back to theApple Intelligence & Siri section.Now you should have an option toJoin the Apple Intelligence wait-list, so click that and wait for the notification saying it’s ready. It only takes a few minutes in most cases, but if things happen to be busy when you click, it could take multiple hours. Finally, just toggleApple Intelligenceon and then you can enjoy your shiny new AI features.
Remembe, these won’t be included in the initial Sequoia launch; they’ll be added later in the year with a separate 15.1 update. There are also someApple Intelligence featureslike Genmoji and Image Playground that aren’t included in the 15.1 beta and we suspect they will come later. You have everything set up now though, so you can download future developer betas in just a few clicks.
