Apple releases first public beta of iOS 10

Until now, those who wanted to take a look at the iOS 10 in its early beta stages needed a developer account with Apple. Such an account is worth $99 USD per year, and most users do not need it for most of the time. Fortunately, iOS 10 has finally entered the public beta stage so that anyone can download it without the need of a developer account.

The list of new features and improvements delivered by iOS 10 public beta is quite long, including third-party Siri integrations, a redesigned lock screen, multiple improvements to Apple's Maps, Music, HomeKit, and Phone apps. Even more, the Messages app receives a rich set of changes - message effects, Slack-like feedback for messages, an "emojify" feature, rich link preview, as well as third-party extensions.

To download the first public beta of iOS 10, the user needs to enroll a compatible iOS device in the Apple Beta Software Program, thus gaining access to all public beta OS releases for the device. Then, a configuration profile needs to be installed, and then iOS can be updated to the first public beta version. Once that happens, the handset will be able to update to future public betas as well. At last, the final version of iOS 10 should be applied automatically once it comes out in September.