iOS 11.0 has had ten beta versions. That’s more betas than any version of iOS before it: Only iPhone OS 2.0, and iOS 10.0 come close, tying with eight beta versions apiece. Now that the iOS 11 gold master has been leaked, we can safely guess that there will be no more iOS 11 betas until Apple starts testing iOS 11.0.1.
More betas than ever before
If you’re interested in the history of iOS betas, then your first visit should be to Will Hains’ amazing iOS Days in Beta chart, a picture of which you see above. Hains, an Australian programmer based in Tokyo, updates this fantastic resource with every new beta. iOS 11 has had so many updates that it required him to redesign the chart to fit it in:
iOS 11.0 beta 10 is out!
TEN!
And it *really* broke my charts this time. (Fixed; thanks for your patience.) https://t.co/edXdfjIXCH— Will Hains (@willhains) September 6, 2017
iOS 11.0 may have had the most updates, but it hasn’t (so far at least) been in development for the longest time. That award goes to iOS 5.0, which spent over 120 days in beta, whereas iOS 11 has — so far — not quite managed 100 days. The fewest betas before initial release (counting dot-zero versions only) was iOS 4.0, with just four betas.
There’s one other unusual point to note about the iOS 11 beta series. It really sped up towards the end. Developer beta 8, for example, only lasted three days before beta 9 was released, and even beta 9 only stuck around for six days. If you were using the beta throughout the testing period, you will have noticed that things tightened up a lot in the final few versions.
Go ahead and bookmark Hains’ chart, because it really is one of the best resources for iOS beta information around.
