Apple released macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 Developer Beta 5 on Monday, along with macOS High Sierra Public Beta 5. That likely means Apple is near the end of its beta development phase for this update to macOS High Sierra.
The two biggest known new features in this release cycle are Messages on iCloud and Business Chat. Users will also find the gorgeous wallpaper included with iMac Pro, shown below.
Messages on iCloud
This feature shifts local storage of iMessages to iCloud. Rather than storying everything locally and syncing everything up when you use your individual Apple devices, those devices will instead pull just recent messages from iCloud.
If you have lots of iMessages chats and group chats going—and if those chats are image, movie, or other files-heavy, this will save you gobs of space. For instance, my Messages folder is currently 11GB and growing. It will also make syncing on devices you don’t use every day a lot faster.
Business Chat
Andrew Orr wrote up a great piece about Business Chat. Cribbing from that, Business Chat will work across Apple’s devices like iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, but not the Mac. Apple customers can start a conversation with a business from Safari, Maps, Spotlight, and Siri.
Apple Developer Betas
Developers can provision their Macs at the Apple Developer Connection. Macs that have been provisioned for the developer beta program will find the update in the Mac App Store.
Apple Public Betas
Mac users who aren’t in Apple’s developer program can also run betas of macOS High Sierra by registering their Macs at the Apple Beta Program. Once you do, you’ll find the public beta releases in the Mac App Store.