It looks like Apple is working on tweaks to the way iOS betas are handled in an attempt to stop people from installing the developer betas of iOS 17 when they aren't actually developers.

Normally, installing a developer beta of any Apple iOS software is a simple case of getting your hands on a developer profile and applying it to your iPhone. That's set to change soon, it appears, with Apple already putting measures in place to ditch profiles in favour of something new.

MacRumors reports that the very first iOS 16.4 developer beta has changed how things work by adding a new menu that allows people to choose whether they want to download the public or developer betas onto their device. But the change ensures that the new menu will only appear on iPhones that are signed into Apple ID accounts that are registered with Apple.

"The menu will only appear if a user's iPhone is signed into the same Apple ID they used to enroll in Apple's Developer Program," the report notes. "In future iOS releases, Apple says this menu will be the only way to enable developer betas, as profiles will stop working."

Developer beta profiles have historically been trivially easy to download from the internet, although Apple has shown signs of trying to crack down on such websites in the past.

With Apple expected to announce iOS 17 at WWDC in June and immediately begin releasing developer betas, it looks like the only way to get in on day one will be to register as an Apple developer. That currently costs $99 per year, of course.

For everyone else, it's likely that the public beta program for IOS 17 will begin a month later in July. The update will eventually be made available to everyone this September if previous release timeframes are to be observed. That's also when we can expect Apple to announce the iPhone 15 lineup.