You Snooze, You Lose: Apple Pulls Messages Beta from Website (Updated: Direct Link)
You Snooze, You Lose: Apple Pulls Messages Beta from Website (Updated: Direct Link)
With Apple’s announcement on Monday that OS X Mountain Lion is coming down off the… well, mountain… in July, it should come as no surprise to find that the company’s swanky Messages beta has been yanked ahead of the release.
Cult of Mac is reporting that Apple has pulled the download link for the Messages beta. First introduced back in February when the company announced that OS X Mountain Lion was coming, Messages replaced the iChat application while adding the ability to iMessage between Mac and iOS devices.
While we always knew that the beta would expire in time and buying OS X Mountain Lion would be the only way to restore it, a little heads-up would have been nice on Apple’s part. Many users don’t bother to save installers, and should they have a problem and need it again, downloading would be the only way (short of knowing a friend with, shall we say, some hoarding tendencies).
Unfortunately, the download window has now passed and the link is now only a memory -- but fear not, in a few short weeks you’ll be able to plunk down $19.99 in virtual currency from the Mac App Store and grab OS X Mountain Lion to reclaim the Messages app.
For those who kept Messages beta installed: Enjoy! It continues to work and is likely to do so until shortly after OS X Mountain Lion is released.
Update: MacRumors is now reporting that the Messages beta is available as a direct link, even though it has vanished from the website. So grab it while you can -- the 63.8MB download is a mere click away.
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