The alpha phase is now public

Hi everybody,

For the longest time the alpha phase of the Unity development cycle was conducted behind closed doors, accessible only to a small number of externals. This is no longer the case.

Starting with 2019.1.0a7, we are lifting the curtain, making new Unity alphas available to everyone.

What does this mean?
You can now go and download the latest pre-release version of 2019.1, weeks before the first beta and months before the final release.

New incremental alpha iterations of 2019.1 will be published once a week, further introducing new features until all major content scheduled for 2019.1 is included and the transition to beta is made.

Please be aware that alpha versions are not finished products and very likely to contain bugs. Always backup your projects before opening them in an alpha build. This includes the scenario of moving from an earlier alpha to a newer one.

What is an alpha?
The alpha phase is the period of Unity’s development cycle in which all features that are scheduled for the currently developed major version are merged with the main repository. It is the initial period in which all new main parts come together and are being tested collectively for the first time. Versions that are built within this period are referred to as alphas.

What are alphas not?
Alpha versions are neither finished releases that contain all scheduled features, nor can they be considered reliable or stable. As the first versions in which new features undergo collective testing, there is a high probability to encounter bugs when using them.

What is the difference between alpha and beta?
The alpha phase frames the initial assembly and stabilization of the currently developed major version of Unity. It is concluded once all features have landed, a full internal feature test pass has been conducted, and all known bugs that were identified as blockers have been resolved. Once these conditions are fulfilled, the alpha phase ends and the beta phase begins.

Betas are focused on identifying and resolving remaining issues and will involve considerably fewer additions that introduce or change functionality than alphas.

Why would anybody use an alpha?
Alpha users will be able to access and use new features even earlier than beta user. Access to alphas will enable users to test the compatibility of the new version with their projects, provide feedback and get problems in Unity fixed sooner.