The Dropbox native Apple silicon beta is finally here

Something to look forward to: After months of waiting, Dropbox users can finally download a beta of the desktop app that runs natively on Apple’s Arm-based processors. Users can get it by opting into early releases, though Dropbox doesn’t specify what improvements this version brings.

Apple asserts that its transition from Intel’s x86 processors to its Arm-based CPUs has wielded better performance and lower power consumption in applications that run natively on it. Since then, users have waited for their favorite programs to release ports to Apple silicon.

Google Drive started natively supporting Apple silicon with version 52.0 last October. Around the same time, Dropbox users started asking when that cloud storage program would bring out a native Apple silicon version, and the company told 9to5Mac that it was in testing but wouldn’t be available until 2022.

This week, Dropbox released a version of beta build 140.3.1903 for Apple Silicon. The macOS offline installer for this beta has two versions, one for Intel and one for Apple silicon. To get it as an automatic update, opt into early releases on the desktop app.

Dropbox users can opt-in by opening the desktop app, clicking on their avatar, going to Preferences>General, and then toggling on early releases. It isn’t clear how Dropbox improves from running natively on Apple silicon compared to the Intel version in compatibility mode. The company did not have a timeframe of when a public M1 version would be ready.