Can you believe Apple is going to be releasing iOS 18 this year? It’s incredible to think that the device Steve Jobs said was a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator is now about to get its 18th yearly update from Apple. But it’s true, and we expect to see the next-generation operating system announced at WWDC in June this year. But that has not stopped the leaks and rumors ahead of that announcement.
Recently, we’ve heard that this is going to be the biggest software update that the iPhone has ever received. We’ll have to wait a bit to see if that’s true. We hear this rumor nearly every year. But in this article, we are going to be aiming to keep you up-to-date with all of the latest news and rumors around iOS 18, as well as when you can expect to see the release on an iPhone near you.
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When will iOS 18 be announced?
For a number of years now, Apple has announced the newest version of all of its operating systems at WWDC – their annual developer conference. That includes iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS and now visionOS. Typically, these all get announced at WWDC, with developer betas launching on the same day. Then we go through a few months of betas before the iOS and iPadOS releases come after the new iPhone is announced in September.
Apple announced iOS 18 at WWDC on June 10, 2024. The first developer beta was made available a few hours later, with a public beta slated to start in July. The stable release is coming in September, typically the third week of September (a week after the iPhone announcement). Here are the most recent iOS launch dates:
- iOS 17 – September 17, 2023
- iOS 16 – September 12, 2022
- iOS 15 – September 20, 2021
- iOS 14 – September 16, 2020
- iOS 13 – September 19, 2019
iOS 18 Updates
The first iOS 18 beta was released on June 10, 2024. While Apple doesn’t typically release a timeline for betas, they do generally launch about every two weeks through August. So we could see six or seven betas this year. There are also two tracks of betas, with Developer Beta and Public Beta. We would recommend sticking with the Public Beta, as it is typically a bit less buggy.
- iOS 18 Developer Beta 1 – Released on June 10, 2024
Which iPhones will be supported?
Unlike Android, Apple does not guarantee updates for a certain number of years. While the iPhone 6 did get updates for what seemed like ever, more recent phones have stopped receiving new versions of iOS much sooner. The iPhone 8, 8 Plus, and X were dropped with iOS 17.
With iOS 18, Apple is sticking to the same group of iPhones getting updated. So that’s going to be the iPhone Xr (released in 2018) and later. Here’s the full list:
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 Pro
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone SE (2nd generation or later)
What features can we expect with iOS 18?
While iOS was announced at WWDC already, Apple does tend to keep some features under wraps until the iPhone release in the fall. But as of right now, we have a pretty good list of what features are coming in iOS 18. And there’s, surprisingly, a good amount of customization features and, of course, AI features. However, the AI – or Apple Intelligence – features won’t be available until the fall. And even then it’ll be available as a beta.
Control Center Customization
With iOS 18, Apple is adding new Control Center customization, which will allow you to move controls around, and even resize them. Apple is also adding multiple pages, which includes a full page for media controls, and another full page for smart home controls. While the rumors about this made it sound pretty clunky, this is actually a really good layout for everything that Control Center handles these days.
Apple is also extending support for Control Center with a new API, so that other app developers can use the Control Center toggles if they want to. One of the examples that Apple used was with Ford, where you can easily pre-condition your EV right from the control center. And as someone that owns an EV, that’s really nice to have.
Home Screen Customization
Apple is finally bringing a decent amount of home screen customization to the iPhone with iOS 18. Now, users will be able to put icons anywhere they want. So we can get rid of that grid finally. It’s somewhat odd that it took Apple this long to do this, but here it is.
Along with home screen customization, Apple is allowing you to change the color of all of your icons. You can choose any color you want, or let Siri pick a color that would compliment your wallpaper. Which sounds exactly like Material You, which Google debuted back in 2020 on Android.
Big updates to iMessage
Apple is also adding quite a few new features for iMessage. Of course, the big one that Android users are going to be interested in is, RCS. That’s Rich Communication Services, which will improve texting with an iPhone. But as expected, Apple is keeping non-iPhone texts as green bubbles.
Additionally, Apple is providing new ways to play with text in iMessage, you can make text larger, make it animated and much more. Apple is also adding more emojis for tapbacks. So you can reply exactly how you feel.
Finally, you can schedule text messages in iOS 18. A bit surprising that this was not a feature already.
And Messages via Satellite is here as well. So when you’re out hiking or somewhere that has no signal at all, you can still get a few text messages off, via satellites.
Mail gains Gmail tabs
The Mail app is gaining new tabs to help better manage your inbox. And it reminds us a lot of the tabs in Gmail. So now you’ll have tabs for Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. Allowing you to easily find the shipping confirmation for that Amazon order. Apple is also going to start grouping messages together that are similar. Making it easier to find all your emails from Delta, or Starbucks.
New Passwords App
For years, Apple has allowed you to store passwords within the iCloud Password vault, but that was hidden away in Settings. Now, Apple is rolling out a new Passwords app that will exist on iOS, iPad OS and macOS. This is going to make it much easier to retrieve passwords, WiFi passwords,
and much more.
Apple Intelligence
Apple, as it does with every technology, has its own marketing term for AI, which is “Apple Intelligence”. This is a suite of new features that will debut later this year. Apple says that they will launch the stable version of iOS 18 this Fall in beta.
With Apple Intelligence, Apple is offering a ton of useful features, instead of just features that are there to be there. Including the ability to rewrite your emails for you. It can also provide help with grammar, punctuation and much more. You can change your tone and even change your layout with bullet points or a table. A lot like what ChatGPT can already do for you.
Apple can also take your sketches and turn them into actual photos with Apple Intelligence. This is a rather neat feature, and I can’t wait to really try it out to see how good it is (or isn’t). You can also create images using Genmoji.
A brand new Siri is finally here. After years of Siri being joked about as being absolutely terrible, Apple is working on fixing it. Siri is getting a major overhaul this year, which will make it more conversational, it can see what’s on your screen and react to it, and so Siri can “assist you like never before”. And quite frankly, it’s about time.
Download iOS 18 Beta now
You can download the iOS 18 developer beta today. Simply go into the Settings on your iPhone, then tap on General and Software Update. Now tap on “Beta Updates” and choose “iOS 18 Developer Beta”. Swipe back to the previous screen, and you should see the update available. The size of the first beta is about 7.11GB. It’s a large file, because it is replacing the entire OS on your iPhone.
Keep in mind that the first beta is generally pretty rough and full of bugs. So if you’re not ready to deal with that, and features not working, you may want to hold off until the public beta launches in July.
