 "iOS 18")
Apple has announced iOS 18 at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The next-generation operating system for iPhone brings AI-powered Siri, customisable home screen, app lock feature, personalised control center, and new features in Messaging and Phone apps.
iOS 18 will be available for public use later this year, but if you are registered with the Apple Developer program, you can download iOS 18 developer beta. If you are comfortable with running developer beta on your iPhone, you can experience the new features of iOS 18 today.
Earlier, to join Apple Developer program users were required to pay $100 per year but with the release of the iOS 17 developer beta last year, Apple has created a free tier of the Apple Developer program through which you can download any developer betas. The only requirement is that you should have an Apple ID.
iOS 18: What is new
- Home Screen: Apps and widgets can now be relocated, and the home screen supports customisable colours and new app icons in dark mode.
- Control Center: Introduces a new group of controls accessible with a swipe-up gesture, showing connected home devices and allowing for quick control customisation. Controls are also accessible from the lock screen, and the Action Button can invoke these controls.
- App Lock: Independent app locking, with hidden apps placed in a secure folder.
- Messages: Includes RCS messaging support, emoji and sticker tapbacks, scheduled messages, text formatting, integrated text effects, and satellite messaging for iPhone 14 and later models.
- Mail: On-device categorisation of emails into primary, transactions, updates, and promotions (coming later this year).
- Game mode: Mac’s game mode is coming to the iPhone.
- Photos: A comprehensive redesign simplifies accessing memories and organising photos, with built-in intelligence for creating collections.
- Phone: Call recording, transcription in Notes with option for summary powered by Apple Intelligence. T9 search for contacts.
Things to keep in mind before downloading
Developer betas are used by developers to check their apps on the upcoming operating system and to report bugs. Since the bugs are removed after the testing, you might face unexpected crashing on the phone or it might prevent you from using some apps in addition to other issues that you might face, hence Developer beta should be downloaded with caution. You can also sign up for a more stable public beta for iOS 18, which will be released later in the month or in July.
iOS 18 will run only on the iPhone XS and later. The phone should be updated to at least iOS 16.4 if you want to download the iOS 18 developer beta as an over-the-air update. The latest iOS version is currently 17.5.1.
If you ever want to go back to iOS 17, you will also need a backup. To back up your phone, go to Setting then select your name and then select iCloud. After that select iCloud Backup and tap Back Up Now.
iOS 18 developer beta: How to download and install
- On iPhone, go to Settings-General-Software Update
- Tap on the Beta Updates option and select iOS 18 Developer Beta
- Move back to Software Update page and wait for the download to appear
- Agree to Apple terms and initiate download process
- Installation will begin subsequent to download process
iOS 18 developer beta: Eligible iPhone models
- 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)
