iOS 18 Public Beta Coming Soon: How to Get Your iPhone Ready - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

iOS 18 Public Beta Coming Soon: How to Get Your iPhone Ready

by

Apple last month announced that the first public beta of iOS 18 would be released in July, so it should be available to try out soon.

Generic iOS 18 Feature Real Mock
Below, we outline everything you need to know about the upcoming iOS 18 public beta.

Timing

The first iOS 17 and iOS 16 public betas came out in the first half of July in the past two years.

  • iOS 16: Monday, July 11, 2022
  • iOS 17: Wednesday, July 12, 2023

How to Get Ready

Enrolling in Apple's free public beta testing program is simple: visit beta.apple.com, sign in to your Apple ID account, and accept the terms and conditions.

After signing up, open the Settings app on your iPhone and tap General → Software Update → Beta Updates. This is where the iOS 18 public beta will be listed once available, and you will be able to tap on it to begin the installation process. Note that the iPhone must be signed in to the same Apple ID enrolled in the public beta program.

Due to software bugs and other potential issues, we recommend installing the iOS 18 public beta on a secondary iPhone, rather than the device that you use daily. We also highly recommend backing up your iPhone to your Mac before installing beta software on the device, to prevent data loss in the event something goes wrong.

We will be sharing a more detailed step-by-step guide on installing the iOS 18 public beta following its release later this month.

Compatible iPhones

iOS 18 is compatible with the same iPhone models as iOS 17 is:

  • 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 mini
  • iPhone 13
  • iPhone 13 Pro
  • iPhone 13 Pro Max
  • iPhone 12 mini
  • iPhone 12
  • 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)

New Features

iOS 18 Home Screen
iOS 18 introduces new customization options for the Home Screen and Control Center, a redesigned Photos app, the ability to use any emoji as a Tapback in the Messages app, an option to lock apps behind Face ID or Touch ID, and much more.

The tentpole feature of iOS 18 is the Apple Intelligence suite of AI features. These features will help you improve your writing, summarize your notifications, generate custom emoji and images, and much more. Apple Intelligence will also power a smarter version of Siri with on-screen awareness, deeper per-app controls, and more.

Apple Intelligence features have yet to be added to any iOS 18 developer betas, so they might not be available in the first iOS 18 public beta.

Read our in-depth iOS 18 roundup to learn more about the update.

Skipping the Beta?

iOS 18 should be widely released to all users with a compatible iPhone in September.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
Read Full Article
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
Read Full Article • 80 comments
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...
Read Full Article • 49 comments

Top Rated Comments

arkitect Avatar
arkitect
22 months ago
iOS 18 Public Beta Coming Soon: How to Get Your iPhone Ready?

By keeping it as far away from the Beta as possible.

/jk
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fwmireault Avatar
fwmireault
22 months ago

MR didn’t even mention that Apple Intelligence isn’t available to anyone that doesn’t not own the iPhone 15 pro models lol (so 95% of users)
They've mentioned it in several articles already
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
trusso Avatar
trusso
22 months ago
Since iOS and macOS are essentially rolling release now, and the new features are either half baked right now or not even there… take my advice and just wait for the official release in 2-3 months. You don’t need the public beta unless you’re actually a developer.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BigTimEnergy Avatar
BigTimEnergy
22 months ago
Last Beta I did was iOS 7. Never had the itch again since then, I can wait.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
PsykX
22 months ago

Last Beta I did was iOS 7. Never had the itch again since then, I can wait.
That's when the pile of bugs started. I remember iOS 9 was also a disaster.

I installed iOS 18 on my old XR and I did a quick tour yesterday. Looks like a solid update overall.
Also in Apple's release notes, there's SO many fixes in EVERY single platform, including their development platform (Xcode), and their programming languages (Swift, SwiftUI...). In fact, I've never seen as many fixes in the release notes.

Either they are being more transparent about bug fixes, or they really put more time into bug fixing this year. I suspect it's a little bit of both.

That being said : The average Joe should definitely wait until September to install it. The best features won't be ready this year anyway (Apple Intelligence).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unity451 Avatar
Unity451
22 months ago

Last Beta I did was iOS 7. Never had the itch again since then, I can wait.
Same. I use the same phone for personal and work. I can't afford to be carrying around a brick.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments
Related Apple News: World News | Iphone | Business | Ipad | Sport