iOS 18: Release Date, Compatibility, New Features, and More

iOS 18 Release Date iOS 18 Compatibility iOS 18 Features iOS 18 AI and Hardware iOS 18 Should Be a Big Upgrade Apple revealed the next major iPhone update, iOS 18, at WWDC today, alongside its new AI features and an update to macOS Sequoia. Here's everything you need to know about the upcoming iPhone software, including whether your iPhone is going to get it.

iOS 18 Release Date

iOS 18 was revealed to the world as part of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which took place on June 10, 2024 at 10 AM PDT (1 PM EDT). You can rewatch the event on Apple Events or the Apple YouTube channel, or catch up on all the announcements by reading our coverage.

Apple released a beta of the new software to developers on the same day. Developer previews are typically not suitable for "daily driving" since they are often unstable, introduce app compatibility problems, and can suffer from poor performance. They're designed to allow developers to get their apps ready for the final release later in the year.

If you want to test iOS 18 early, you're better off waiting for the public beta, which will be available via the Apple Beta Software Program in July. We don't have an exact date for it yet, but iOS 17 entered public beta on July 13, 2023. Be aware that iOS public betas are not ideal for everyone.

The final release of iOS 18 is likely to happen mid to late September. Previous iOS release dates include:

iOS 17: September 18, 2023 iOS 16: September 16, 2022 iOS 15: September 20, 2021

These dates usually coincide with the release of a new iPhone, typically around one week after Apple's September event reveals the new iPhone. This year, it'll be the release of the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro.

iOS 18 Compatibility

iOS 18 shares compatibility with iOS 17. That is to say, all devices that are compatible with iOS 17 will get the iOS 18 upgrade. However, many of Apple's new AI features will be limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max.

That means the full list of devices expected to support iOS 18 is as follows:

iPhone 15 Pro (and 15 Pro Max) iPhone 15 (and 15 Plus) iPhone 14 Pro (and 15 Pro Max) iPhone 14 (and 14 Plus) iPhone 13 Pro (and 13 Pro Max) iPhone 13 (and 13 mini) iPhone 12 Pro (and 12 Pro Max) iPhone 12 (and 12 mini) iPhone 11 Pro (and 11 Pro Max) iPhone 11 (and 11 Plus) iPhone XR iPhone XS (and XS Max) iPhone SE (2nd, 3rd generation)

iOS 18 Features

A lot of Apple's time at WWDC was spent discussing it's new AI ("Apple Intelligence") features. Siri is experiencing some of the biggest changes, with Apple integrating ChatGPT-style large language model (LLM) technology into the assistant. With AI, Siri is capable of better understanding you and interacting with apps for you, among other tasks. Apple is also integrating AI tools for image creation, image editing, text composition, rewriting, and more. With these changes, it's even possible that Siri won't suck anymore.

Apple has made data privacy a keen component in its AI push. Being able to perform many of these operations entirely on-device helps protect user data, and for other requests Apple will only send the relevant data to its own secure servers. Given its track record in defeating email tracking pixels, anonymizing web requests with iCloud Private Relay, and developer App Store privacy check-ups, the company is very well placed for offering private AI features.

On top of AI, iOS 18 introduces new features and redesigns to let users better customize their home screen, get more from Control Center, organize their photo libraries, express more in Messages, automatically categorize emails, and much more. There's even a standalone Apple Passwords app, which would provide a simpler and more convenient way to access passwords stored in iCloud Keychain.

iOS 18 also finally introduces support for the Rich Communication Service (RCS) messaging protocol, improving messaging between Android and iOS devices.

Apple had already confirmed a range of new accessibility features will be coming in iOS 18. As part of its Global Accessibility Awareness Day announcement, Apple announced that the hands-free eye control we've seen in the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset will be coming to iOS 18.

iOS 18 AI and Hardware

As iOS 18 is heavily focused on AI features that are processed on the device itself, not all the new features will be coming to every compatible phone. Apple Intelligence for the beta is limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which is likely to also be the case for the full release of iOS 18 in the fall.

These features will, of course, also be available on the iPhone 16 Pro models when they're announced, but there's a chance they may not be available on the non-Pro iPhone 16, depending which processor Apple puts inside the device.

It's also possible Apple could make AI features available to all devices by offering a cloud-computing option. However, this would go against a lot of the privacy safeguards Apple has put in place, so it seems unlikely.

iOS 18 Should Be a Big Upgrade

There are plenty of reasons to look forward to this year's iOS upgrade, whether you want to finally arrange apps on the bottom of your home screen, or you're desperate for a smarter version of Siri.

As always, the iOS 18 update will be free. As long as you own a compatible iPhone model, you should see some benefits when you update your iPhone in the fall.

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