iOS 18 is the biggest release for the iPhone ever, especially when you consider the addition of Apple Intelligence, even if it’s limited only to the 15 Pro line at the moment. With the addition of more home screen customizations, a new Control Center, and upcoming RCS support, there’s a lot to look forward to with this version of the OS.
Apple made the iOS 18 Developer Beta available shortly after the WWDC 2024 keynote for developers to get ahold of the newest release, although there’s a fair share of enthusiasts who decided to take the plunge although it’s not quite ready for end users. If you’re thinking of updating your iPhone to iOS 18, you might want to think twice.
These builds are known to be bug-laden and have performance issues, which can turn your typical iPhone experience into a frustrating one. Below, we’ll detail some of the things you may experience when installing a developer beta of this sort and feedback from people who have decided to forego the warnings.
For more Apple, check out iOS 18 brings tinted icons and home screen tweaks and Apple’s new Passwords app will sync across devices and platforms.
Bugs are expected in the iOS 18 Developer Beta
When the iPhone 16 is released later this year, it will ship with the official and “final” release of iOS 18 (any subsequent update will likely append a “.x.x” to the end of it.) It’s this release that people expect from the iPhone, and the current Developer Beta available now is far from that.
It can take a while to get all of the bugs squashed out of new software before it’s ready for primetime, and from now until the final release, Apple will be updating the iOS 18 beta program incrementally to make it the solid experience you expect it to be.
Apple breaks its iOS betas into both developer and public versions, with the latter being more usable for the curious iPhone user. If you want to install the iOS 18 Developer beta, here’s just a short list of issues people have said they’ve experienced on it.
- Certain apps don’t work at all or force close often
- Notifications not being delivered
- iMessages sending as SMS
- General performance issues
You can check out the iOS 18 Developer Beta discussion on Reddit to jump into more of what people are saying.
Watch this: iOS 18 Brings New Tapback Features and Text Over Satellite
Back up your iPhone before installing the iOS 18 Developer Beta
It goes without saying that if the above issues that you may experience with the iOS 18 Developer Preview don’t deter you from installing it, just be sure to make a full device backup first. If you don’t, the only way to go back to iOS 17 is to restore your iPhone as a new device, which may result in the loss of data, settings and other important information you might not be keen on parting with.
It shouldn’t matter if you create a backup through iCloud or iTunes, but one thing to keep in mind is that previous versions of the developer betas sometimes had issues connecting to computers, so backing up through iCloud might be the safer option.
P.S., it only takes a couple of taps to back up your iPhone:
- Settings
- Tap your name
- Find and select your device from the list
- Select iCloud Backup
- Tap Back Up Now
If you still have the iOS 18 itch, here’s how to download Developer Beta 1 and in case you have some regrets installing it, here’s how to roll back to iOS 17.
