Newsletter
WWDC 2024 has happened, and Apple just introduced us to iOS 18. It comes chock-full of a bunch of AI goodness, a Material You that’s a little askew, and a ton of updates to the apps you know and love. iOS 18 is available in beta form, and you can try it out if your phone is compatible. But, how do you install the developer iOS 18 beta? That’s what we’re here to answer for you. We’ll go over what models are compatible with the beta, what you should know before installing it, and the installation process.
How to install the iOS 18 Developer beta
Before installing the beta and breaking into the experience, there are a few things that you should know. If you’re familiar with iPhone betas, then you should be familiar with them.
What models are compatible?
Apple is good at distributing updates to its older phones, but don’t expect to get iOS 18 on your iPhone 6. You’ll be able to get the beta if you’re using any iPhone 15, iPhone 14, iPhone 13, iPhone 12, or iPhone 11. It’s also compatible with the iPhone Xr, iPhone Xs, and iPhone SE (2nd and 3rd generation). So, you’re covered if you’re rocking a phone as far back as 2020.
But, don’t expect all of the features coming to older phones
If you’re gripping a four-year-old phone, you may not want to jump for joy, as many of the cool and exciting features that Apple announced will not be making it to your phone. In fact, Apple announced that the company’s take on AI (“Apple Intelligence” *queue rolling-eyes emoji*) will not be making it to the base iPhone 15 model.
It will only be available on the iPhone 15 Pro going forward. So, you can expect certain new features, but you should also expect those features to dwindle as they make it to older devices.
You may be getting buggy software
One thing to know is that, if you’re downloading early software, you should expect it to be unstable. iOS is a very polished operating system, but there’s always the chance that the beta is very unstable.
So, if you use your phone for business, and you need everything to be in working order, then you might want to pass this up. Apple is still finalizing the software, so you should expect crashes and general instability in certain areas of the software. The beta is mostly to test drive the software and provide feedback to Apple to tell it what the company can fix.
Installing the update
The installation process if super quick and easy. Go to your phone’s Settings and go to General and Software Update. There, you should see the iOS 18 button. Tap on it, and sit back so your phone installs the update. When your phone restarts, you’ll have iOS 18!
Just know that you shouldn’t expect all of the interesting features on day one, even if you have an iPhone 15 Pro (Review). You’ll have features like the new color picker and the ability to move your icons where you want to on your screen. However, the company said that many of the AI features will not be available when the beta lands. So, you’ll need to wait for them.