Over the last month or so, Apple has released a steady stream of software betas for people to try out, including those for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia and more. Yet now it looks like we may have had the final update, at least for iOS 18, according to a well-connected reporter.
That news comes from Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman, who posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “the latest iOS 18 seed, I’m told, is final other than features tied to the new hardware.”
It’s an interesting suggestion, as the latest iOS 18 beta is still missing a lot of features – particularly those surrounding Apple Intelligence, Apple’s upcoming artificial intelligence (AI) platform. Gurman has previously hinted that some of these missing features might not appear until after iOS 18 gets released – or perhaps not even until 2025.
However, there’s plenty of interesting new additions to try out in the betas. In iOS 18, the Control Center has been redesigned, Safari can highlight and summarize web page content, there’s a new Passwords app for all your logins, and a whole lot more.
How to download the iOS 18 beta
If you want to download the latest iOS 18 beta, you’ll first need to sign up to Apple’s Beta Software Program on its website and follow the on-screen instructions to enroll your iOS device.
Once you’ve done that, open the Settings app and go to General > Software Update > Beta Updates and choose iOS 18 Public Beta from the list. Your iPhone should then tell you if there’s an update to be downloaded, which you will subsequently be able to install.
If this really is the final iOS 18 beta update before the full version of the software drops, it suggests that Apple is almost ready to launch iOS 18 in full. And that in turn implies that the iPhone 16 launch event is only just around the corner.
For a while now, it’s been assumed that Apple will hold its iPhone 16 show on September 10. Yet recently, we’ve seen some speculation that it could actually happen a week earlier – on September 3 – in order to avoid clashing with the U.S. presidential debate that is also scheduled for September 10.
Either way, the idea that Apple has just released its final iOS 18 beta suggests that the iPhone 16 – and everything else Apple plans to unveil at its September event – is more or less imminent. And with that, the full release of iOS 18 will be hot on its heels.