A Few Common-Sense Reasons to Hold Off on Installing the iOS 18 Public Beta

The new iPhone models and iOS 18 are coming quickly, which means the iOS 18 public beta is very close to its release state. It’s a great way to get started with improvements like a Maps app overhaul and expanded text messaging features.

The fact that the iOS 18 public beta is in its fifth version might make you think it’s time to install it on your everyday iPhone. While I didn’t encounter any egregious bugs in my testing, the beta is still pre-release software and deserves some caution. As always, it’s best to approach it with your eyes open and realistic expectations.

For more information on what iOS 18 will bring to the iPhone, be sure to check out everything Apple announced at WWDC and how Apple Intelligence will impact how we use Apple devices. Also, if you really want the latest iPhone operating system, here’s how to install the iOS 18 public beta.

A positive word about installing the iOS 18 public beta

The public beta is more stable than the developer betas, which Apple has been releasing regularly since early June, and is aimed at… developers.

But “most stable” doesn’t mean “solid.” Apple continues to add and change features in the iOS 18 betas, which won’t culminate in a product ready to ship until likely later this month.

If you decide to install the iOS 18 public beta, I recommend doing so on a separate iPhone that isn’t your primary personal phone. iOS 18 will work with older models like the iPhone SE (2nd generation) and iPhone XR, so make sure you use that forgotten phone.

Bugs are part of the iOS 18 public beta

Now let’s take a look at why upgrading to the iOS public beta is a bad idea.

Software bugs are expected to surface during the development phase — in fact, that’s the point. This is a good time for bugs to surface so developers can catch them and Apple can fix them before the final release. Opening the public beta to a wider range of testers helps eliminate weird interactions with a much wider range of iPhones and third-party apps.

As for errors, they can range across the spectrum. You may encounter issues connecting to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or find yourself with third-party apps that crash from time to time. Features that work perfectly on iOS 17 may not be as good as those in iOS 18, even if they aren’t necessarily related to new features in iOS 18. Runaway background processes can keep the system running hotter than usual, not only reducing how long your phone lasts on a single charge, but also potentially straining the battery life itself. To be fair, I’ve never encountered any bugs that cause the display to stop working or destroy your phone in a beta — they’re usually just a series of annoyances that can bother you after a while. But these are all perfectly normal in developer and public betas.

But if you don’t want to deal with bugs and other issues that could make your phone harder to use, you probably don’t want the iOS 18 public beta on your primary iPhone.

Your battery life may worsen

Have you recently purchased a recommended portable charger for your iPhone? Expect to get the most out of it while running a beta program. Power efficiency is usually the last thing Apple developers focus on improving, as the priority at this point is making sure features work and squashing bugs.

Updating iOS also triggers a lot of internal indexing, which can drain a lot of battery life for a few hours or days after installation. For example, the Photos app updates its database of recognized people, scans photos for new recognizable objects or scenes for search purposes, and searches for duplicates.

Performance may take a hit

Partly due to reindexing gigabytes of data on your phone, the iOS 18 public beta is definitely not going to deliver the performance you might expect. CPU-intensive apps and games also need to be configured to work with the new iOS, so stutters and crashes are normal.

Game Mode is a new iOS feature (first introduced in macOS Sonoma) that redirects resources to improve frame rates and Bluetooth latency, so more demanding games may run better than they did in iOS 17. However, Game Mode is also still in experimental development and may have its own temporary drawbacks.

Not all of iOS 18’s new features are here yet

We already know that these awesome Apple Intelligence features won’t be available until after iOS 18 is released, and some, like updated Siri integrations, won’t arrive until next year, according to a report. Even the new full-screen Siri effect and the ability to tap on Siri are currently only available to developers using a separate beta of iOS 18.1.

It’s the development lifecycle: some features are pushed to the back burner until other features can be completed. Last year, Apple announced two exciting media features, collaborative playlists in the Music app and AirPlay in hotels, which won’t be rolling out until January and April 2024, respectively.

I know it’s hard to be patient when future features are just a download away. But I also don’t want you to be disappointed (like I have been in the past).

For more on iOS 18, check out why it could be more exciting than the upcoming iPhone 16 and how the new passwords app will work across all your devices.