iOS 18 beta release schedule: Here’s when to expect new betas

3 months ago 156

Summer is beta season for Apple’s software platforms. With new features and changes in each release, the question on many beta users’ minds is: when will the next beta drop?

Here’s when you should expect future betas for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, iPadOS 18, and more.

Apple’s schedule for summer betas

Apple follows predictable patterns each year for its beta releases. Rarely is there any major deviation in the summer schedule for beta versions of its software.

As a result, it’s fairly simple to deduce when we can expect new betas to drop for iOS 18, visionOS 2, macOS Sequoia, and the other new OS updates.

Beta releases for iOS 18 so far

So far in 2024, Apple has released new betas across the following dates:

Developer beta 1: June 10
Developer beta 2: June 24
Developer beta 3: July 8
Public beta 1 w/ updated dev beta 3: July 15
Developer beta 4: July 23

This schedule follows the same pattern we saw in 2023 with iOS 17 and 2022 with iOS 16. Betas dropped in the same general weeks from year to year, with only minor differences.

Extrapolating the schedules of prior years forward, here is when we can expect future iOS 18 betas to arrive.

Future iOS 18 beta release schedule

The dates below are only estimates, but if Apple follows the same pattern as recent years, they should prove accurate within a roughly 1 day margin of variation.

Public beta 2: ~July 29
Developer beta 5: ~August 6
Public beta 3: ~August 7
Dev beta 6 & public beta 4: ~August 13
Dev beta 7 & public beta 5: ~August 20
Dev beta 8 & public beta 6: ~August 27
RC candidate: September post-iPhone event

Like in prior years, this schedule anticipates a shift to weekly releases starting with developer beta 5. That pattern should then hold throughout the entire month of August.

What to expect from future betas

Every year, Apple’s beta updates get progressively more stable throughout the summer.

The early betas tend to come with an array of bugs and instabilities. As the fall public launch draws near, the betas grow more solid. They also include fewer changes later in the summer.

Apple may still have some noteworthy revisions in store for iOS 18’s next developer betas. It’s not unusual for betas 5 and even 6 to offer new changes.

But once mid-to-late August arrives, expect to see minimal differences between updates. Save, of course, for improved performance.

Are you running the iOS 18 beta? How has performance been so far? Let us know in the comments.