iOS 18.2 was recently released with more Apple Intelligence features and other nice-to-have functions. While we expect iOS 18.3 beta 1 to be released soon, I wouldn’t recommend you to install this update just yet. Here’s why.
Unlike all the other betas, this one is a little bit tricky. Since iOS 15.3, Apple usually releases this testing version just after update X.2. Then, it takes almost an entire month to release beta 2 because, if you look at the calendar, it’s the end of the year, and the developers take their holidays very serious – as they should.
That said, if you find any major bug with iOS 18.3 beta 1 – or just that little annoying issue – you’ll have to wait until the second week of January to get a second testing version, which still might not even have the fix you’re waiting for.
The good part is that Apple usually doesn’t take that long to release version X.3. With iOS 16.3 and iOS 15.3, Apple seeded only two betas and then the Release Candidate version. With iOS 17.3, the company only released three betas and an RC version.
The issue, as mentioned above, is that you must keep with iOS 18.3 beta 1 for almost an entire month before getting a more polished version.
With that in mind, these are the possible new features coming with iOS 18.3 beta 1:
- Sketch style: With Image Playground, Apple offers animation and illustration styles. However, the Sketch style will likely be delayed. It’s currently available as an option in Image Wand but not for the Image Playground app.
- Personal context understanding: With Apple Intelligence’s on-device semantic index, Siri can understand emails, messages, photos, calendar events, files, and more and can provide answers to personal questions.
- Integration with other LLMs: Currently, Apple only offers support for ChatGPT integration with Writing Tools. In the future, the mobile platform is expected to work with other LLMs, such as Google’s Gemini and more.
- Robot vacuum cleaners will be compatible with the Home app, so they can participate in automation and scenes and can be activated by a user’s voice using Siri.
BGR will let you know once iOS 18.3 beta 1 is out, including all the new features.