iOS 18.1 public beta 2 goes online

Apple is pushing iOS 18.1 beta 2 for public testers, allowing the latest Apple Intelligence improvements to run through iPhone 15 Pro and 16 devices.

The latest rollout comes a week after the public beta 1 release, which introduces some new AI features to the new testers. However, Apple has to walk through a long road with this suite of AI capabilities.

Apple Intelligence was announced at the WWDC24 conference but the features couldn’t make it on time for the iPhone 16 series. In fact, these new iPhones are shipping without Apple Intelligence.

Instead, the company has promised to add it via an over-the-air software update and the first rollout will start in October. However, it would take at least 4-5 iOS 18 rollouts to install these AI features to eligible devices. In this case, only iPhone 15 Pro models and iPhone 16 series can run them onboard.

Apple is doing a massive PR around Apple Intelligence but not shipping these features to the latest iPhones is kind of a bummer. Still, the development is on track, and features such as writing tools, intelligent notifications, and summaries could be landing first with iOS 18.1 in October.

Important features such as generative image features may not drop until iOS 18.2 or 18.3. Advanced Siri remained in limbo for the time being.

With the current pace of development, we can expect, iOS 18.1 to rollout in the second week of October if not delayed to the third. Meanwhile, iPhone users registered under the public beta branch can download the latest software and check its new additions.