iOS 12 is going to give your old iPhone a new lease on life, and it comes out tomorrow. Here’s what it does.
The iOS 12 release date is tomorrow, and while the time is undetermined, Apple likes to push out new software updates in the morning, local time at headquarters.
That means you can start enjoying the new iOS 12 features on Monday at 10am PDT (1pm EST, 6pm BST, or if you’re in Australia, 3am AEST Tuesday), if that holds true.
iOS 12 is going to give your old iPhone a new lease on life tomorrow. You don’t need an pricey iPhone XS or iPhone XS Max to get Apple’s software upgrade.
Features like Memoji, Group Notifications and, importantly, better performance for older phones will help make your existing iPhone and iPad feel like new.
We tested iOS 12 beta over the course of the last three months and it was instantly better than iOS 11, which had a well-documented history of problems and bugs.
Good news: we can already tell you that Grouped Notifications makes the UI easier to navigate, and the promise of Siri Shortcuts is bound to save everyone time.
Bad news: Group FaceTime was delayed, and it won’t launch as part of the software on September 17. Expect it in iOS 12.1, maybe sometime in October along with the iPhone XR release date of October 26.
Apple is making its mobile operating system reliable and competitive with Google’s Android Pie and the Google Pixel 3 that’s coming October 9. That much is obvious.
Here’s what we know about iOS 12, wether you’re loading it onto your older iPhone or Apple’s new iPhone XS Max.
Update: Here are our first impressions of the iOS 12 beta after going hands-on!
Apple announced the iOS 12 release date at its iPhone XS launch event, though you could have actually tested it early (and still can), with three iOS 12 launch phases: one for developers, one for public beta testers, and one final version coming soon for everyone else.
The developer beta is available now and gets more frequent refreshes. But it’s early software and you must be a registered Apple developer. That costs money: $99 for the annual membership. It’s for people who like to tinker with software weekly, and so far Apple is on iOS 12 developer beta 12.
The iOS 12 public beta is the one most people will want to test out, and it’s also now available to download. It launched on June 25 and is completely free. It’s also likely to be less problematic than the developer beta. Expect more stable updates every two to three weeks. The downside? Apple’s public betas are always one step behind what the developers have access to.
Both beta versions of the iOS 12 beta were unfinished software, so we always noted that you should proceed with caution before deciding to install iOS 12 beta on your primary device. For example, the iOS 12 beta 1 was great for us, but we had minor reset problems with iOS 12 beta 2. Waiting for the final iOS 12 version is a safer choice if you rely on your iPhone daily.
What’s the difference between the latest phones showcasing iOS? Watch our handy explainer to find out:
iOS 12 focuses on reliability and performance with this update, and support all of the same iPhones and iPads that iOS 11 worked with.
Apple called out the iPhone 6 Plus, specifically, saying iOS 12 makes this phone 40% faster at launching apps, 70% faster at launching the camera app, and 50% faster at displaying the keyboard. Keyboard typing and other routine features on older iPhones can slow down with every new iOS update, and Apple is looking to change these pain points with iOS 12.
This makes your existing iPhone and iPad more reliable, and your older devices can be used by family members or be sold now that they’ll be more function with iOS 12. They don’t have to sit in a draw because they’re too slow.
Here’s a concrete example already: for us, the public beta has been reliable enough to download. There’s the occasional iPhone reset or hangups, but we actually found it to be more reliable than the problematic iOS 11 in some instances. So far, so good.
Here are two irksome features we hated about iOS 11 on the iPhone X that iOS 12 is going to fix. The final software is going to feel 200% less annoying when it launches.
Closing app windows in iOS 12 is now easier thanks to the fact that all you have to do is slide up on an open app to dismiss it from the multitasking menu. iOS 11 had us press down on the app until red close icons appeared over top of each app, and then to tap those little red icons to dismiss the app. That was unpleasant.
Second, whenever we picked up our phone, we’d always pressed the volume up and power button accidentally, which is the new ‘take a screenshot’ button combination. Apple has disabled this action whenever the phone screen is off. Our iOS 12 Photos app is no longer going to be filled with errant screenshots on the daily.
iOS 12 will run on all devices that have its 64-bit chipset, including the iPhone XS, iPhone XR and iPhone XS Max, which was first introduced in 2013. It’ll work on the iPhone 5S and newer, while the iPad Air and iPad mini 2 are the oldest iPads that are compatible with iOS 12.
That’s means this update is supporting 11 different iPhones, 10 different iPads and the sole iPod touch 6th generation still clinging to life. It’s the broadest support for a software update Apple has ever offered, and this is one of the biggest advantages Apple has over Android phones.
iOS 12 cements Apple as a leader in augmented reality (AR) with the arrival of groundbreaking multiplayer capabilities it calls Shared Experiences in ARKit 2 .
These multi-user virtual environments are coming to ARKit, allowing for multiplayer gaming and experiences through iPhones and iPads. iOS 12 is going to create a more collaborative (and competitive) way of experiencing AR.
LEGO demoed a four-player game, pledging that it was in when it came to Apple’s “creative play possibilities.” Players were involved in building up an AR town. It was like The Sims was reimagined for the future.
ARKit 2 opens up AR to hundreds of millions of users, according to Apple, and that makes iOS 12 the broadest AR platform in the world. We got a taste of AR last year, but multi-user virtual environments bring more advanced tools and gameplay.
You won’t have to worry about reciting your exact location when calling 911 in the US thanks to iOS 12. It’ll pinpoint your whereabouts during emergency calls.
Apple says it’ll « automatically and securely » share your iPhone location with first responders, but only with them and only during such emergencies. It’s an effort to reduce response time, yet maintain your privacy.
‘Measure’ is getting its own AR app. It uses the iPhone’s and iPad’s advanced sensors to measure objects in front of you, including suitcases, as shown in the first iOS 12 demo. All it takes it just tap-and-drag along the edges of the object on the screen.
It can also automatically detect the approximate dimensions of a photo – we can imagine that will help when you go to buy a photo frame, but can’t find the old-fashioned tape measure. iOS 12 to the rescue.
For AR developers, Apple has created a new file type called ‘USDZ.’ The company worked on USDZ with Pixar, and Adobe is supporting it, too. The file format can be shared across FIles, Mail, Messages and Safari. This is an important step forward for developers working on AR apps.
Apple didn’t announce big camera changes at its WWDC 2018 keynote, but later said that the default camera app will get tweaked with iOS 12.
The Portrait Lighting mode on newer iPhones with a dual-lens camera will look more natural. The software will be able to define crisper edges by more effectively separating a person from a background scene. Apple is also allowing third-party apps to use the software to separate the foreground and background.
It’ll be the end of an era for our how to scan a QR code from your iPhone and iPad guide. The default camera in iOS 12 makes QR code reading automatic.
And while not part of the camera app, RAW photos can be imported and managed on an iPhone and iPad, with the bonus ability of editing RAW photos on an iPad Pro .
The Photos app is expanding search in an effort to compete with Google Photos. It recognizes photos by event and indexes them accordingly. Apple says it takes into account over four million events, citing the Aspen Ideas Festival as a niche example.
This lets you search by event without any thankless manual tagging. Searching by event joins other smart suggestions, including filtering by people, places, and relative dates (searching via Siri works with all of these and is quiet handy).
The iOS 12 Photos search capabilities have also been broadened to let you use multiple search terms at once. Seeking « dog, animal » should weed out all of your gourmet hotdog results (this is a real problem we just tested on iOS 11).
A new tab ‘For you’ is coming to the iOS 12 Photos app, filled with personalized suggestions on how to improve and share your pictures. Sharing has gotten smarter, letting you share at full-resolution and suggesting who to share these photos with.
Share back suggestions is a neat feature that lets you send photos to a friend, and it uses machine learning to poke them to send photos they took to you. iOS 12’s photos sharing uses iMessage’s end-to-end encryption.
It’s confusing owning both an iPad and a new iPhone X right now because returning to the home screen and opening Control Center are executed by different gestures.
The iPad takes cues from the iPhone X with the iOS 12 update: swipe up from the bottom to return home and check Control Center by pulling down from the top right-hand corner.
This may be a prelude to the iPad Pro 2018 that’s rumored to include Apple’s True Depth camera for Face ID, Animoji and Memoji.
