You may want to wait before installing the iOS 18.4 public version on your iPhone

With the release of the first public version iOS 18.4, we can now have an overview of the next series of iPhone features, some depending on Apple Intelligence and others on new iOS capacities. A new option uses AI to mark priority notifications, for example, and you can start playing ambient music directly in Control Center and see the recipes in Apple News.

But before I start this download, I am here to remind you of the “beta” part of the “public beta”. Prerelease software is unfinished, and even if a public beta version means that Apple is confident enough to sow it on several thousand iphones, the objective is to see how the update behaves before it is deployed On millions of iPhones. And although the developer iOS 8.4 was quite stable, you never know what bugs could pass.

To find out more about what iOS 18 brings to the iPhone, be sure to check All that Apple announced during its “Glowtime” event in September And how Apple Intelligence affects how we use Apple devices.

A positive word on the installation of the public version iOS 18.4

The public beta version is more stable than developer Betas, which Apple has regularly published since early June, and is intended for … developers.

But “more stable” is not the same as “solid rock”. Apple adds and always changes features in the IOS 18.4 betas before the planned outing of iOS 18.4 in April.

If you decide to install the public beta version iOS 18.4, I recommend that you do it on a separate iPhone that does not use your main personal phone. iOS 18.4 will work with models as old as the iPhone SE (second generation) and the iPhone XR, so reach the folder of your technological drawer and put this forgotten iPhone in service.

Also, as always, make sure you have good backups of your data.

Insects are part of the public beta version iOS 18.4

Now, to discuss the reason why the upgrade to the iOS public beta could be a bad idea.

Software bugs at the development stage are to be expected – in fact, is a bit of a point. It is now time for skitter bugs in the light so that the developers can catch them and Apple can correct them before the final version. The opening of the public beta version has more testers helps to eliminate strange interactions with a much larger pool of iPhones and third -party applications.

Regarding bugs, they can vary through the spectrum. You can face connectivity problems with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or end up with third-party applications that crash from time to time. The features that work perfectly on iOS 18 may not be up to par on iOS 18.4, even if they are not necessarily linked to new iOS 18.4 features. And the flight attendance processes could keep the system warmer than normal, by decreasing not only the duration of the phone on a battery load, but also to underline the life of the battery itself. To be fair, I have never treated brick bugs, brick brick in beta – usually a series of annoyance that can grate you after a while. But all of this is perfectly normal in public developers and beta.

But if you don’t want to face bugs and other problems that could make your phone more difficult to use, you probably don’t want the iOS 18.4 public version on your main iPhone.

The life of your battery can worsen

Have you recently purchased a recommended portable charger for your iPhone? Expect to make it more use when performing beta software. Energy efficiency is generally the last thing that Apple developers optimize, because the priority at this stage is to ensure that the functionalities work and that the bugs are carried away.

An iOS update also triggers a multitude of internal indexing, which consumes a lot of energy for a few hours or days after installation. The Photos Application, for example, updates its recognized people database, analyzes images for new objects or scenes recognizable for research and search for duplicates.

Performance can take a hit

Partly due to the reindexation of data gigabytes on your phone, the IOS 18.4 public beta version will certainly not provide the performance you might expect. Applications and games with high processor intensity must also be set to work with the new iOS, so stutter and seeds are normal.

The game mode is a new feature for iOS (it appeared for the first time in MacOS Sonoma) which redirects resources to improve image frequencies and Bluetooth latency, so the most demanding games could work better than under iOS 17 or iOS 18. However, the game mode works at a low level and could be interrupted by beta components.

All new iOS 18 features are not yet there

We already know that many Apple Razzle Dazzle intelligence features will not be available right away, even if iOS 18.3 gave us some others with which to play. This is the life cycle of development: certain features are placed on the rear burner so that others can be completed.

I know it is difficult to be patient when future features are just a download. But I don’t want you to be burned either (as I have done in the past).

To find out more about iOS 18, see how the new The application of passwords works on all your devices.