On stage during the WWDC 2018 keynote, Apple showed off iOS 12 and all the funky new features contained inside. But seeing is one thing; playing with the latest version of iOS 12 is where it’s really at. As per tradition, Apple has already made the first developer beta of iOS 12 available to download, and provided you have a compatible iPhone or iPad and don’t value battery life or reliability, you can download it right now.
For once, we aren’t losing any devices in the yearly software upgrade cycle. iOS 12 will be compatible with every iPhone and iPad that could run iOS 11, which means iPhones all the way back to the iPhone 5S. Obviously, newer devices will run the iOS 12 developer beta 1 faster than older devices, but Apple is still promising performance improvements even for older devices.
iOS 12 developer beta 1 is currently available — as the name would suggest — to developers. If you have an Apple developer account, you can hit this link on your iPhone or iPad and you’ll download the developer profile, which will let you install the iOS 12 developer beta as an over-the-air update. If you prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, you can visit the link on your PC or Mac, and use iTunes to manually update. If you don’t have a paid Apple developer account, you can also download iOS 12 beta profiles here.
The good news is that early versions of Apple’s iOS 11 beta last year were passably stable. Yes, there were still plenty of bugs in beta 1 and the next few releases, but there wasn’t really anything that rendered the software unusable. Still, if you plan to install iOS 12 beta 1 on your iPhone or iPad, there are a few things you should know:
- You may lose some data. Be sure to back up to iCloud or iTunes before you install iOS 12 beta 1. This honestly goes for any time you’re updating from stable to beta software.
- There will be bugs. Lots and lots of bugs.
- Apps will crash… often. No third-party app developer on the planet has updated their apps yet for iOS 12 (how could they?) and there will absolutely be compatibility issues. You favorite apps may be completely unusable, in fact. Keep that in mind before you install iOS 12, and remember, the very first version is definitely not intended for use on your day-to-day phone.
With that out of the way, the only thing left to check is whether your device is compatible. As we already mentioned, Apple is making iOS 12 available to every device that can run iOS 11, which means iPhones all the way back to the iPhone 5S. Not sure if that includes you? The full list is below:
- iPhone X
- iPhone 8
- iPhone 8 Plus
- iPhone 7
- iPhone 7 Plus
- iPhone 6s
- iPhone 6s Plus
- iPhone 6
- iPhone 6 Plus
- iPhone SE
- iPhone 5s
- 12.9-inch iPad Pro 2nd generation
- 12.9-inch iPad Pro 1st generation
- 10.5-inch iPad Pro
- 9.7-inch iPad Pro
- 10.5-inch iPad
- iPad Air 2
- iPad Air
- iPad 5th generation
- iPad mini 4
- iPad mini 3
- iPad mini 2
- iPod touch 6th generation
