Apple surprised us all on Monday when it released the first iOS 12 public beta late in the afternoon. Apple typically releases new iOS betas around mid-day, and the company also typically waits until a couple more developer beta versions have been released before it issues the first public beta of its annual iOS update.
But iOS 12 is different in many ways from earlier summertime betas from Apple. Beginning with the very first iOS 12 developer beta released during WWDC 2018, the software has been remarkably stable. Yes, of course there are bugs here and there, but iOS 12’s beta period has so far been shockingly smooth. In fact, we would go as far as to say that every iPhone user should install the iOS 12 public beta on his or her iPhone right now.
We published an article on Tuesday that highlighted the 10 best new features that iOS 12 public beta brings to your iPhone. In it, we covered a number of key upgrades such as enhanced augmented reality features, FaceTime improvements, new Animojis, and of course Apple’s overhauled iOS notification system. Seriously, the new notifications alone should probably be more than enough reason for you to install the iOS 12 public beta on your iPhone.
If it’s not, however, there’s something we didn’t cover in yesterday’s post that’s a big deal. In fact, it’s probably the biggest reason to upgrade to the iOS 12 public beta. One word: Performance.
Rumors long before Apple unveiled iOS 12 on stage at its WWDC 2018 keynote suggested that Apple was making performance improvements a huge priority for iOS 12. In fact, those rumors went as far as to say Apple actually decided to delay several new features that had been planned for iOS 12 in order to allow engineers to focus more closely on performance. Now that iOS 12 betas are available to the masses, we can safely say that Apple’s decision paid off big time. We still have almost three months to go before the final version of iOS 12 will be released, but even in its early beta state it already brings tremendous performance improvements.
Whether you have a brand new iPhone X or an old iPhone 6, you will instantly notice the difference. iOS 11 has been riddled with bugs, security holes, and memory management problems since it was first released last year. Even the latest version of the software, iOS 11.4, still has serious issues with performance.
The iOS 12 beta has some little bugs here and there, but performance is night and day compared to iOS 11. Your iPhone will be faster and smoother than it has ever felt… which is pretty crazy considering this is the first iOS 12 public beta and it corresponds with just the second iOS 12 developer beta. Even crazier is the fact that we’ve been using iOS 12 since the very first developer beta was released in early June, and we have yet to experience a single app crash or any major issue. It’s that good.
Our advice? Head to the Apple Beta Software Program page on Apple’s website, sign up, and install the iOS 12 public beta. You’ll be glad you did.
