Apple only released iOS 12 to the general public yesterday, but seemingly no one takes time off at the iOS development HQ. The first decimal-point upgrade to iOS 12, iOS 12.1, is available for beta testing right now.
We’re still sifting through the changelog to see what new features this will bring, but it’s quite possibly something to do with the release of the new iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max.
Notably, there were some promised iOS 12 features that were missing from the general release yesterday. Group FaceTime and dual-sim support for the new iPhones are both absent from the iOS 12 update, so hopefully iOS 12.1 will be able to add those features to the software.
Performance issues are, of course, the name of the game with beta versions of any software, but particularly iOS. Apple specifically warns people on the developer beta channel not to install the software on daily-driver devices — advice that people routinely ignore, of course, but you can’t blame Apple for not warning you!
If you have an Apple developer account but you’re not yet on the developer , 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. If you are already on the iOS 12.0 beta profile, you should be seeing the iOS 12.1 beta as an over-the-air update right now.
The slightly safer option, as always, is to stick on the public release version of the iOS betas. Public betas are typically the same as the developer betas, just launched one week later so that any glaring bugs can be nipped in the bud.
The full list of compatible devices 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
