A month after Apple released iOS 18, the company is readying the launch of iOS 18.1. This version will deliver some of Apple’s promised Apple Intelligence features. Here’s everything you need to know about it.
Release Date
iOS 18.1 is expected to be released on September 28, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. With the RC already available, we also expect that to be the launch date of this software update. BGR will let you know once Apple gives an official date.
Features and release notes
- Writing Tools
- Writing Tools are available nearly everywhere you type, allowing you to rewrite, proofread, and summarize text right in the app you’re working in
- Rewrite suggests different versions of your text so you can choose which combination of flow and wording you like best
- Proofread lets you view suggested improvements to what you’re writing, like grammar fixes and language refinements
- Summarize allows you to select text wherever you’re writing and generate a high-quality summary
- Siri
- A new look and feel includes a glowing light that wraps around the edge of your screen, animates responsively to the sound of your voice, and lets you keep scrolling or typing while you talk to Siri
- Type to Siri when you don’t want to speak a request out loud by double tapping at the bottom of the screen
- Richer language understanding enables Siri to follow along if you stumble over your words or change your mind mid-sentence
- Conversational context is maintained over the course of a session, so you can refer more naturally to something you said in a recent request or something Siri mentioned in a recent response
- Product knowledge helps you get answers to thousands of questions about the features and settings on your Apple products
- Voice enhancements make Siri sound more natural, expressive, and clear
- Photos
- Photos search lets you find photos and videos simply by describing what you’re looking for
- Clean Up removes distractions in your photos
- Memory movies can be created by describing the story you want to see
- Notifications
- Notification summaries make it easy to catch up on your notifications with a glanceable summary of the most important information
- Reduce Interruptions is a new Focus that ensures the most urgent notifications get through to you while silencing potential distractions
- Smart Reply in Mail and Messages help you quickly respond to messages with suggested responses
- Priority messages in Mail understands the content of your messages and prioritizes those that require your attention, displaying them at the top of your inbox
- Transcription summaries in Notes give you an intelligently created summary of the transcript from your audio recording or call recording
- Phone
- Call recordings and transcriptions let you record live calls and transcribe them in the Notes app, with an automatic announcement that the call is being recorded
- Camera
- Camera Control can quickly switch to the front TrueDepth Camera (iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max)
- Spatial photo capture, along with spatial video capture, is available in a new Spatial camera mode (iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max)
- AirPods
- Hearing Test feature provides scientifically-validated hearing test results from the comfort of home (intended for users 18 years or older)
- Hearing Aid feature provides personalized, clinical-grade assistance that is automatically applied to sounds in your environment as well as music, videos, and calls (intended for users 18 years or older with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss)
- Hearing Protection feature helps users minimize exposure to loud environmental noise across listening modes (available in the United States and Canada)
- Features require AirPods Pro 2 with firmware version 7B19 or later. All features may not be available for all countries or regions, for more information visit: https://apple.com/airpods-pro/feature-availability/ (https://apple.com/airpods-pro/feature-availability/)
iOS 18.1 bug fixes
iOS 18.1 also brings several bug fixes:
This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Control Center has new options to add connectivity controls individually and reset your configuration
- RCS Business Messaging lets you connect with businesses over RCS (requires carrier support)
- App Store search lets you use natural language to find what you’re looking for more easily
- Game Center friend invites can be sent directly from the Contacts app and Friend Suggestions, and receivers can see the invites in the inbox in Settings
- Fixes an issue in Podcasts where unplayed episodes are marked as played
- Fixes an issue where videos recorded at 4K 60 while the device is warm could experience stutter while scrubbing the video playback in Photos
- Fixes an issue where digital car keys may not unlock or start a vehicle with passive entry after restoring from a backup or transferring directly from another iPhone
- Fixes an issue where iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro models may unexpectedly restart
Below, you can see what Apple added in each phase of iOS 18.1 testing cycle.
iOS 18.1 beta 1 features
Writing Tools: Proofread your text, rewrite different versions until the tone and wording are right, and summarize the selected text with a tap.
Improved Siri: With a new design, Siri can maintain context between requests. Even if you stumble over words or shift what you’re saying mid-sentence, Siri can understand what you actually want.
Priority notifications: They appear at the top of the stack, letting you know what to pay attention to at a glance. Notifications are summarized, so you can scan them faster.
Priority messages in Mail: Elevate time-sensitive messages to the top of your inbox, like an invitation that has a deadline today or a check-in reminder for your flight this afternoon.
Email summarization: Tap to reveal a summary of a long email in the Mail app and cut to the chase.
Record and transcribe calls in the Notes app: Just hit record in the Notes or Phone apps to capture audio recordings and transcripts. Apple Intelligence generates summaries of your transcripts, so you can get to the most important information at a glance.
Reduce interruptions: With iOS 18.1 beta 1, an all-new Focus Mode understands the content of your notifications and shows you the ones that might need immediate attention, like a text about picking up your child from daycare later today.
Smart Reply in Mail: Quickly draft an email response with all the right details. Apple Intelligence can identify the question you were asked in an email and offer relevant selections to include in your response.
iOS 18.1 beta 2 features
A couple of weeks after seeding iOS 18.1 beta 1, Apple seeded beta 2. Although it doesn’t bring new Apple Intelligence features, Apple adds tweaks from the iOS 18 beta 5 and 6:
Photos app: Apple has removed the Carousel from the Photos app. The company has also tweaked the “All Photos” section, with more images appearing on the photos grid. The “Recent Days” tab also includes “Recently Saved.”
Distraction Control: Safari gets a new Distraction Control feature. In the Reader toggle, you can find a new “Hide Distracting Items.” Apple says this doesn’t work as an ad blocker, but it helps hide distractful items from a page.
Control Center: Apple added new toggles to the Control Center, including an exclusive Bluetooth icon and a new Capture section.
Apple Music changes: The Browse tab is now called “New.”
iOS 18.1 beta 3 features
With this beta, Apple keeps expanding Apple Intelligence features:
Clean Up: This Photos app feature can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without accidentally altering the subject.
Summarization: Apple Intelligence can now summarize more than just Messages and Mail notifications.
iOS 18.1 beta 4 features
A few weeks after the previous beta, and with the official release of iOS 18, Apple made available iOS 18.1 beta 4.
This testing version adds a few lacking features of the iOS 18 RC version, such as watchOS 11’s exclusive watch faces. Besides that, this build adds the following functions:
Spatial photos support on iPhone 15 Pro: This beta allows iPhone 15 Pro users to finally take Spatial Photos.
Record calls: All iOS 18 iPhone models can record calls directly within the Phone app. Still, an iPhone 15 Pro is required to summarize a recording.
Type to Siri: The type-to-Siri function has improved for Apple Intelligence devices, as the assistant tries to complete the user’s queries.
iOS 18.1 beta 5 features
As the beta testing follows, this is what Apple included with testing version 5:
RCS support expansion: This beta expanded the number of carriers that support RCS.
Camera Control: There’s a new toggle to switch to the front-facing camera.
Control Center tweaks: Apple added two new toggles to the Control Center: Wi-Fi and VPN.
iOS 18.1 beta 6 features
With the testing cycle nearing its end, Apple is still adding new features to iOS 18.1. This time, the company added the following tweaks:
Control Center: There are two separate toggles for Satellite and AirDrop. There are also new Measure and Level controls.
Notification Summaries: The notification stack adds a number of messages you have for each app summarized through Apple Intelligence.
Sleep Apnea Detection: If you’re running the latest iOS 18.1 and watchOS 11.1 betas, you can start receiving sleep apnea detection and breathing disturbances readings as long as you’re in a supported region.
iPhone compatibility
All iPhone models able to download iOS 18 can upgrade to iOS 18.1. However, only some models will run Apple Intelligence features.
Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhones:
- iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus
- iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max
Compatible iPhone models with this update:
- iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd gen)
- iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 mini and iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (3rd gen)
- iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
Wrap up
This is everything new coming to the iOS 18.1 beta so far. BGR will keep following this testing cycle, and we’ll update this article as we learn more about new Apple Intelligence features, including how to test them already.
