Just 3 weeks after the announcement of iOS 12 at WWDC, Apple has released its Public Beta for everyone to try. Now, before you start jumping in joy and fiddling through your iPhone’s Settings to download the brand new iOS version, there are quite a few things that you should know about this Beta. Let us cover them one-by-one.
Revisiting iOS 12
In case you’ve been living under a rock or suffer from short-term memory loss, you must be well aware of all the cool new features of iOS 12. It’s still best to jog your memory before deciding to (or not to) try out its beta. Here’s the link to our article that summarizes the best additions in iOS 12
What’s a Beta
Please be very clear that this is not a PUBLIC RELEASE of iOS 12. This is PUBLIC BETA. It means that it’s a test version of iOS 12 that you can try. It’s a work-in-progress and will have many bugs. So by downloading it, you are signing up to be a software tester for Apple. The public release of the final iOS 12 version will happen sometime in September.
Should You Download it?
The answer is an empathic NO. It’s not just a beta, it’s the first beta. There are bound to be plenty of bugs and feature limitations. Unless you have a spare iOS device that you can afford to have problems with, please stay away from the betas, especially the initial ones.
I Still Want to Download. Tell Me How?
So you are the impatient one, who can’t resist the temptation of latest and greatest OS. Fair enough, I’m not judging, just praying for you! Follow the below steps to install iOS 12 Public Beta on your iPhone or iPad:
Backup
Don’t be adventurous here. Make sure you backup your iPhone before embarking on this beta joyride. And by backup, I mean a full encrypted backup through iTunes, not just an iCloud backup. Follow this guide from Apple for properly backing up your iPhone:
Download the Beta Profile
Open this link on your iPhone -, log in using your iCloud credentials and download the beta profile.
Install iOS 12
After the profile is installed on your iPhone (you’ll be prompted to restart the device), all you need to do it go to Settings > General > Software Update and install the iOS 12 Beta will you install any other software update.
One for the Team
Here’s something interesting – In spite of warning everyone not to download the iOS 12 Public Beta, I have myself put it on download. No, not because I can’t wait to play with the new features, not at all 🙂 I am doing it so that I can tell you guys how well or badly the new software works. I am taking one for the team. What’s your excuse?