iOS 18.6 Beta 1 ― Bug Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

[13paul13]

Still early days, but all email notifications have come through with sound being played, and also they’ve all ‘lit up’ the Lock Screen and not gone straight through to the Notification Centre as some would do on the 18.4 versions.

I’ve updated my iPad as well and have had a couple of iMessages and SMS received. They’ve synced across iPhone and iPad without issue. (I saw this as an issue in the 18.5 thread, which was one reason which stopped me updating to it.) Again, early days, but promising signs.

I’ve noticed that iCloud tabs don’t update quite as quickly. I’d closed an open iPhone tab via my iPad but upon going into Safari on the iPhone the tab was still open. Closing Safari on the iPhone (not fully swiping it closed and killing the app, just going back to Home Screen) then reopening Safari again worked and the tab then closed. It’s done this a couple of times in each direction. Think I’ll reboot both devices and test again.

 

[sbailey4]

deleted

 

[papbot]

Nice little find! It’s indeed new on iOS 18.6. It seems like the last major iOS 18 version focuses on bug fixing.

Is that junk section only on the phones? My phone is still on 18.5 but I updated my ipad to 18.6 and enabled the unknown sender feature but there is no junk section shown. However, I have no unknown messages currently, and only one conversation with a known sender so that may be why it doesn’t appear.

 

[papbot]

I've always had the filtering ON and it's just the same old with known and unknown. No Junk section.

I don’t see it on my iPad Pro either, but perhaps it’s for phones only and my phone remains on 18.5, but my iPad is on 18.6 now.

 

[tosbsas]

Correct. Update the spoiler. It was copied from the iOS 26 thread.

done

 

[sbailey4]

Seems pretty quite in here! iOS 26 has taken the spotlight. But so far today this has run fine on iP16. No issues and battery seems to be on par with what it was. No real changes that I can tell.

 

[roncron]

FWIW, YouTuber Aaron Zollo says 18.6 so far runs very well on his 16PM. Says a few of the bugs from 18.5.1 appear to be fixed.

 

[13paul13]

To update on my earlier posts in this thread.

Safari iCloud Tabs seem to be working well today.

After a day’s worth of use, my other issues that came with the iOS 18.4 update certainly seem to have been fixed:

1. Smoothness is back when expanding notifications.
2. No Mail notifications are now going directly to Notification Centre.
3. Played podcasts have been automatically deleted after a day.

SMS and iMessage have been in sync across my iPhone and iPad. (That appears to have become an issue in 18.5 from what I read in the 18.5 thread.)

If this is going to be the final iOS 18 point release (other than security updates), it seems like it’s going to be a good one.

 

[roncron]

SMS and iMessage have been in sync across my iPhone and iPad. (That appears to have become an issue in 18.5 from what I read in the 18.5 thread.)

Thanks for this info, good to know. I’m still on 18.5.1 and experiencing this issue. It’s annoying.

 

[Banglazed]

Public beta is out

 

[UliBaer]

Seems very quiet in this thread. Is it because most bugs of 18.5 where fixed or is it because no one tests the 18.x betas anymore, now that 26 is in beta? Waiting for positive comments on this one regarding reliability...
...maybe it is finally time to jump on from (thank god reliable) 17.7.2?

 

[James6s]

Let’s get on it 😄 7.11gb on my 16e

 

[adrianlondon]

Seems very quiet in this thread. Is it because most bugs of 18.5 where fixed or is it because no one tests the 18.x betas anymore, now that 26 is in beta? Waiting for positive comments on this one regarding reliability...
...maybe it is finally time to jump on from (thank god reliable) 17.7.2?

18.5 (and the MacOS equivalent) is running so well for me, I can't see any point in trying 18.6 especially as Apple couldn't be arsed to write any release notes so there's no pointers to what to test.

Plus, I'll put a 26 beta on my phone at some point, once people start posting screenshots that are legible 😁

 

[James6s]

All good this morning after the update on my 16e.

What can I say… No idea if anything has changed/been added, but it’s fast & fluid across the device.

 

[Racineur]

That is not the beta we want. Also no change notes at all, what a bummer.

Looks like you like grey color a lot. BTW what was the update "we want" ?

 

[pw5a29]

updated, slick and smooth

no changes observed, not expecting any as well

 

[Markafc_]

Working very well on 15PM - probably the best iOS18 version to date.

 

[TimFL1]

Looks like you like grey color a lot. BTW what was the update "we want" ?

iOS 26 beta 2

(it was a joke, I know that it‘ll release next week at the earliest)

 

[Al Ferguson]

FYI: My US T-Mobile Carrier Version is 64.0.1 on my iPhone 16 Pro

 

[Populus]

How does the keyboard feel? I’ve been using the bilingual keyboard since the beginning and it doesn’t work as well as… on iOS 16 or earlier…

Do you notice an improvement on swipe texting?

 

[msm888]

An 18.5.1 release that fixed third party app crashes would have been proper customer service. iOS 18.5 has been a well publicised dog since it arrived.