iOS 12 Public Beta : should you update your iPhone?

Ever since we listed iOS 12 as part of the Top 5 announcements at Apple’s WWDC 2018 event, we have been getting requests to talk about the latest upgrades that form part of the Apple iOS 12 release. Well, to start with, Apple initially only released Developer Preview of iOS 12 and now they came out with iOS 12 Public Beta. Meaning, now anybody who owns an iPhone (iPhone 5 SE or later) can have the taste of things to come in full fledged version of iOS 12 before it becomes officially available.

Indeed, the iOS 12 comes packed with several upgrades a refreshed approach to using the iPhone with the ARKit, a redesigned App Store and more. We knew that the iOS 12 would make much more sense than any other iOS release till date as it aims not to reject any of the existing iPhone models that run iOS 11. iOS 12 will run on all iPhone models that supported iOS 11. And the second more exciting point is that the latest Apple OS will strive to improve performance of the existing phones models, thereby keeping them relevant for atleast one more year till the next iOS 13 comes out (maybe it will not be christened ’13’ considering the superstitious nature of Apple when they skipped iPhone 9 name). List of iOS 12 compatible devices as follows:

• iPhone X
• iPhone 8
• iPhone 8 Plus
• iPhone 7
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPhone SE
• iPhone 6s
• iPhone 6s Plus
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus
• iPhone 5s
• iPad Pro 10.5-inches
• iPad Pro 9.7-inches
• iPad Pro 12.9-inches
• iPad Air 2
• iPad Air
• iPad mini 4
• iPad mini 3
• iPad mini 2
• iPod touch 6

And the features that come packed in the iOS 12 are as follows:

• The iOS 12 Public Beta 1 is actually the same Build as iOS 12 Developer Beta 2, same feature fixes and same bugs
• ARKit – Although there aren’t any 3rd party AR related Apps yet on the App Store that use ARKit, you can experience some part of AR capabilities with the preinstalled App like “Measure App”. It uses just the rear camera to measure objects.
• Memoji – You can easily create your own animoji using the your iPhone X. Memoji can be used with FaceTime too with upto 32 people simultaneously on the same video chat. You can also layer your emoji replacing your face and shoot 30 second videos and send them off to friends.
• Apple Screen Time – Your iPhone logs your daily activity on the phone and lists out the most used apps where you might be wasting too much time. You can allot a time quota to an App on per day basis and iPhone will send a Pop-up reminder once the App quote gets over. You can always override the pop-up as it is non intrusive, but just a gentle reminder to control your activity. The results for us personally were alarming as we were using Social Apps a little too much.
• Notifications – The greatest gift for an iPhone user from Apple is the Nesting of similar notifications into one Tab. Lets say you use Facebook and LinkedIn extensively and get chat messages, friend requests and a dozen ‘Tag’ notifications. So now all these notifications will not list as a laundry list, instead they will get clubbed under Facebook and LinkedIn App notifications, respectively. You can select to Snooze them too!
• Siri – Shortcuts in Siri help you automate processes. You can make a Batch Fie type of shortcut of your daily chores and cron jobs happen automatically when you ask Siri to execute. Siri’s AI advancements are finally getting visible and hopefully it will catch up with google’s Assistant on its way. Again as iOs 12 is still in Beta and there is an absence of 3rd party Apps that work with Siri Shortcuts, you’ll have to rely on the default shortcuts as of now.

• How to create Memoji on iOS 12 : You can access Memoji in the messages App. First create your personal emoji using the Camera and then you get a ton of customization options. Its like creating your virtual self in cyberspace and same can be used to interact with others. Customisations include and are not limited to: Skin color, Facial highlights, Hair customizations, even face shapes and fine lines, Eye shades, Cheek makeup, Nose shapes, Ear shape and sizes, Ear rings, Side-burns, Facial hair etc etc.

So the question that comes to mind is, whether you should update to iOS 12 Beta to be part of the Early Adopter Cult? If you use your iPhone as an extension to your office work, No! If the data on your iPhone is not for public to view or Security is a concern for you for the data on your iPhone, A definite No! A strict no for a Business Phone!

Beta releases are usually not stable and do not warrant complete safety of your data. Moreover Apple might even peek into your usage patterns in order to work for betterment of the iOS 12 final release, but that also allows them to “see” the data you keep on your iPhone. If you love reporting Bugs and would like to be a contributor to the Fraternity without any technical skills, Yes! Get the iOS 12 Public Beta! Its a Work-in-Progress version.