Apple released the iOS 18.3 release candidate to developers and public beta testers on Tuesday. The release comes about two weeks after the company released iOS 18.2.1. While Apple squashed a few bugs with that update, the latest beta introduces a few improvements to the iPhones of developers and beta testers, including some updates to Apple Intelligence notification summaries.
An Expert’s Guide to iOS 18
Since this is a beta, I recommend downloading it only on something other than your primary device. Because this isn’t the final version of iOS 18.3, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, so it’s best to keep those troubles on a secondary device.
Note that the RC is not the final version of iOS 18.3, so there could be more improvements to land on your iPhone when iOS 18.3 is released. There’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.3 to the public yet.
Here’s what iOS 18.3 could bring to your iPhone soon. And just a reminder that only developers and beta testers who have an iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max or the iPhone 16 lineup can access any Apple Intelligence features for now. If you have any other iPhone, you won’t have access to those features.
AI notification summary updates
The iOS 18.3 RC makes some adjustments to Apple Intelligence notification summaries. With this feature, some of your apps can give you summaries of notifications on your Lock Screen, and the feature is on by default in most cases. But according to the BBC, one of the publication’s headlines was summarized inaccurately.
With the RC, this feature no longer works for the News app, and there’s a disclaimer in the Summarize Notifications menu in Settings that reads, “Summaries may contain errors.” Notification summaries are temporarily disabled for apps in the News & Entertainment category, but you can opt-in to these notifications to see them again.
The RC also italicizes AI notification summaries on your Lock Screen to distinguish them from other notifications. You can turn off AI notification summaries for certain apps from your Lock Screen, too, by slightly swiping left on the notification, tapping Options then tapping Turn Off Summaries.
Repeating operations in Calculator
Another thing developers and beta testers can do in the iOS 18.3 RC is repeat operations in the Calculator app without entering the equation again. This isn’t new, but Apple removed this ability from Calculator when the company released iOS 18 in September.
Now, developers and beta testers can continue to double something, for example, just by pressing the equal sign multiple times instead of entering an equation again and again.
Here are the full release notes for the iOS 18.3 RC.
Visual intelligence with Camera Control (All iPhone 16 models)
- Add an event to Calendar from a poster or flyer.
- Easily identify plants and animals.
Notification summaries (All iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max)
- Easily manage settings for notification summaries from the Lock Screen.
- Updated style for summarized notifications better distinguishes them from other notifications by using italicized text as well as the glyph.
- Notification summaries for News & Entertainment apps are temporarily unavailable, and users who opt-in will see them again when the feature becomes available.
This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:
- Calculator repeats the last mathematical operation when you tap the equals sign again.
- Fixes an issue where the keyboard might disappear when initiating a typed Siri request.
- Resolves an issue where audio playback continues until the song ends even after closing Apple Music.
Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit:
https://support.apple.com/100100
While this is the iOS 18.3 RC, Apple could release more RC versions of the iOS update to squash more bugs and improve on features. As of now, there’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.3 to the general public.
For more on iOS, here’s what to know about iOS 18.2.1 and iOS 18.2. You can also check out our iOS 18 cheat sheet.
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