When does this long-awaited update for iPhone come out?

iOS 18.2 is in beta testing right now. This means that the OS can be downloaded, but it is not free from bugs and other malfunctions. Several beta iterations of iOS 18.2 have already emerged. We are therefore quite close to releasing the final version. But as usual, Apple has not officially communicated on this subject. The arrival date of iOS 18.2 and its many changes is still unknown at this stage.

We can, however, try to guess it, using the history of the Californian firm in terms of deploying iOS, but also recent rumors. This is what we are going to do in this article, to give you the most probable hypothesis.

What hypothesis for the release date of iOS 18.2?

Comparison 2023 vs 2024

Let’s go back in time and look at the key dates for the deployment of iOS 17.2 which took place during the fall of 2023. Because, if you didn’t know yet, Apple has been quite rigid on its software release schedule for some time. Using previous dates, we can easily guess the following:

• beta 1: October 26, 2023
• beta 2: November 9, 2023
• beta 3: November 15, 2023
• beta 4: November 28, 2023
• RC beta: December 5, 2023
• Final version: December 11, 2023

The iOS 17.2 testing phase lasted 46 days (6 and a half weeks) and included 5 beta versions, RC included. Let’s see what the iOS 18.2 testing schedule looks like so far:

• beta 1: October 23, 2024
• beta 2: November 4, 2024
• beta 3: November 11, 2024

We can clearly see this for the 3rd first beta, the deployment is paced in the same way between iOS 18.2 and iOS 17.2: each week a new test version is released.

If we base ourselves on the 5 test versions of iOS 17.2, we can imagine the future of iOS 18.2 as follows:

• beta 4: November 18, 2024
• RC beta: November 25, 2024
• final version: December 2, 2024

If we take into account the 46 days of testing, this brings us more towards a release of iOS 18.2 in final version around December 9, 2024. So, December 2 or December 9? Let’s see what the experts say on this subject.

iOS 18.2 release date: rumors

Already, a few weeks ago, Apple announced the arrival of iOS 18.2 in December. No surprises yet. Mark Gurman, Apple specialist from Boomberg, 20 days ago, clarified the shooting window. According to him, iOS 18.2 would arrive on December 2except in cases of force majeure.

But new information published recently has sowed doubt. British operator EE inadvertently released a notice indicating an upcoming change to Wi-Fi calling on iPad and MacBook on December 9, 2024. As Apple Insider pointed out, however, this does not necessarily imply a release of iOS 18.2 on the same date. All the same, this rumor added a little uncertainty to the December 2 hypothesis.

Despite everything, this date is on the one hand supported by Mark Gurman, who, it should be noted, is one of the most reliable Apple analysts. On the other hand, it corresponds well with the deployment schedule of iOS 17.2 put in place by the Cupertino company last year.

This is therefore, in our opinion, the most likely hypothesis:

iOS 18.2 should most certainly arrive on Monday December 2, 2024

Remember that iOS 18.2 can be installed on all iOS 18 compatible machines and will bring notable changes, such as Image Playground for Apple Intelligence, Genmojis generated by Apple Intelligence, ChatGPT via Siri and many others.