A version of iOS 18 is already being tested outside of Apple Park, according to a report. Apple is expected to unveil the iOS 18 software update in June and ship it next fall, but a new report claims that a version is already being tested by some lucky users.
Apple’s iPhone iOS 18 software update is expected to be announced to the world at the WWDC event likely to be held in June, but will not be made available to the general public until September. A public beta and development program will run from June until then, but a new report claims that an early version of iOS 18 software is already in people’s hands. We’re going to see it!
According to a report from MacRumors, Apple recently started distribute internal versions of iOS 18 to factories and suppliers. Additionally, the information is reported to come from a credible source that has been proven accurate in the past. The source claims that the version made available is called VendorUI and that access to it is highly controlled to ensure that information regarding its features and capabilities is not leaked to the public.
iOS 18 is now operational
The outlet says VendorUI builds are being shipped to factories for quality control tests every year, but as the software is in a pre-production state, the interface is not complete. Actually, It doesn’t completely resemble the interface that the guys from Cupertino will announce in June. To ensure leaks are kept to a minimum, the report states that the version of iOS 18 delivered to vendors is limited in terms of installed apps, ensuring that only those needed for testing are available.
The California company is said to have several different stages of iOS development, with VendorUI being just one of them. The process begins with LLDiags, a low-level diagnostic version of IOS without an interface. From there, NonUI is a version designed for hardware and calibration engineers, again lacking an interface like iPhone users are familiar with.
Next comes VendorUI followed by InternalUI. This build is created for Apple software engineers and provides pre-production versions of the iOS interface with unannounced and unconfirmed features available to testers. Finally, the final version is created and can be shared as a developer and public beta before being released to users around the world. Anyway, I’ll explain it in more detail a little further down.
Testing the new operating system
Aside from the natural blocking of the data, the fact that iOS 18 has been delayed through the development process suggests that the errors may turn into a more common problem for Apple and that more people have access to the software, such as it’s normal. Leaks have previously suggested that Apple intends to focus on AI features with iOS 18
Apple’s WWDC event will also likely see Apple release new software for Mac, Apple Watch, iPad, Apple TV, and Apple Vision Pro.
With each version of iOS, Apple develops several different versions of iOS, as I explained above, here they are explained in more detail, let’s see them! :
- Launch: iOS actions aimed at end consumers.
- Internal user interface: Created for Apple software engineers, it often contains a pre-production version of the iOS user interface, with new and unannounced features.
- Provider UI: Designed for factory QA testing and may contain pre-production iOS UI elements.
- No: Developed for hardware engineers and calibration machines, it lacks the standard iOS user interface.
- LLDiag: Intended for use in low level diagnostics and has no user interface except a simple diagnostics menu (Diags).
- The distribution of the VendorUI version of iOS 18 means that we could soon start seeing more leaked iOS features as the operating system becomes available to more people.
conclusion
Even without VendorUI, information about iOS had already started to come out. We’ve heard that iOS 18 will focus on AI, and that there will be New accessibility features, such as adaptive voice shortcuts and live voice categories. Internal iOS builds may also contain hardware information, and in December we shared details about the iPhone 16 hardware from iOS 18 code. Are you excited to try iOS 18?
