Apple has announced that it will release iOS 18 to the public on September 16. While the update brings many new features, some users may not want to install this update right away due to app compatibility or to avoid bugs. With this in mind, Apple will give users the option to stay on iOS 17 and continue to receive security updates.
Apple, which released iOS 18.0 RC (Release Candidate) to developers and beta testers on Monday, also released iOS 17.7 RC. Although this update doesn’t bring any new features, it does include security patches and bug fixes for iOS 17.
Apple is likely to release iOS 17.7 alongside iOS 18.0 at the same time. Users will be able to see both updates in the iPhone and iPad Settings app, allowing them to choose whether to stay on iOS 17 with security patches or move to iOS 18 with new features. It’s worth noting that Apple has offered a similar option before.
Apple continued to provide security patches for iOS 16 after iOS 17 last year.
Apple continued to offer security patches for iOS 16 for a while after releasing iOS 17 last year. However, after a while, these patches started to come out only for devices that could not be updated to iOS 17. Since iOS 18 works with all iPhone models compatible with iOS 17, Apple will stop iOS 17 updates in a few months.
Having this option available will be useful to avoid errors for users who rely on apps that are not fully compatible with iOS 18.
Along with iOS 18, Apple will also release iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, visionOS 2, and macOS Sequoia next week.