There’s another iPhone update, just two weeks after iOS 18.3 landed—and one week after the curious re-release just for iPhone 11 series handsets. This is a smaller update but it has bug fixes and other changes. Oh, and it’s landed on a Monday, which is a sure sign it’s an urgent update. Here’s what you need to know.
This update isn’t the one we’re waiting for—that’s the iOS 18.4 release which will seriously upgrade Siri, we’re told. But now that iOS 18.3.1 is here, it may mean the Apple can release the first developer beta for iOS 18.4, and that’s likely to arrive as soon as this week: full details of what’s coming here.
Which iPhones Can Run iOS 18.3.1?
Like other versions of iOS 18, this new update works with any iPhone from the iPhone Xs onwards. That means the iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone Xr from 2018 and all iPhones after that, including the iPhone SE in both its second- and third-generation models.
Unlike iOS 18.3, which was mostly targeted at phones which can run Apple Intelligence, this is for all the iOS 18-capable iPhones.
How To Get It
Go to the iPhone’s Settings app, click on General, then choose Software Update. After that, click Download and Install, and let the software download. This is a smallish update, 676MB on my iPhone 16 Pro Max, which was on my phone less than 10 minutes after I clicked the link.
What’s In The Release
Apple hasn’t specified any new features in this release so we can know that this is all about the bug fixes and security clampdowns. There have been users commenting that onscreen keyboards have been stuttering, or laggy moments in other parts of the system, so it’s possible that issues like that will have been addressed.
For sure, there is at least one serious security fix here, too, as Apple has revealed details of this in its support pages. Headlined Accessibility, it warns that the iPhone (or iPad) could disable USB Restricted Mode on a device that’s locked. And, more worryingly, Apple specifies that it is aware it may have already been exploited. It has been addressed with “improved state management,” Apple says.
