Apple has started rolling out the iOS 18.5 update.
The iOS 18.5 update became available for download and installation starting on May 12th US time, and early morning on May 13th Korea time.
As this is the fifth major update to iOS 18, it appears there are no significant new features added. Let’s take a look at the contents included in the iOS 18.5 update.
My iPhone is an iPhone 11 released in 2019, and the iOS 18.5 update size is 1.15GB. The update size is larger than I expected.
Key Contents Included in the iOS 18.5 Update
The main contents included in iOS 18.5 are said to be as follows:
- Pride Harmony Wallpaper
- Changes allowing purchases within the Apple TV app
- Problem fixes for the Apple Vision Pro app
- Satellite functionality enabled on iPhone 13
- Notification feature when a password is entered to bypass Screen Time restrictions on a child’s device
- Mail app improvements
- 31 security patches
These additions are reported.
The newly added or modified contents don’t feel particularly significant. Since I frequently use the Mail app, I looked around but couldn’t find any major changes.
For users with older iPhones like the iPhone 11, I believe the security patches are the most necessary part. It’s said that a total of 31 security patches are included, but upon checking, one is a patch for the iPhone 16e, so effectively 30 general security patches are included. For reference, details of the included security patches can be found here.
The iOS 18.5 update is said to focus on the stability of iOS 18. Considering the included contents, I feel the update size is large, leading me to expect that there are a significant number of unmentioned fixes by Apple.
With the announcement of iOS 19 not far off, interest in iOS 18 is starting to wane. It seems likely that the iOS 18.6 update, to be released next month, will be the last major update. After that, only urgent fixes or security patches will likely be added.
Given that a security patch specifically for the iPhone 16e is included, I recommend that iPhone 16e users apply the update immediately.