Apple seeded the release candidates for iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3 and macOS Sequoia 15.3 to developers Tuesday. In addition, the watchOS 11.3 RC, tvOS 18.3 RC and visionOS 2.3 RC went to developers at the same time. These bring only minor modifications to the various devices, though.
Release candidates are generally the final phase before the operating system upgrades go to users.
iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3 and macOS Sequoia 15.3 release date is almost here
Release candidates are what Apple used to call golden masters and give third-party software developers and other beta testers an opportunity to look over the final version of operating systems before they’re introduced to average users.
One benefit of RCs is that they provide a sneak peek at Apple’s official description for the new version, highlighting the features Cupertino thinks are most important. The one for iOS 18.3 reads, “This update brings improvements to visual intelligence along with other enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPhone.” The iPadOS 18.3 version is similar, though there’s no mention of Visual Intelligence.
Those release notes confirm what beta testers already discovered: this round of upgrades is mostly about bug fixes.
Still, Visual Intelligence got some tweaks. The improvements noted by Apple include the ability to identify plants just by pointing an iPhone camera at them. Plus, the AI-powered feature can create a Calendar event from a date pulled from a real-world object that the camera is pointed at.
iPhone, Mac and iPad upgrades coming next week
Another benefit of release candidates is that OS final versions almost always go out exactly a week afterward. That means we can be fairly confident that iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, macOS Sequoia 15.3, etc., will premiere on January 28. The same goes for watchOS 11.3, tvOS 18.3 and visionOS 2.3.
Look ahead to iOS 18.4 and more AI
While this latest round of OS upgrades is light on new features, expect the next wave of new Apple Intelligence features to arrive with iOS 18.4 in April.
This should usher in just about all the AI features announced at WWDC24 but not already available. The most notable of these is a more powerful Siri experience.
