let's talk about iOS 18.5 beta 1

04 Apr, 2025

apple has released iOS 18.5 developer beta 1 to developers.
here's whats new and interesting.

new features

new “Show Contact Photos” toggle within Mail app

in the Mail app, there is now a new option to show and hide contact photos quickly, making it easier for people who dislike the new mail updates to revert to what it was before—just hide categories and hide the contact photos et voila, you are back to what you had before.

Show Contact Photos.png

Recover and Delete All options return to Photos

in the iOS 18.4 betas, we saw 2 new options to quickly Delete & Recover All in the Recently Deleted album in Photos. mysteriously, these options disappeared in the iOS 18.4 RCs.

Delete & Recover All.png

... but it may get removed again in future

to me, it doesn't make sense why Apple removed these buttons in iOS 18.4 RC, only to bring it back in 18.5—and I highly doubt such a minor feature was deferred due to engineering problems. perhaps we will see the options removed again in a future beta?

the infamous Back Tap banner has returned—and not in style. It's been criticised for its looks, eventually being removed in 18.4 RC, and now it's back. With the same looks.
Back Tap Banner.png
The option to disable the banner is also thankfully back in its rightful place in Settings as well.

AppleCare & Warranty revamp in settings

with iOS 18.5 developer beta 1, Apple has added a new banner at the top of AppleCare & Warranty, just like they have done in other places in iOS 18.
AppleCare Banner.png
there is also a revamped design when you tap on one of your devices,
Revamped Device View.png
not all is what it seems here, as I will describe later.

Messaging via Satellite enabled in the UK

as a fellow tea drinker and crumpet enjoyer this is great news. 🫖🇬🇧

“Learn More About Online Safety” button in iCloud settings

to comply with UK Online Safety laws, Apple has added this bizarre link at the bottom of icloud settings. tapping on the link takes you here.

Learn More Button.png

I first spotted this new “Learn More About Online Safety” link being plastered all over settings randomly in iOS 18.4, finding it in Siri settings as well as Game Center. very strange, to say the least.

bugs

priority notifications STILL don't render properly in landscape mode

Priority Notification Bug.png

notification center animations are STILL a mess

please fix this Apple, it's been pretty much broken since iOS 16.

Expanding and collapsing notification stacks still results in unexpected animation glitches.
Some collapsed notification stacks don't render properly
When entering album cover mode, you briefly see a notification at the bottom of your screen
When expanding a stack of notifications, the text of the notifications that are expanding (below the top notification) may be missing for a about a quarter of a second then appear again
In landscape mode, scroll slowly and pay attention to the bottom notification. The bottom notification will appear suddenly when scrolling up and be invisible before

control center is still frustrating

if I'm being honest, the iOS 18 Control Center needs a lot of work. when it comes to bugs, it is a hugely frustrating experience trying to customise my control center. there were some minimal improvements in 18.4, iOS 18.5 does not bring any improvements and it remains half baked

you might have problems giving hotspot to friends

It seems to be a widespread issue that Personal Hotspot is not working when you connect it to some devices. There does not appear to be any issues when it comes to using Personal Hotspot on your own devices (devices connected to your Apple Account) and devices added to your Family Sharing circle, but if you try to give your friend a hotspot, it may not work at all. Bare this in mind before updating to iOS 18.5 Beta.

interesting internal changes

ipsw build date: 24th march 2025 at 20:10:57 pdt
build number: 22F5042g

siri changes— hints of new Siri?

New reference to "Generative Experiences" and "Siri Orchestration Capabilities" in SpringBoard SpringBoard — /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/SpringBoard

 	<key>com.apple.security.exception.mach-lookup.global-name</key>
 	<array>
+		<string>com.apple.siri.orchestration.capabilities</string>
 		<string>com.apple.generativeexperiences.availabilityService</string>
 		<string>com.apple.searchd</string>
 		<string>com.apple.gamepolicyd.tool.privileged</string>

 	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.siri.external_request</key>
 	<true/>
+	<key>com.apple.siri.orchestration.capabilities</key>
+	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.sos.trigger</key>
 	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.soundscapes.picker</key>

and mention of "Generative Function Instrumentation" in a process called "intelligencecontextd" which sounds like a daemon related personal context...

 	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.mediaremote.remote-control-discovery</key>
 	<true/>
+	<key>com.apple.modelcatalog.full-access</key>
+	<true/>
+	<key>com.apple.modelmanager.inference</key>
+	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.private.assets.accessible-asset-types</key>
 	<array>
 		<string>com.apple.MobileAsset.MorphunData</string>

 		<string>Siri.Orchestration.RequestContext</string>
 		<string>Siri.ContextRefreshTriggers</string>
 	</array>
+	<key>com.apple.private.biome.read-write</key>
+	<array>
+		<string>GenerativeModels.GenerativeFunctions.Instrumentation</string>
+	</array>
 	<key>com.apple.private.calendar.allow-suggestions</key>
 	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.private.contacts</key>

 		<string>com.apple.linkd.registry</string>
 		<string>com.apple.naturallanguaged</string>
 		<string>com.apple.dmd.policy</string>
+		<string>com.apple.modelmanager</string>
+		<string>com.apple.modelcatalog.catalog</string>
+		<string>com.apple.CalendarAgent</string>
 	</array>
 	<key>com.apple.security.exception.shared-preference.read-only</key>
 	<array>

 		<string>com.apple.siri.morphun</string>
 		<string>com.apple.assistant</string>
 		<string>com.apple.mediaremote</string>
+		<string>com.apple.GenerativeFunctions.GenerativeFunctionsInstrumentation</string>
 	</array>
 	<key>com.apple.security.iokit-user-client-class</key>
 	<array>

there are also mentions of new chinese AI guardrails in the ipsw diff file, suggesting that Apple is working on more region lock systems in China when it comes to apple intelligence. it's also possible that this is a precursor for region locking the chinese Qwen AI integration to China and not allowing people outside to access it.

 		<string>com.apple.MobileAsset.UAF.FM.GenerativeModels</string>
 		<string>com.apple.MobileAsset.UAF.FM.Overrides</string>
 		<string>com.apple.MobileAsset.UAF.FM.Visual</string>
+		<string>com.apple.MobileAsset.CN.Guardrail</string>
 	</array>
 	<key>com.apple.private.assistant.settings</key>
 	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.private.biome.read-only</key>
-	<array>
-		<string>GenerativeExperiences.FailureTracking</string>
-	</array>
+	<array/>
 	<key>com.apple.private.biome.read-write</key>
 	<array>
 		<string>GenerativeModels.GenerativeFunctions.Instrumentation</string>
 		<string>GenerativeModels.GenerativeFunctions.SystemInstrumentation</string>
+		<string>GenerativeExperiences.FailureTracking</string>
 	</array>
 	<key>com.apple.private.corespotlight.internal</key>
 	<true/>

 	<true/>
 	<key>com.apple.private.intelligenceplatform.use-cases</key>
 	<dict>
+		<key>RegionalSafetyAnalysisMetrics</key>
+		<dict>
+			<key>Streams</key>
+			<dict>
+				<key>RegionalSafetyAnalysis.Disablement</key>
+				<dict>
+					<key>mode</key>
+					<string>read-write</string>
+				</dict>
+				<key>RegionalSafetyAnalysis.Eligibility</key>
+				<dict>
+					<key>mode</key>
+					<string>read-write</string>
+				</dict>
+			</dict>
+		</dict>
 		<key>com.apple.GenerativeFunctions.PeriodicTasks.InstrumentationUpload</key>
 		<dict>
 			<key>Streams</key>

 		<string>/private/var/mobile/Library/UnifiedAssetFramework/</string>
 		<string>/private/var/run/MobileAssetStartupActivation.doneThisBoot</string>
 		<string>/private/var/MobileAsset/AssetsV2/locks/com.apple.UnifiedAssetFramework/</string>
+		<string>/private/var/MobileAsset/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_CN_Guardrail/</string>
 		<string>/private/var/MobileAsset/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_Visual/purpose_auto/</string>
 		<string>/private/var/MobileAsset/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_GenerativeModels/purpose_auto/</string>
 		<string>/private/var/MobileAsset/AssetsV2/com_apple_MobileAsset_UAF_FM_Overrides/purpose_auto/</string>

interesting tidbits about the new AppleCare settings pane

the new AppleCare & warranty section appears to be a WebView, meaning that apple has just embedded a webpage for this section that is dynamically fetched from apple servers. this means that apple can completely change the user interface and elements of this section without pushing an iOS update.

they tried to mimic the native design of SwiftUI/UIKit but this lead to many interesting inconsistencies...

when you tap the AppleCare & warranty section it loads javascript and CSS assets from apple servers.

design inconsistencies

the open in apple support link using the uppercase "OPEN" text that was meant to become "Open" in iOS 17. next up, maybe worst of all, apple tried to mimic the copy context menu, when you long press on the serial number.

on macOS, the situation is even more dire.

“ConditionalEngine” removed in 18.5 beta 1 (!!!)

in 18.3 beta 3, apple added something called “ConditionalEngine” which is related to App Intents that apple is likely utilising for the new siri updates. the fact that this is now removed in 18.5 beta 1 is concerning. in a video by 9to5mac, the alarm bells were raised.

but is this actually concerning? it turns out that ConditionalEngine has existed before 18.3 beta 3. It was added in 18.1, and in 18.2 beta 1, references to ConditionalEngine were removed, but it returned in 18.2 RC. personally, i'm not too worried. i would expect to see ConditionalEngine return later.

where's the siri update, apple?

according to an article by John Gruber, apple issued a statement to Gruber about the new siri updates, saying it will be coming over the course of a year, so essentially according to this we will be waiting not just until iOS 19, but possibly a later update like 19.3 or 19.4. not ideal.

It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year. - Jacqueline Roy

but it is possible we may see at least one new AI feature before iOS 19. with the movement we're seeing in 18.5, we may see something in beta 2 or later.. let's not get our hopes up though.

i will say that—if apple fails to bring ai features to 18.5 and delays it to iOS 19 (worst case 19.4), then they will be facing some serious legal problems especially because of the aggressive advertising of the 16 pro and the new siri features.

performance and should you update?

no, because of the personal hotspot bug, i would hold off until it's fixed. in terms of thermal performance and battery, it's about the same as 18.4 stable, which is not surprising because 18.5 is a nothing burger update.

Kitsah