iOS 17.6, iOS 17.7 & iOS 18: What’s Coming Next for iPhone

With new software on the way, we felt it would be prudent to put together an iOS release timeline for iPhone users.

Apple’s been busy in the months since iOS 17’s initial release back in September. The company’s released several prominent updates including iOS 17.5 which dropped on May 13th.

The most recent update, iOS 17.5.1, is a small but important point upgrade that fixes a serious issue that emerged after the release of iOS 17.5.

The company won’t stop there. You can expect point updates (iOS 17 x.x.x) and milestone upgrades (iOS 17 x.x) to roll out in the months ahead.

Thanks to leaks, Apple’s beta program, and many years of experience covering software, we have a pretty good read on what you can expect on the iOS 17 front. We’ve also heard a lot about iOS 17’s successor, presumably called iOS 18.

So, if you’ve been curious about what’s in Apple’s pipeline, here’s a quick look at what’s coming next for iPhone users in terms of software updates.

This guide will take you through known features, release dates, and betas. It will also lead you through the unknown so you can set proper expectations.

iOS 17.6

With the release of iOS 17.5, and WWDC 24 looming, iOS 17 development will start to slow down.

If Apple sticks to its usual protocol, Apple will put iOS 17.6 update into beta testing for iPhone in the near future. The final release should arrive in July.

iOS 16.6 landed on July 24th while iOS 15.6 dropped on July 20th. We should see Apple use a similar window for iOS 17.6.

iOS 17.7

After iOS 17.6 arrives, look for iOS 17.7 to roll out in September alongside iOS 18.

Of course, we’ll likely see point upgrades arrive in between all of these milestone upgrades and we may see some Rapid Security Response updates as well.

Rapid Security Response updates are much smaller than typical iOS software releases and, according to Apple, they “deliver important security improvements between software updates—for example, improvements to the Safari web browser, the WebKit framework stack, or other critical system libraries.”

We’ve only seen the company push a few of these upgrades to iPhone users, but we may see iOS 17 get a few before iOS 18 arrives.

iOS 18 Update

Apple’s working on the next version of iOS, dubbed iOS 18.

We’ve put together a larger guide that covers iOS 18, but here are a few items of note:

• iOS 18 will launch, in beta form, at WWDC 2024 in June.
• The iOS 18 release date should come in September alongside the iPhone 16 series.
• It will support most, or all, iOS 17-powered iPhones.
• Apple is reportedly planning big upgrades to AI and Siri.
• RCS support should also roll out with iOS 18.

We’ll see rumors outline iOS 17’s successor in great detail in the months ahead. So, in addition to tracking new versions of iOS 17, you’ll also want to keep an eye on the iPhone’s next operating system.

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