You should be able to stay on iOS 17 even after iOS 18 is released

Apple has announced that the stable version of iOS 18 will begin rolling out to eligible devices on September 16. The announcement was made during the company’s “It’s Glowtime” event on Monday. However, users can also opt to stay on iOS 17 and continue to receive security updates for a while. This concession will be helpful for those users who don’t want to update to the new operating system right away and who don’t want to deal with minor bugs and glitches that may be present at launch.

iPhone users may be able to stay on iOS 17 for a while longer

While it’s normal to update to the new version of the operating system as soon as it’s available, iPhone users can stay on iOS 17, according to a 9to5Mac reportApple on Monday released the iOS 17.7 Release Candidate (RC) to developers and public beta testers, along with the iOS 18 RC. This means the update will be available to users who don’t want to try out iOS 18 right away.

While iOS 17.7 RC reportedly doesn’t bring any new features, it does bring the latest security patches and bug fixes. Apple also offered iOS 16 security updates to users for a short period when iOS 17 was released last year.

If this trend continues this year, iOS 17 security updates may be available to users after the arrival of iOS 18. After a certain period of time, security updates will only be released to devices that do not support iOS 18, as the upcoming update is compatible with all phones running iOS 17.

The users who decide not to update their device to the latest operating system will miss out on all the new features like Home Screen customization, Apple Intelligence, redesigned Control Center, replaceable Lock Screen icons and more. However, they can avoid minor bugs or glitches in the new OS, which may take the tech giant a few weeks to fix. This can be crucial if the iPhone is a daily driver or is used for work-related use cases.