Apple software beta tester, "Helps make our computers and phones work!" - Zach's grandparents

Apple released the iOS 18.1 release candidate on Oct. 21, about three weeks after the tech giant released a few iPhone fixes with iOS 18.0.1. Apple brought a lot of new features to your iPhone when it released iOS 18 in September -- like RCS messaging and home screen customization -- and the RC introduces a few new features and refinements to the iPhones of developers and public beta testers. That includes some Apple Intelligence features for developers and beta testers who aren't in the EU or China and have an iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max or the iPhone 16 lineup.

Read more: Everything You Need to Know About iOS 18

Since this is a beta, I recommend downloading it on something other than your primary device. Because this isn't the final version of iOS 18.1, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, so it's best to keep those troubles on a secondary device.

Note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 18.1, so there could be more features to land on your iPhone when iOS 18.1 is released. There's no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.1 to the public yet, but when Apple releases an RC version of an iOS update the tech giant usually releases that iOS version to the general public within a week or two.

Here are some of the features that could land on your iPhone soon with iOS 18.1.

Apple released the first developer beta of iOS 18.1 before it released iOS 18 to the general public. According to CNET's Scott Stein and Patrick Holland, that beta introduced Apple Intelligence features, like writing tools for emails and documents, the Clean Up photo tool and changes and improvements to Siri. And these features are present in the beta version of iOS 18.1.

That means you can have your iPhone proofread and revise emails before you send them, you can remove distracting items from photos and more. However, these aren't all the Apple Intelligence features coming to your iPhone. Genmoji, Apple's AI-powered emoji generator, isn't included in this iOS update, for example.

These features are only available to developers and public beta testers outside the EU and China and who have an iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, as well as the iPhone 16 lineup. If you're a developer or public beta tester and have the base model iPhone 15 or below you won't be able to access these features at this time.

When Apple released iOS 18, it brought RCS messaging support to iPhones. With the beta version of iOS 18.1, the tech giant is expanding RCS messaging support to more carriers around the world.

These are the carriers that now support RCS messaging on iPhone, according to 9to5Mac.

One of the big changes iOS 18 brought to iPhones was a revamped Control Center, and Apple made a few adjustments to these changes in the beta of iOS 18.1.

With the iOS 18.1 beta, if you go into your Control Center and tap the Connectivity tile -- where you can find your Wi-Fi, Airplane Mode and similar settings -- you'll see a few controls are now tile shaped rather than row shaped. This is a small change, but it could be impactful by giving you easier control over your connectivity settings.

You can also add independent controls for Wi-Fi, VPN, AirDrop and Satellite to Control Center. Before, these controls would be present in the Connectivity tile, or on the Connectivity page in Control Center, but you couldn't add them as their own control. Apple previously let you add an independent Bluetooth control to Control Center.

There are also new Level and Measure controls you can add to your Control Center. Both Level and Measure can be helpful for renovations if you don't have a tape measure or bubble level on hand.

If you don't like how your Control Center is set up any longer, Apple added a way to reset your Control Center back to the default layout. Go to Settings > Control Center and tap Reset Control Center.

With the iOS 18.1 beta, Apple now lets you change or add a new primary email address for your Apple ID. To do either, go into Settings > Apple ID > Sign-In & Security. From here you can tap the option to Add Email or Phone Number or you can tap an existing address and tap the toggle next to Primary Email. Once your primary email address is set, Apple will send messages to that address.

The iOS 18.1 beta also adjusts the iOS 18 feature that lets you tint your home screen apps. Now, if you add a tint to your apps, it will also be applied to widgets on your home screen, like Clock, Battery and Calendar. Before the beta, widgets wouldn't be affected by tint, only apps.

One of the new features iOS 18 brought to your iPhone is the ability to change your lock screen functions, and the iOS 18.1 beta streamlines your notifications by displaying the number of notifications from an app or user near the app or contacts image.

Before the beta, if you received a few notifications from messages or social media, the notifications would appear in a stack and display a number instead of message content.

Apple announced in September that Apple WatchOS 11 would bring sleep apnea detection to compatible Apple Watches. The feature was then approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. And according to 9to5Mac, the latest iOS 18.1 beta enables the feature on compatible Apple Watch models paired with an iPhone running the beta software.

With the beta of iOS 18.1, your iPhone can now record phone calls. Once you are on a call, you should see a symbol in the top left corner of your screen that looks like a sound bar. Tap this and you'll start recording your phone call. Once you do start recording a call, an automated voice will announce to you and the person on the other line that the call is being recorded. This feature works regardless of whether you're talking to another iPhone user or an Android user.

After your call is finished or you stop recording, your iPhone will save the recording to your Notes app. You can then play the call back in Notes. Newer iPhones, like the iPhone 14 Pro, can also see transcripts of the call in Notes, but older iPhones, like the iPhone XR, can't see these transcripts.

Before you use this feature, please check with local law enforcement about the legality of call recording, just in case.

Another change in the iOS 18.1 beta is the expansion of the emoji keyboard. Now if you go into your emoji keyboard and you swipe left, instead of seeing the section for Frequently Used stickers, you'll see most of your custom stickers. If you swipe left again, you'll be in a new menu that gives you full access to your Memoji, allowing you to easily use them in place of other emoji.

The emoji in the emoji keyboard are also slightly larger than in iOS 18. It's not an earth-shattering change, but it's there.

According to 9to5Mac, if you have beta versions of both iOS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia 15.1, you can now easily drag and drop files from one device to the other while mirroring your iPhone screen. This could make sharing files between your devices even more seamless than before.

Here are the full release notes for iOS 18.1.

Apple Intelligence (All iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max).

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/100100

Those are a few of the new features public beta testers can try with iOS 18.1 public beta. There will likely be more betas before the OS is released to the public, so there's plenty of time for Apple to change these features. As of now, there's no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.1 to the public.