Update: 06/18/25 – The iPadOS 18.6 public beta is now available as well.

The first beta of iPadOS 18.6 has now been released to registered developers for testing. This is expected to be a pretty quiet release in terms of new features, as the last version of an Apple operating system often is. MacRumors initially reported that the 18.6 release would bring Apple Intelligence to China, but that appears to have been postponed due to regulatory concerns.

Apple’s development focus is on iPadOS 26 and their other fall releases, so keep any expectations on 18.6 low. In fact, Apple’s release notes for Beta 1 literally say:

There are no new release notes for this software update.

If that changes, or things are discovered, I’ll update this post.

I would expect iPadOS 18.6 to ship in late July or early August, ahead of iPadOS 26 in September.