It's by FAR the buggiest major release in all of iOS history. I have never experienced this amount of bugs and glitches in a single release since I first owned the original iPhone! They fix a bug and introduce two bugs. With iOS18.2 my screen constantly glitches and AOD randomly turns off by itself and carplay has issues.
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iOS 18 is the worst software Apple has ever released. I wish so bad I had stayed on 17.7
- Thread starter LionTeeth
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In my opinion this is the worst iOS version in history.
Same happened to me! So annoyed at myself. I now just use it for the time, and turned Bluetooth off. To my surprise a lot of things still work with just wifi. I get less notifications on my wrist though.. which, im actually liking! But in future I’ll always wait like a month after iOS update to proceed with watch update.
iOS 15 was the peak of stability and nice features. Since the introduction of customization in iOS 16, stability has gone downhill and bugs increased since then.
I’m still on 16.7.2 on my 14 pro for this reason. I’ve used my wife’s 14 pro on 18.5 and nothing excites me and there are just random hiccups and stutters that I simply don’t have. My sons 13 on 18.5 has weird random bugs where a random icon will get stuck on light mode while the others are all dark and sometimes his messages will show from the wrong people in threads. At this stage of the lifecycle of the iOS these things just shouldn’t be happening.
My performance is buttery smooth and I have no bugs on my phone with 16.7.2. I reboot it every Sunday night and I’ve been so happy. Don’t want to screw up this phone by updating! I might not get the new iOS until I get a new phone in a few years. Still get amazing battery life with 83% health. Hopefully they will be able to polish up iOS in the coming years but they keep adding so much gimmicky stuff and introducing more bugs. I do miss the simpler times. Been using iOS since iOS 4 so I’ve seen lots of updates over the years and iOS 18 looks to be one of the buggiest through the lifecycle.
My iPhone 16 Plus is fine on iOS 18, but as an early adopter you had the chance to downgrade.
This is especially key for iOS 26, as I’m very scared of battery life on the redesign. That hasn't fared well.
I will say though, that there is some very sporadic keyboard lag, this being the first time ever I’ve seen that on an original version of iOS.
Keyboard lag used to be the precursor of more serious trouble when updating. I never do, but I’ve seen it. Having slight keyboard lag on an original iOS version surprised me. That never happened. It is otherwise perfect though, and after almost 15 years of using original versions of iOS, I won’t stop doing that now.
Surprisingly, my iPad 11th-gen is indeed completely flawless, as expected, on iPadOS 18. That one will also stay there.
This is especially key for iOS 26, as I’m very scared of battery life on the redesign. That hasn't fared well.
I will say though, that there is some very sporadic keyboard lag, this being the first time ever I’ve seen that on an original version of iOS.
Keyboard lag used to be the precursor of more serious trouble when updating. I never do, but I’ve seen it. Having slight keyboard lag on an original iOS version surprised me. That never happened. It is otherwise perfect though, and after almost 15 years of using original versions of iOS, I won’t stop doing that now.
Surprisingly, my iPad 11th-gen is indeed completely flawless, as expected, on iPadOS 18. That one will also stay there.
I used to avoid updates as long as possible. Most only included security patches and new emojis, which I never used or cared about. While most people don't notice performance drops, I do. That was my main reason for skipping updates. Eventually I gave in and now update a bit more often.
I only upgrade when a favorite app stops working on older iOS versions or if my phone has problems and Apple forces an update, which rarely fixes anything.
The new iOS naming system makes no sense. Apple claims it's tied to the release year, like calling it iOS 26 even though it launches in 2025. Supposedly this is to match Samsung, but Samsung only uses years in device names, not operating systems. It feels like Apple just wants to keep users off balance, like an unhinged business seminar speaker who says everyone return from break at 10:23 or 10:24 instead of something logical like 10:20, 10:25 or 10:30.