iOS 18 is due to launch on Monday, so the iOS 18 developer and public betas are winding down. But the iOS 18.1 beta, which is currently the only way to try Apple Intelligence features on iPhone, is still in development, and a big new bug has been discovered
Several users running iOS 18.1 beta 3 (via 9to5Mac) have reported online on various forums such as Reddit's r/iOSBeta that Siri no longer works for them. A pop-up appears when trying to summon the digital assistant saying that Siri is not available and a Wi-Fi connection is needed to finish downloading it. Except even with a Wi-Fi connection, this update never materializes, leaving Siri disabled.
On my own iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.1, I got this pop-up too. However, it only happened the once (which is why I don't have a screenshot of it to show you) and I can still access the renewed Siri as I could before.
It's not clear what the cause of this bug is, and restarting your iPhone doesn't seem to do anything to help. Hopefully it's something Apple can fix quickly, since this is still a beta, and problems like this are to be expected.
While this problem may sound offputting to users, the good news is Apple has another month until iOS 18.1 is scheduled to go live. Although some parts of Apple Intelligence may not be live for another six months, such as Genmoji image generation or Siri being able to complete in-app actions, the basic package of Apple Intelligence features should roll out from October.
In the meantime, the iPhone 16 series is up for pre-orders later today. If you're thinking about picking one up, have a look at our iPhone 16 pre-orders guide to find the best deals. And if you're still on the fence, you can read our iPhone 16 hands-on and iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max hands-on for our current thoughts.
