Calling all iPhone lovers – the top 5 features coming to iOS 12 that you don't want to miss

iOS 12 

will officially roll out in the fall of 2018, but the public beta is available for download if you're brave enough. The beta is pretty buggy but it gives you a first look into what Apple has in store for your iPhone.

Though the public beta of iOS 12 is mostly stable, it's not final code reflective of what'll come in a few months, which means some features don't work properly, and it still crashes here and there.

We don't recommend installing iOS 12 on your main iPhone. Instead, install it on a spare iOS device (assuming you have one) in case something goes wrong. This isn't a review of iOS 12 — we'll have one this fall — but we've had our hands on the beta long enough to know which key features you can look forward to.

Speeding up older devices

Historically, the worst thing about updating your iPhone or iPad to the latest version of iOS is that it almost invariably operates slower. Whether it's an older processor that can't keep up or an insufficient amount of RAM, new updates often slow old hardware to the point where you're worse off, no matter how many new features there may be.

In iOS 12, Apple says it's made things like opening apps and displaying the keyboard much faster and from what I've seen, the OS feels speedier for sure on older devices like the iPhone 6 and iPad Air 2.

Apple's senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi said at WWDC apps will launch up to 40 percent faster, the keyboard will appear up to 50 percent faster, and the camera will launch up to 70 percent faster when swiped open from the lock screen.

This is great news if you're still hanging onto an older iOS device and want to squeeze just a little more life out of it.

FaceTime gets a big upgrade

Apple's FaceTime is already great, and soon it'll be even greater with support for up to 32 people in a group video call. It's unlikely you'll ever be FaceTiming with that many people at once, but the option is there if you want or need to.

In addition to being able to video-call multiple people, you can also make an appearance as an Animoji, Memoji, or apply effects (like stickers that move with your head) during the FaceTime. I have to admit, showing up as a Memoji on a FaceTime is pretty amusing.

Smarter notifications

Since Nougat, Android has managed notifications far better than iOS by allowing them to be grouped together instead of displaying them as individual entries.

In iOS 12, Apple has fine-tuned notifications so they're tidier, and, as a result, less stressful to look at. For starters, notifications are now grouped by apps and thread. They appear on your lock screen like a stack and tapping on them expands them.

Notifications can also be delivered "quietly" to Notification Center so they don't interrupt you. These notifications won't appear on the lock screen, make any sounds, or display any banners, but they will still be present in Notification Center when you actively check it. I set a specific Gmail account that I only use for online shopping sign-ups and, let me tell you, I love not seeing these emails come in during the day.

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