iOS 14 download: When is the release date for new iPhone update?

There are three answers: now, soon or later

Apple has unveiled iOS 14, its latest major update for the iPhone.

It brings a whole host of features, including a re-designed home screen and new features in Messages and other apps.

But when it comes to downloading it, and its release date, there are in short three answers. They amount to: now, soon, or later.

Developers can get hold of the new update straight away, by downloading it from within Apple's website. Users can just head to the download page if they are signed in as a registered developer, get hold of the profile, and then simply go to the software update part of settings which should begin the install.

There are tools to get hold of the update through that process floating around on the internet, through a variety of illicit channels. But that is not recommended – not only does it break Apple's rules, the early version of the software is risky, and could cause problems for any device that it is used on.

The easier and safer way to get hold of the software sooner is to join Apple's public beta programme, through which the software will be available next month. You can sign up to that now, through Apple's special page, and the update will arrive when it is pushed out to the public.

While the new features in the new operating system change some of the most fundamental parts of the iPhone, there are limited alterations to the architecture underpinning it, meaning that joining that public beta is less likely to pose any major risk to phones or the data stored on them. It could also mean that the public beta opens earlier in the month rather than later,

If you want to wait for the full version – which is without a doubt the safest and most hassle-free way of getting the new software – then it will almost certainly come out alongside the new iPhone, in September.

Apple didn't give any explicit date of when the new release would come, only mentioning "this fall", but the updates have run on a fairly predictable schedule of coming out just before the new handset. As such, it will almost certainly arrive in mid-September.

You will, of course, only be able to get the update through any means if your iPhone is able to support it. It is available for any handsets since the iPhone 6S, as well as the latest version of the iPod Touch.