Nine IOS 18 Features and Changes Apple Didn’t Tell Us About
Apple took to the virtual stage this week to show off all the new features coming to iOS 18 when it launches this fall. While much of the company’s WWDC presentation was dedicated to showcasing Apple Intelligence , the company’s approach to artificial intelligence, Apple made plenty of other small updates.
Of course, there are a staggering number of small and noteworthy changes in iOS 18—too many to cover in one article—and there are likely to be even more in future betas. For now, however, I’d like to highlight a few really interesting and sometimes subtle changes and features that Apple hasn’t spent much time on, so that you have a better idea of what to expect from iOS 18 when it arrives on your iPhone later. this year.
Expanding Frameworks
One of the most noticeable changes that users of the iOS 18 beta have noticed is the introduction of new haptic “pulls” along the frames of the iPhone. These bubbles appear whenever you press the volume or power buttons, and some believe they could indicate Apple’s possible plans for a completely “buttonless” iPhone in the future.
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It’s a small detail, but it adds a nice dynamic animation to the screen as you interact with it. Although this is definitely one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it changes.
You can turn apps into widgets right from your home screen.
The Home screen is getting major changes in iOS 18, and a lot of it starts with basic customization, like the ability to move icons anywhere, hide labels, and even the ability to change the color and theme of the icons themselves.
But there’s one thing Apple didn’t mention during the WWDC presentation: You can now turn any app icon into a widget (as long as it has a widget associated with it) by simply pressing and holding and then selecting one of the widgets. options from the pop-up window.
It’s a great way to make home screen customization even easier, and I can definitely see people using it heavily as they start reorganizing their home screens once iOS 18 goes public.
You can now share Sign in with Apple logins with groups.
Apple Sign In has long been one of the easiest ways for Apple users to sign in to various apps and websites. However, since you use your Apple credentials to sign in, you previously couldn’t share this information with anyone on another iPhone.
That’s changing now, however, as Apple’s new Passwords app will let you share your Apple login logins with others using the group sharing feature. There’s still some work to be done to make this happen, but it’s nice to know that we can finally share these specific logins with family as needed.
Share Wi-Fi networks using QR codes
Another benefit of the new Passwords app is the ability to generate and transmit QR codes for wireless networks. This will make sharing your wireless network with friends and family much easier as you can simply generate a QR code and then send it to the people who need it.
And because the QR code is stored in Apple’s Passwords app, you’ll be able to access it across all your devices, too.
Reminders and markers appear in the Calendar.
Apple is also updating Calendar, adding event tags and even reminders to the monthly and daily views. This makes it easy to see what’s going on at any given time, although in some cases the smaller text is definitely harder to read.
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Still, it’s nice to see this addition to the calendar, especially since reminders now appear in the calendar view. You can even fill out these reminders from there.
Pinch to zoom in on the Calendar app.
Another very handy change to Calendar that Apple didn’t highlight during the presentation is the ability to slide Calendar in and out to adjust the zoom level. This allows you to zoom in on different events that are happening to you.
You can zoom all the way out to view the full month without any details, and then slowly zoom in to see more detail as you go. You can’t fully zoom in to Daily View yet, but perhaps Apple will add that in the future.
Applications now have their own page in settings.
This change will be either a plus or a minus, depending on how much you like the iPhone Settings app. Personally, I think this is a good move. But others may not be so convinced. This is because Apple has now moved all the individual apps that used to appear on your iPhone’s main Settings page to a new section called Apps.
The obvious benefit here is that it cleans up the Start screen and lets you know exactly where you need to go to find access to apps, especially since they’re now organized alphabetically as well. However, some may find the addition of more taps to access these settings annoying. Either way, change is here. We’ll have to wait to see if Apple changes it in the rest of the iOS 18 beta.
More control over flashlight brightness and width on new iPhones.
I use the flashlight on my iPhone a lot—almost every day, in fact. So the addition of new flashlight controls in iOS 18 is a welcome change. The new controls are part of Dynamic Island, which means they will likely only be visible on the iPhone 14 Pro and newer, as older devices don’t have this hardware component. However, it is possible that Apple will release a control unit for older phones.
New controls let you change the brightness of the flashlight, and on iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max you can even control the width of the light spread.
New power button in Control Center.
Finally, the last change I want to highlight today is the addition of a new power button in the revamped Control Center. Yes, you can still turn off your iPhone using the tried and true Power + Volume Down combination. But if you’re like me and sometimes forget whether you should press the volume down or volume up button, you can now open Control Center and tap the small power icon in the top right corner of the screen.
A shutdown slider will open, allowing you to turn off your iPhone. It’s worth noting that you don’t get access to the other options that pressing Power + Volume Down provides, although that may change in later versions of the iOS 18 beta.