The Most Important IPhone Features With IOS 18
Apple’s big event “It’s Glowtime” has come to an end . Of course, the headlines will be about the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods update. But don’t let the iOS news slip under your radar: Apple has finally confirmed when iOS 18 will release, meaning we have an estimated time for all these new features to arrive on our iPhones.
This is not a minor update, to say the least. iOS 18 comes with better customization options than ever before, including personalized Home screen layouts , tinted app icons, and a fully customizable Control Center layout . It also includes an updated Photos app, the ability to schedule messages for later, and a more powerful Apple Notes option. Not to mention, it will bring powerful new AI features to compatible iPhones, at least later this year. Here are the most important iOS 18 features you need to know about.
When will iOS 18 be released?
Apple will officially release iOS 18 on Monday, September 16th. If your iPhone supports iOS 17, you can also update it to iOS 18 . iOS 18 will be available to all eligible devices in all regions at the same time (typically 1:00 pm ET). However, it won’t come with Apple Intelligence: Apple’s AI features will be available for compatible iPhones in October with iOS 18.1. They also won’t roll out right away, so don’t expect all announced features to be available at launch.
Apple Intelligence: (mostly) on-device AI assistant
Apple Intelligence is a flagship feature of the iOS 18 era (even if it arrives in iOS 18.1) and is available in many different ways across the operating system. Here’s a quick overview of all the Apple Intelligence features introduced at the iPhone 16 launch:
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Writing tools : You can generate text using suggestions, rewrite text to make it more friendly or professional, or even proofread it. Smart Reply is a related feature that allows you to use AI to quickly add context to your emails.
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Priority notifications : Apple Intelligence will rearrange the order of your notifications, placing the most important ones at the top. Once this feature is rolled out en masse, we’ll see if it can actually highlight important alerts. There’s also a new focus mode called Reduce Interruptions that will automatically turn off low-priority notifications.
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Summarizing articles or emails . Apple Intelligence can create summaries of long emails or articles. This can save you some time if the summary is accurate. This feature will work in Apple’s Mail app and Safari.
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Phone call recording : Apple Intelligence supports call recording, and the AI assistant will generate transcripts of recorded conversations for you. This transcription feature also works in Apple Notes.
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Create images : You can use Apple Intelligence to create images based on text prompts. If you combine these clues with a sketch you’ve drawn, Apple Intelligence can turn your scribbles into a finished image. iOS 18 will also let you create emoji based on text prompts.
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Cleanup : This is a variant of Google’s Apple Magic Eraser that allows you to remove photo bombers from your images .
Apple says that with iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence, Siri will be able to follow your requests even if you make a mistake during a call. You can quickly correct yourself and Siri will answer questions accordingly. Additionally, Apple Intelligence will allow you to photograph animals to determine their species or breed, and photograph an item to identify it using Google search.
Apple’s big promise with Apple Intelligence is privacy: the company says your data is only used to process your requests and is never stored. Much of Apple Intelligence runs on the device, but Apple may use server models for certain functions. There is ChatGPT integration with some features such as writing tools, but you will have to explicitly request ChatGPT input to use it. If you’re wary of using OpenAI models, you may want to avoid them entirely.
While all this may sound exciting, the biggest obstacle to Apple Intelligence is that, as of this writing, it is not available on most iPhones in the world. It works with the iPhone 16 series and iPhone 15 Pro models: iPhone 15 and older devices are out of luck. Otherwise, it only works on iPads and MacBooks with Apple M-series chips. Many Apple Intelligence features are limited to US English, with support for some other languages coming later. Likewise, some of its features won’t be available in many regions, so it’s best to check Apple’s website to see what features are coming to your iPhone.
Built-in password manager
One of the biggest additions to iOS 18 is the new Passwords app . It turns Apple’s existing password management tools into a dedicated app that works on your Apple devices and on Windows (via the iCloud app for Windows). You can use this to securely store your credentials, passwords, and even generate QR codes for sharing Wi-Fi passwords .
Fully customizable Control Center
Now you can easily change the order of all the tiles in your iPhone’s Control Center. I used it to move the most frequently used functions to the bottom right corner, which is easy to reach with my thumb. You can also remove features you don’t use, which is a big step forward: previous versions of iOS didn’t allow you to remove certain features, like the Now Playing widget. It is available on all iPhones running iOS 18.
Personalize your home screen
Building on the customization capabilities in previous versions of iOS, Apple has added proper Home screen customization in iOS 18. You can now move apps to any part of the screen: for example, you can leave the top half of the screen blank and place only icons. in the bottom half or any other part of the screen you like. This opens up space for more customizable home screen layouts like in Android, and you can also move icons around to make your wallpaper stand out more. You can also tint your app icons: Depending on your style, you can either match their color scheme to your wallpaper or choose a contrasting look.
Updated Messages app.
Apple has given Messages a lot of attention in iOS 18 . Perhaps the most important change, however, is RCS support : you and your Android friends can now send higher-quality images and videos to each other, join live group chats, and enjoy end-to-end encryption. Overall, the experience should be similar to iMessage. (Although Apple still makes these bubbles green.) iOS 18 also lets you schedule messages to avoid disturbing people at odd hours. Other improvements include the addition of new text formatting options such as underlining and strikethrough, more text effects, and the ability to react with any emoji you want rather than just the six preset options.
Big improvements to Apple Notes
Apple Notes is getting a big update in iOS 18. You can now solve basic arithmetic problems in the app, which is great for recording expenses or sharing expenses with others. The app also lets you record voice notes and, if you have an Apple Intelligence-compatible phone, even transcribes your audio notes. To improve organization, Notes lets you collapse section headings so you don’t have to scroll through long notes as much. Simply tap a section title to collapse it and move on to the next section.
More privacy and security features
iOS 18 enhances the privacy experience on iPhone with a revamped Privacy and Security Settings page where you can quickly check how many apps are accessing certain types of data. When apps request access to your address book, you can select specific contacts to grant access to and deny access to others. This prevents apps from clearing all your contacts when they only need access to a couple.
Apart from this, there are plenty of hidden features to look out for this year. From searching your call history and using reminders in Apple Calendar to renaming Siri (though you probably shouldn’t do that) , there’s a lot to look forward to.