All the new features in iOS 18

iOS 18 is a surprisingly rich software update with major new customization features and big changes in Photos, Messages, Notes and more. Although Apple Intelligence features are going to continue grabbing headlines for the next year, it’ll only be available on the latest iPhones later in the fall.

The iOS 18 update is packed with features — and it’s out right now. Find it in Settings > General > Software Update. It’s compatible with all the same devices as iOS 17.

After you update, here’s the big list of things you should check out. You should definitely start with editing your Home Screen, reading how the new Photos app works and checking out the new iMessage features.

Over 50 new features in iOS 18

Table of contents: Over 50 new features in iOS 18

1. Customization
2. New Photos app
3. New features in Messages
4. New features in Notes
5. New features in Safari
6. Accessibility
7. New features in other apps
8. Other system features
9. What’s coming in future releases

Customizable Home Screen and Control Center

In iOS 18, you can customize your Home Screen like never before. You can change up almost everything, from the color and placement of app icons to swapping out the Camera and Flashlight buttons for something else. You can really go crazy, making your iPhone truly custom.

You can switch to dark mode icons on your Home Screen. Tap and hold on the screen, then in the top left corner, tap Edit > Customize. Pick between Light mode icons, Dark mode icons, Automatic (which matches the system setting) or Tinted (dark icons with a single accent color).

From the same menu, you can make icons bigger and hide the labels. Tap Large on the top to see bigger icons on the Home Screen and in the App Library.

Dim the wallpaper by tapping the sun icon in the top left.

Personally, I try to keep a somewhat stock and plain-looking Home Screen. I post images of my Home Screen in my how-to articles regularly, and I don’t want that to distract from the content — but I think you can have a lot of fun with these new options.

You can customize Control Center far more than ever before. Tap the + button in the top left of Control Center, then tap Add a Control at the bottom to add a new button. There are many more buttons and controls available than before — some may be offered by third-party apps you have installed.

Controls can be organized across multiple pages. You can make controls bigger and more prominent by dragging the grabber in the bottom corner. Remove them by tapping the − button. I organized my Control Center by shifting a lot of controls towards the middle of the screen for easier access.

Swap out the Lock Screen buttons for Flashlight and Camera with any of the same Control Center buttons. Edit your Lock Screen by tapping and holding on it, then tap either button to swap it out for something different. And because a Lock Screen can be tied to a specific Focus mode, you can customize the controls for different contexts: Music and Podcasts in your Driving focus, Alarm and Timer for your Sleep focus, etc.

Customize the Action button of your iPhone (if it’s a newer model) with any of these same controls. Go to Settings > Action Button, then swipe until you see the option Controls. Tap Choose a Control… and pick one from the list.

New Photos app features in iOS 18

The new Photos app has a striking new design that removes the tab bar from the bottom of the screen.

The Library on the top half of the screen shows all your pictures in chronological order. Scroll up to browse your pictures and videos. Tap the × in the bottom right corner to jump back down to the bottom.

The Search button at the top of the screen lets you search for people, media type, location and more. You’ll see recently searched images up top and suggestions for what you can search for above the text box. Tap Done or tap the blank area to the right to close the search box.

The Collections view below puts all your recently saved images, memories, albums and other stuff in a scrollable list below. Recently Saved will appear inside the Recent Days section to the left to show you images you saved from the web, Snapchat, Messages and more. At the bottom of the screen, tap Customize & Reorder to move sections that are more important to you higher up in the list or turn off features you don’t personally use.

Your Profile button in the upper right lets you see the sync status of your library. You’ll see a yellow dot on this icon if there’s media that hasn’t been uploaded to iCloud and a blue progress circle around the icon if it’s currently syncing. Here, you can also see pictures that have been shared with you, iCloud links and change some settings.

The new design takes some getting used to. I still personally dislike how hard it is to reach the Search button; I feel like it should be a full-size text box between the library and the collections. Overall, the design has improved significantly since the first betas in the summer.

New features in Messages

These are a bunch of new features coming to Messages, which you can read more about in our roundup article:

Format your text with bold, italics, underline and strikethrough by tapping the Format button to the right, above the keyboard.

Animate text from the Format button. You can make text big, small, shake, nod, explode, ripple, bloom and jitter. Highlight a word or phrase to animate a specific part of the text. You can even use multiple different effects in the same message.

I’m excited to use these new formatting options when more people update to iOS 18.

Schedule messages to send later if you want to send a text in the future, at a specific date and time. Tap the + to bring up the menu, scroll down and tap Send Later. Messages can be scheduled up to a week in advance. Messages you have scheduled will appear below the current conversation until they’re sent. This feature is excellent.

Tap and hold on a text message bubble and you’ll discover that you can Tapback with any emoji; you’re not limited to the basic six options. You can scroll the list to see some common emoji; or tap the emoji button to see the full emoji picker.

RCS messaging will be enabled when texting someone on a supported Android device. It’ll say “Text Message • RCS” in the text field. You’ll see typing indicators and read receipts (if they’re enabled). Over RCS, you can send high-resolution images and videos, voice memos, files and more.

If you have an iPhone 14 or newer, you can text via satellite if you’re in an area outside of cell coverage.  As opposed to sending canned messages in an emergency, you can carry on texting as you normally would.

New features in Notes

The dedicated team behind Apple Notes continues to deliver rich new features this year:

1. You can record voice memos with transcriptions.
2. Collapsible Section headers make longer notes more browsable.
3. You can type out equations and calculations for solving longer-form math problems.
4. Math Notes is a new feature for Apple Pencil that lets you write out math problems by hand, record variables, draw graphs and more. It’s also available in the Calculator app.
5. Highlight and color text in purple, pink, orange, mint and blue.
6. Smart Script learns your style of handwriting and cleans it up for legibility. You can also easily rearrange text, make space in the middle of a paragraph and paste text from the web in similar handwriting in the middle of your notes.
7. Attaching files to a note is now much easier. Tap the paperclip icon above the keyboard or the ⋯ button in the top toolbar and tap Attach File.
8. If you record a call in the Phone app, a transcription will automatically appear in Notes as well in a new Call Recording folder.

New features in Safari

There are four major new features in Safari — read more about these in our roundup article:

The redesigned Page menu is better laid out and easier to use. You have a customizable list of controls on top (by default, Hide Distracting Items, Turn Off Content Blockers and Reduce Privacy Protections). In the middle, you can manage your web extensions. Below, you can find text on the page, change the zoom level, and find the rest of the controls in the ⋯ menu. From there, you can tap Edit to add or remove controls for easier access. It’s a significant improvement on the old page menu.

Hide Distracting Items lets you make an annoying part of a webpage disappear. Find it in the Page menu. Tap on an element on the page, tap Hide, then it’ll blow distractions away into dust.

Information highlights will show up on certain pages. If you’re looking at a business, restaurant or point of interest known to Apple Maps, you’ll see a widget that tells you the operating hours, contact info and location. Tap it to open in Maps. If you’re reading about a notable person, you’ll see a short bio; tap it to open in Wikipedia. Articles will have a short summary with key points. Tap to show Reader mode.

An automatically-generated summary and table of contents will appear at the top of an article in Reader mode. It’ll tell you the gist of a long article right at the top, and you can tap on a section to jump to a specific part.

Accessibility features

iOS 18 brings five awesome accessibility features:

Music Haptics adds an extra dimension to your music. It’s a track of vibrations, haptics and buzzing patterns timed to the song you’re listening to. Hold your phone in your hand and you’ll feel it. Enable the feature in Settings > Accessibility > Music Haptics and you can selectively enable or disable it from the Now Playing screen. It requires a subscription to Apple Music.

Eye tracking lets you control your iPhone completely hands-free. Enable it in Settings > Accessibility > Eye Tracking and calibrate it by following a dot around the screen. It’s not a great way to use your phone, but results are best if it’s held steady on a MagSafe stand and your face is close to the screen. I don’t think the feature is quite ready for wide usage yet, but having used an Apple Vision Pro, it could get much better over time.

Vocal Shortcuts are a special key phrase, like “Hey Siri,” that you can set up to run a Shortcut or Siri command. So instead of saying, “Hey Siri, play music by Driftless Pony Club,” you can set up a vocal shortcut that’s just “Favorite music.” Find this in Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts. If you like to use Google Assistant instead of Siri, you could use this feature to set up an “OK Google” command, like an Android phone.

If you can’t use your phone in the car because you get motion sick, you can enable Vehicle Motion Cues in Settings > Accessibility > Motion > Show Vehicle Motion Cues. This feature will add animated dots along the edge of the screen that match the acceleration, swaying and turns of the car, train, bus or plane you’re on. By reducing the sensory conflict, you may be able to read or watch TikTok on your travels.

Listen for Atypical Speech may improve how your phone processes text when you use Siri or voice dictation. It’s designed to help people with conditions that affect their speech, such as stroke, ALS or cerebral palsy, according to the Apple press release. The feature recognizes “user speech patterns” on-device to enhance speech recognition. Find this in Settings > Accessibility > Siri > Listen for Atypical Speech.

New features in other apps

iCloud Keychain is now a new Passwords app that makes storing, looking up, editing or searching your saved passwords easier than ever before. I’m hopeful this will encourage more people to use the feature.

Calendar now integrates with Reminders. Tasks with a specified date and time will appear in Calendar, and from Calendar you can create Reminders just like you can create new events. I love this.

Four new features come to the Journal app — but unfortunately, there’s still no Mac app:

• Track writing statistics and streaks to make sure you add to your journal regularly.
• Add your current mood to an entry, which ties into the mood tracking feature of the Health app.
• Search for an entry with a new text search field.
• You can now print an entry, or your entire journal, for some reason.

Maps has local hiking trails for local and national parks in the United States and Japan. You can browse through recommended walking trails, seeing details such as distance, ETA and change in elevation. Piece together a custom route to plan your hike in advance. You can also save it for offline access on your iPhone and Apple Watch.

In the Apple TV app, you can see which actors are on screen and which songs are playing using the new InSight feature. This works when watching shows on your iPhone and when using your iPhone as an Apple TV remote. It requires a subscription to Apple TV+.

Enhance Dialogue is another feature of the TV app that “helps you better hear what’s being said onscreen, especially when loud sound effects or music is playing.”

In Freeform, you can present specific areas of your board easier by creating scenes. A new diagramming mode lets you connect different objects on the board — and you can align them perfectly by snapping them to a grid.

In Wallet, you can track rewards points and installments from your bank, store credit cards or loyalty cards.

Detailed event tickets in Wallet can also show rich information like a map of the venue, local weather, bag policies, parking details, food and merch stands and more. I’m excited to try this out.

Other new system features in iOS 18

Lock an app with Face ID to require authentication before opening the app. You’ll still see the app on your Home Screen and receive notifications, but the app will be locked by Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode in order to see its contents.

Hide an app for an extra level of protection. The icon will be removed from your Home Screens, you won’t receive notifications and the app will be hidden from the app switcher. To open the app, you’ll have to unlock the Hidden Apps folder in the App Library using Face ID, Touch ID or your device passcode.

Tap two iPhones together to send Apple Cash if you want to instantly pay someone back without going through the Messages app.

Game Mode will activate automatically when you open a game with intense graphics. It will reduce background activity so more resources can power the game, while reducing Bluetooth lag for connected controllers and AirPods. You can disable Game Mode from Control Center.

AirPods get new features such as nodding your head to respond “yes” or “no” to Siri and incoming calls, spatial audio for gaming and voice isolation on AirPods Pro.

Privacy settings are redesigned and easier to manage. In certain third-party apps, you also have greater control over which contacts they can access.

New features coming later in iOS 18

Apple Intelligence features will be released in iOS 18.1, expected to arrive in October. That includes:

• Writing tools can help you proofread, change tone and summarize text.
• Notification summaries will give a brief overview of a busy text conversation.
• The image clean-up tool in Photos lets you erase elements from a picture by circling it.
• Siri can understand you if you stumble over your words, and has a new visual design.
• Visually look up restaurants, events, objects and more using the camera control on the iPhone 16.

Additional Apple Intelligence features will be rolled out in later updates:

• A more capable version of Siri will be able to see your screen and take action on your behalf inside the apps you use.
• A personal context of information based on your conversations and data inside your apps will help Apple Intelligence and Siri understand your life.
• Image Playground is a tool in Messages, Notes and other apps for creating images.
• Genmoji lets you create custom emoji based on a description or based on a person in your Photos library.
• Swift Assist will help programmers in Xcode write functions or add features to their code.

A couple other features are coming later as well. Mail will automatically sort your inbox into categories for Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions. Robot vacuum support is coming to the Home app for remote control and automations.

Other software updates

Check out articles on Apple’s other software releases: