At this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple divided the keynote into two parts: regular OS updates and an introduction to the company’s AI features. Apple is drawing a line between these two sections because Apple Intelligence features will become available this fall. It means that those features likely won’t be there with the 18.0 release; major iOS updates are usually timed with new iPhone releases in September.
Apple Intelligence features are also not available in the developer beta, which is available now. It might be a while until we get a taste of them. That’s why the current iOS 18 beta release feels like the first half of a two-part TV show: It’s pretty good, but we need to know more.
iOS 18 lets you move buttons
If you remove Apple Intelligence from iOS 18, customization is the marquee feature. Simply put, you can now move more buttons. First, you can arrange icons on your home screen in any way you want and even keep some icon slots empty. This allows you to create different patterns with icons on the screen.
You can customize icon colors to create a unified look. This way, you don’t need to rely on the tedious Siri Shortcuts workaround to do this. iOS 18 lets you switch to dark icons, give them a specific tint through a color palette, and also make them larger (this will hide the app name). Given that it’s early days, the tinted apps don’t look great with some colors. Apple has already improved dark tint icon support for some third-party apps with the third developer beta.
The Control Center now has a paginated experience. The default four pages are standard controls page, media playback, home controls for smart devices, and connectivity controls. You can add or remove controls to each page and also add new pages if you want. This makes it easier to perform quick actions without having to open certain apps.
There is a new controls gallery that lets you search for controls and easily add them. Apple has opened up the Control Center to third-party apps, so we will see more apps offering interactions with their service with an icon.
One of the best things to come out of this update is that you can replace the default icons for the flashlight and camera on the lock screen through the controls gallery. Plus, you can also choose a new action using the action button.
Privacy features in iOS 18
Apple has redesigned the privacy and security settings to show you what information different apps access at a glance. The menu is now divided into different data types: Calendars, Contacts, Files & Folders, Health, Media & Apple Music, Photos, Reminders and Wallet. You can tap each category and see what apps are accessing this information.
With iOS 18, Apple will allow you to lock or hide apps from the home screen. In both cases, you will require a Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode authentication to open the app. You can long press on an app from the home screen to lock or hide the app. For hidden apps, you will see a new hidden apps folder in the App Library.
When you lock or hide an app, notifications for that app don’t appear on the system. Plus, the content from within the app doesn’t appear within the search.
Apple has also introduced a new dedicated Passwords app, moving the saved credentials from a tab in Settings to make this information easily accessible.
The new Passwords app has also learned a few new tricks. You can see all your passwords and passkeys, all websites and apps with Sign in with Apple credentials, and Wi-Fi passwords. You can also access two-factor verification codes from this app and create groups with friends or family members for shared credentials.
Apple said that all your synced data for this app is protected by end-to-end encryption across devices. At the moment, the app doesn’t allow you to store credit card information like 1Password.
The new software update adds better contact-sharing permission. Now you can share select contacts with an app rather than giving it access to all contacts. There is also a new menu for setting up Bluetooth Accessories, which also prevents these apps from accessing other devices on the network.
Photos app gets a redesign
Apple has gotten rid of the bottom bar with its major Photos redesign this year. The overall philosophy is that the company has decided to pack everything in a unified view. The top carousel shows your library, featured photos, featured memories, favorites and videos by default. You can add or remove different elements from this carousel.
You can directly access the library in the default view and scroll down to see the albums and other different collection folders such as Recent Days, People & Pets, Pinned Collections, Memories, Trips (a new feature), Utilities and Media type. You can customize the visibility and order of these items.
Apple noted in the keynote that it is using “intelligence” (not Apple Intelligence) in the Photos app to create new collections like a group of people and trips based on people appearing in photos and the time and location of images.
The library now has more filters such as all, favorites, edited photos, videos, and screenshots to let you traverse through a trove of images swiftly. The grid view offers bottom tabs of years and months (apart from all), and when you tap on them, you can see highlights from that timeline.
The company’s idea with this redesign is to resurface some old photos regularly through this interface without having to solely rely on the Memories feature.
iOS 18’s language and transcription tech
Apple introduced many language-related updates with iOS. There is a new multilingual and multiscript keyboard, support for Hindi in the translate app, and support for Arabic in Live Text.
You can also customize your lock screen and contact cards with numerals and fonts in the non-Latin script. iOS 18 brings language search tuned for Assamese, Bangla, Devanagari and Gujarati scripts, allowing you to search for similar-sounding words with different spellings.
The transcription feature is now used across the system, including for call recording, notes, voice memos, and a new way to add entries to the Journal app. Notes app allows you to add live transcriptions for events like lectures. It also stores transcripts for call recordings.
Calls and Messages in iOS 18
The phone app now gains a search function to let you look through call history and contacts. You can also use the keypad to type a name or a number to look for contacts (like on a basic feature phone). Apple is expanding Live Voicemail to more regions with support for Indian English, Mandarin and Cantonese.
The Control Center now has a new toggle that lets you easily switch SIM. During the call, the system has an automatic mic mode to switch between standard, voice isolation, and wide spectrum modes.
Messages get new text effects and formatting along with support for tapbacks using any emoji or sticker. The app now lets you schedule messages for later, but the menu for that is hidden under the “+” sign. Apple should move that to a long press of the send button like in other messaging apps.
Apple made a brief mention at the keynote that Messages app now supports RCS (Rich Communication Service). That means your friends on Android can send high-quality media files and also look at read receipts and typing indicators for a better group messaging experience. But this doesn’t take away their green bubbles. U.S.-based users can also connect to someone through the new Messages via the Satellite feature.
Other notable additions in iOS 18
- The Notes app now supports audio recording, collapsible sections, solving math equations and a new way to highlight text.
- Apple had integrated mood and emotion logging directly in the Journal app. Plus, there is an option to add mindfulness minutes based on the amount of time you spent writing in the Journal app.
- Journal app also supports widgets with prompts to make it easier for you to get started. Plus, there is a new insights view to show you different stats like streaks.
- Apple TV app now has an Insights tab to show info like the music track that’s playing and actors on the screen currently. This is just like Amazon Prime Video’s X-ray feature.
- Apple has added new accessibility features like action triggers for different sounds and eye tracking to let you control your phone with your eyes.
- The Calendar app now shows reminders directly in the app. Plus, there is a new month view available for you to look at your schedule.
So what’s iOS without Apple Intelligence?
Apple is catching up with Android by offering features like icon customization and language support. But even if Android had those features a gazillion years ago, it’s good to see those features land on iOS. Some of these features will also require a few iterations to look better.
With iOS 18, Apple is also evolving its apps, such as Calculator, Notes, Journal and Password, to suit advanced usage.
Despite all these changes, everyone will be watching out for when the company releases Apple Intelligence features. But with varied and unspecified timelines of feature rollout, we don’t know how much Apple Intelligence we will get to experience in the next few months. It’s too early to declare this TV show a hit.
