At this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple split its keynote into two parts: the regular OS updates and a look at the company's AI features. Apple separated the two sections because Apple Intelligence features will be available starting this fall, meaning they likely won't be included in the 18.0 release. Major iOS updates usually coincide with new iPhone releases in September.
The Apple Intelligence feature is also not available in the currently available developer beta, and it may be a while before it's actually available, which is why the current iOS 18 beta release feels like the first half of a two-part TV show: It's a pretty cool feature, but we need to know more about it.
You can move buttons in iOS 18
With the removal of Apple Intelligence from iOS 18, customization becomes the flagship feature. Simply put, you can now move more buttons around. First, you can arrange icons on your home screen however you like, and you can even leave some icon slots empty. This lets you create different patterns with your icons on the screen.
Image credit: Apple
You can customize icon colors for a consistent look, so you don't have to rely on cumbersome Siri Shortcuts workarounds. In iOS 18, you can switch to dark icons, a specific shade in the color palette, or make the icon larger (which hides the app name). It's still early days, so colored apps don't look as good in some colors. Apple has already improved support for dark shade icons for some third-party apps in the third developer beta.
Control Center now has a paged experience. The four default pages are the standard control page, media playback, smart device home controls, and connectivity controls. You can add or remove controls from each page, and add new pages as needed. This makes it easier to perform quick actions without having to open a specific app.
There's a new Control Gallery that lets you search for and easily add controls, and because Apple has opened up Control Center to third-party apps, we'll likely see more apps use icons to provide interaction with their services.
One of the best things about this update is that you can now replace the default flashlight and camera icons on your lock screen from the control gallery, and even select new actions using the action buttons.
iOS 18 Privacy Features
Apple has redesigned the Privacy and Security settings to let you see at a glance what information different apps have access to. The menu is now divided into different data types, including Calendar, Contacts, Files and Folders, Health, Media and Apple Music, Photos, Reminders, Wallet, etc. Tap on each category to see which apps have access to this information.
iOS 18 lets you lock or hide apps from the Home screen. In both cases, Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode authentication is required to open the app. You can lock or hide an app by long pressing it from the Home screen. For hidden apps, you'll find a new Hidden Apps folder in the App Library.
Apple now lets you hide apps. Image credit: Apple
When you lock or hide an app, notifications from that app will not appear in the system and content within the app will not appear in searches.
Apple has also introduced a new dedicated Passwords app and moved saved credentials out of the Settings tab, making this information easier to access.
Image credit: Apple
The new Passwords app also comes with some new features: you can see all your passwords and passkeys, all the websites and apps where you have Sign in with Apple credentials, and your Wi-Fi passwords. You can also access your two-factor authentication codes from the app and create groups to share credentials with friends and family.
According to Apple, all data synced with the app is protected by end-to-end encryption across devices. Currently, the app doesn't allow you to store credit card information like 1Password does.
The new software update improves contact sharing permissions: you can now share selected contacts with an app instead of allowing access to all your contacts. There's also a new menu for configuring Bluetooth accessories, which also prevents these apps from accessing other devices on your network.
Image credit: Apple
Photo app has been revamped
Apple did away with the bottom bar in a major redesign of its Photos app earlier this year. The overall direction was to bring everything together in a unified view. The carousel at the top shows your Library, Featured Photos, Featured Memories, Favorites, and Videos by default. You can add or remove different elements from this carousel.
Apple redesigned the Photos app in iOS 18 into a single view. Image credit: Apple
You can access your library directly in the default view and scroll down to see different collection folders like Albums, Recent Days, People & Pets, Pinned Collections, Memories, Travel (New), Utilities, Media Types, etc. You can customize the display and order of these items.
During the keynote, Apple said it's using “intelligence” (not Apple Intelligence) in the Photos app to create new collections, like groups of people or trips, based on the people in your photos and the time and location of the images.
Image credit: Apple
The Library now has filters like All, Favorites, Edited Photos, Videos, and Screenshots to help you browse through large amounts of images quickly, and the Grid view now has bottom tabs for Years and Months (except All) that you can tap to see highlights for that timeline.
The company's aim with this redesign is to let you periodically re-view older photos through the interface, rather than relying solely on Memories.
iOS 18 Languages and Transcription Technology
Apple has introduced a number of language-related updates in iOS, including new multilingual and multiscript keyboards, Hindi support in the Translator app, and Arabic support in Live Text.
You can also customise your lock screen and contact card with numbers and fonts in non-Latin characters.In iOS 18, language search has been tuned for Assamese, Bengali, Devanagari and Gujarati scripts, allowing you to search for similar sounding words with different spellings.
Image credit: Apple
The transcription feature is now system-wide, including for call recordings, notes, voice memos, and adding entries to the Journal app. The Notes app lets you add live transcriptions of events like lectures, and it also stores transcriptions of call recordings.
iOS 18 Calls and Messages
The Phone app now has a search feature, so you can search your call history and contacts, or use the keypad to search for contacts by entering a name or number (just like on a basic feature phone). Apple is also expanding live voicemail to more regions with support for Indian English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
iOS 18 lets you search for calls Image credit: Apple
There's a new toggle in Control Center that makes it easier to switch between SIMs, and while on a call, the system has an automatic mic mode that lets you switch between standard, voice isolation, and wide spectrum modes.
Messages now has new text effects and formatting, and also supports tapbacks with emojis and stickers. The app now lets you schedule messages to be sent later, but the menu for doing so is hidden under a “+” sign. Apple should move this functionality to a long press on the send button like other messaging apps do.
Image credit: Apple
Apple briefly mentioned during the keynote that the Messages app now supports RCS (Rich Communications Services), which means your Android friends will be able to send you high-quality media files and will also see read receipts and typing indicators, making for a better group messaging experience. This doesn't mean you'll lose the green speech bubbles, though. US-based users can also connect with someone through the new Messages over satellite feature.
Image credit: Apple
Other notable additions in iOS 18
The Notes app now supports audio recording, collapsible sections, solving equations, and new ways to highlight text. Apple has integrated mood and emotion logging directly into the Journal app. Additionally, there is an option to add mindfulness minutes based on the time you spend writing in the Journal app. The Journal app also supports widgets with prompts to make it easier to get started. Additionally, there is a new Insights view that shows various statistics such as your streaks. The Apple TV app now has an Insights tab that shows information such as the music track that is playing and the actor currently on screen. This is similar to the X-ray feature in Amazon Prime Video. Apple has added new accessibility features such as action triggers for different sounds and eye tracking that lets you interact with your phone with your eyes. The Calendar app now shows reminders directly within the app. Additionally, there is a new Month view that lets you check your schedule.
So what is iOS without Apple Intelligence?
Apple is trying to catch up with Android by offering features like icon customization and language support. But it's nice to see those features on iOS, even though Android has had them for millennia. Some of these features may need a few iterations to look good.
With iOS 18, Apple is also evolving apps like Calculator, Notes, Journal and Passwords to accommodate advanced usage.
Despite all these changes, everyone will be interested to see when Apple will release the Apple Intelligence features. However, with feature release times varying and still undetermined, it is unclear how much Apple Intelligence we will get to experience in the coming months. It is too early to declare the TV show a hit.