Apple's iOS 18 update was rolled out to all users on September 16. Ahead of the release of Apple Intelligence, the most significant new features are the ability to customize home screen icons, swapping app shortcuts on the lock screen, a redesigned Control Center, support for RCS, and a new Passwords app.
But there are lots of other small and fun changes that you might find useful.
We've compiled a list of our favorite hidden features that you may have missed.
setting
Listing all your apps on the main page of the Settings app can lead to a lot of scrolling if you have a lot of apps installed, but Apple has now given them separate app menus, making the Settings screen less cluttered and making it clearer where each individual app's controls are located.
Image credit: Screenshot from TechCrunch
photograph
The Photos app now lets you view your photo library without screenshots. You can hide screenshots by tapping the sort icon in the bottom left corner and unchecking Screenshots under View options. The Photos app's Utility collection has new content types, including Documents, Receipts, Handwriting, Illustrations, and QR Codes, to help you find specific information in your photos. Plus, you can view media items that were recently added, edited, or shared. The Photos app automatically suggests photos that are suitable for wallpapers. You can now copy edits from one photo to another, including crop aspect ratio, exposure, and white balance. The Photos app also automatically organizes your trips in a Travel section, grouping people and pets so you can find photos that have both your partner and your cat in them, for example. The new Video Speed Control feature lets you create slowed-down video effects.
camera
One of the main complaints from users was that the music playing through the earbuds would pause when taking photos or videos. iOS 18 fixes this issue, allowing music to continue playing through the Bluetooth connection while taking photos or videos. The Camera app also adds a new 5-second timer in addition to the existing 3-second and 10-second timers.
Control Center
In iOS 18, you can customize the Control Center with widgets and buttons. Moreover, one of the main changes in the new view is the addition of a power button in the top-right corner. This means that you no longer need to hold down the power and volume down buttons to power off your device, but can instead access it from the Control Center.
Image credit: Screenshot from TechCrunch
message
The Messages app finally lets you schedule messages to be sent at a later time, but this option is hidden in the + menu rather than being an option associated with the send button, so it can be hard to find.
Image credit: Screenshot by TechCrunch iMessage now lets you send full-resolution images up to 100MB in size. Text effects let you add animated effects like explosions and ripples to letters, words, or phrases to make your conversations more visually interesting. You can also add text formatting like bold, underline, italics, and strikethrough. Send messages over satellite, even in areas with no signal. You can now “Tapback” with emojis and stickers. Multiple Tapbacks are spread out so you can easily see the last three you added.
Safari
Safari now has the ability to remove distractions from web pages. While this doesn't remove ads, it can help you tidy up parts of a website that you don't need or want to see. For example, if a website asks you to sign up for an email newsletter, you can hide the sign-up box (The Browser Company's Arc browser implemented a similar feature last year). Summary highlights let you read a summary of an article before reading the whole thing. Other highlights show helpful information about people, music, movies, and TV shows.
weather
The Weather app now has a widget that prominently displays actual temperature combined with air temperature in the details view, so you can easily compare the two. The Weather app also prominently displays wind speed, gusts, and direction. You can now set your home and work locations from your contacts in the Weather app.
Siri
With AirPods, you can now respond to Siri message notifications by shaking or nodding your head, meaning you can answer or reject calls with just a gesture.
Image credit: screenshot from TechCrunchImage credit: screenshot from TechCrunch
Podcasts
The new Podcasts app lets you jump to a specific chapter from the progress bar if defined by the podcast. The Podcasts app also lets you reorder or delete episodes in your listening queue. Podcast transcripts let you share specific parts of a podcast.
map
Maps now has new topographical, hiking, and route-creation features that rival popular third-party tools like AllTrails. The Maps app lets you save hikes in all U.S. national parks that are available offline. You can also create and save your own walking and hiking routes. Apple is making exploring in the Maps app even more convenient by letting you compare places by browsing photos, ratings, and price levels.
Note
Notes now supports collapsible sections, allowing you to create structured documents within the app. The app has also added support for audio recording, meaning you can record an audio session directly from Notes and save the audio along with your comments, checklists, and documents. You can also edit your notes while recording. The Notes app also supports PDF inline search and different color highlighting. Both Notes and Calculator support solving mathematical equations. You can also add different graphs and variables related to your equations.
Image credit: Apple
The Mail app finally has a way to group emails by sender. You can take quick actions on those emails, like marking them as read or deleting and archiving them. A new Deals category makes it easier to find order confirmations, receipts, shipping, and travel information, while the Updates category collects newsletters, news items, and social updates in one place, just like in Gmail. Time-sensitive deals, updates, and promotions will still appear in the primary section (labeled with a category icon for easy reference). New clean-up tools are available in the Mail app, iCloud.com, and iCloud Mail settings.
Utilities and Keyboard
The keyboard now supports multiple languages on a single keyboard, and it detects the language you last used in apps like Messages and switches to it automatically. Apple introduced a unified emoji and sticker picker in the keyboard, and lets you search for both. The calculator now lets you evaluate expressions, assign variables, and create graphs. When providing tech support, you can ask for permission to remotely control a friend's device. The flashlight interface on some phones has a fun new makeover in iOS 18. You can now control different brightness levels and adjust the width of the beam.
journal
The journal app allows you to record your mood. The time you spend writing in your journal is recorded as Mindful Minutes. The app also supports audio transcription and printing of your entries. With the widget, you can add reminders and prompts to write on your home screen and develop the habit of journaling.
Calendar and Reminders
In iOS 18, Calendar now shows timed reminders and lets you create and edit new items directly in the app. Calendar also offers new Day, Week, and Month views so you can easily glance at your schedule, and the Reminders app now includes Shopping and Recently Deleted lists in multiple languages. Apple now lets you quickly set up new items for family lists, including shared calendars, shopping lists, and password lists.
file
The Files app allows you to store certain iCloud files or folders on your phone and always download and sync them. With iOS 18, iPhone now supports more file formats when formatting external drives, including APFS, exFAT, and MS-DOS (Fat32). You can also clear these drives from the Files app.
Apple TV App
The Apple TV app now has InSight, an X-Ray-like feature from Amazon Prime Video that shows you information about actors and music in shows and movies, and a new “Dialogue Enhancement” feature makes it easier to hear dialogue, even over loud sound effects and music.
house
The Home app update in iOS 18 will let you unlock connected doors hands-free, you can add up to 29 guests and allow time-based access, and you can unlock your Ultra Wideband-enabled smart locks (available next year) without taking your smartphone out of your pocket.
Accessibility
iOS 18 includes new accessibility features, including eye-tracking capabilities for controlling the phone's interface, and allows users to set custom utterances to invoke actions such as going to the home screen, opening the camera, launching shortcuts, and invoking Siri requests.
Image Credit: Apple iOS 18 also introduces vehicle movement cues in the form of dots on the edges of the screen to help alleviate motion sickness. These dots let you know when the vehicle is moving. They can be set to On, Off, or Auto-detect mode. Music Haptics syncs the Taptic Engine on your iPhone to the rhythm of a song, helping deaf and hard of hearing people enjoy Apple Music.
Additional reporting by Sara Perez