Apple has officially announced iOS 18 at its WWDC 2024 main keynote. The next major software update for the iPhone brings massive customization options across the system, support for Apple Intelligence, and much more.
With iOS 18, users will be able to customize the appearance of their iPhone like never before. A new option allows users to apply a tint for all app icons on the Home Screen, which can now be placed anywhere without being locked to a grid. There’s a dark tint mode when Dark Mode is activated, with a new option to make app icons bigger while hiding their name labels.
The all-new Control Center can now be freely customized, with options to rearrange and resize widgets. New options can be added from the Control Center itself with the new controls gallery, which supports controls from third-party apps for the first time. Multiple related controls can be grouped on one page, which Control Center now supports multiple pages each with a dedicated set of controls. Lock Screen shortcuts can now be customized from the ages-old Camera and Flash options or be removed entirely.
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The Photos app in iOS 18 is redesigned from the ground up for a more streamlined experience. The app now features a single scrollable view instead of multiple tabs. The photo library grid is now fixed at the top, with suggested collections based on themes automatically curated below. There’s a new carousel that highlights special moments and collections, and a new filter to quickly hide screenshots from the main library.
The Messages app is more capable than ever in iOS 18. Tapback reactions are now colorful and more expressive, and users can now react with any emoji from the iPhone’s keyboard. Rich text effects are now supported where users can now add special effects to specific words or phrases rather than the entire message. Rich formatting is also supported, with options to add bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough effects.
The iOS 18 Messages app adds new capabilities to stay connected with more devices in more places. The messages via satellite feature allows users to send and receive messages over satellite in non-emergency situations when cellular or Wi-Fi reception is poor. Support for the RCS messaging standard is also present with iOS 18.
The Mail app will gain new categorization options that automatically separate incoming emails into different categories depending on their content. For business emails, there’s a new digest view that pulls together all relevant information from multiple emails or threads into a single view.
Safari gains new tools for a more streamlined and faster browsing experience with iOS 18. The redesigned Reader mode can now summarize articles and generate a table of contents. Highlights is a new feature that automatically scans relevant information from webpages such as maps and music info and automatically presents them to users for easier access.
iOS 18 comes with a new app for password management. The Passwords app is a new way for users to quickly manage their iCloud Keychain, with support for passwords, passkeys, Wi-Fi passwords, and verification codes. Like Keychain, the new app can alert users if their passwords appear in data leaks, are easily guessed, or are repeated across multiple logins.
iOS 18 brings considerable privacy improvement across the system. Now, there’s an option to lock apps behind Face ID or passcode access. Apps can also be hidden from the Home Screen, which will hide their content from everywhere else in the system. iOS 18 supports more granular app access to contacts, so users can select which contact information is shared with which apps.
Apple Intelligence is the company’s forrays into artificial intelligence, and iOS 18 features Apple Intelligence everywhere across the system. Writing Tools make it easier to craft paragraphs of text with support for tone change, proofreading, and summarization in apps like Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.
iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence feature a built-in image generation tool. Image Playground empowers users to create a unique image or illustration by describing its appearance in a prompt. Image Playground can also generate Genmojis, which are custom emojis in the Messages app.
Apple Intelligence can also generate Memories in the Photos app where users can enter their descriptions in a prompt. Photos also gain a new Clean Up feature, allowing users to remove unwanted objects in an image’s background while keeping the main subjects untouched.
The first developer beta of iOS 18 is now out for developers, with a public beta program following in July. iOS 18 will be available to all iPhone models running iOS 17 later this fall, with Apple Intelligence features available to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max and later.
