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. Those features likely won’t be there with the 18.0 release; major iOS updates are usually timed with new iPhone releases in September.
Developer Beta and Anticipation
Apple Intelligence features are also unavailable 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 Customization Features
Button Customization
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 empty some icon slots. This allows you to create different patterns with icons on the screen.
Icon Customization
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 make them larger (this will hide the app name). The tinted apps don’t look great in some colors in the early days. With the third developer beta, Apple has already improved dark tint icon support for some third-party apps.
Control Center
The Control Center now has a paginated experience. The default four pages are the 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 opening certain apps.
Controls Gallery
A new controls gallery lets you search for controls and easily add them. Apple has opened the Control Center to third-party apps so you can see more apps interacting with their service with icons.
Lock Screen Customization
One of the best features of this update is that you can replace the default icons for the flashlight and camera on the lock screen through the controls gallery. You can also choose a new action using the action button.
Privacy Features in iOS 18
Redesigned Privacy and Security Settings
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 data types: Calendars, Contacts, Files & Folders, Health, Media & Apple Music, Photos, Reminders, and Wallet. You can tap each category and see which apps are accessing this information.
Lock or Hide Apps
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.
Notifications and Search
When you lock or hide an app, its notifications don’t appear on the system, and content from within the app doesn’t appear in the search.
New Passwords App
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.
Security Enhancements
Apple said that end-to-end encryption across devices protects all your synced data for this app. Currently, 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 prevents these apps from accessing other devices on the network.
Photos App Redesign
Unified View
Apple has eliminated the bottom bar with its major photo redesign this year. The overall philosophy is that the company has decided to pack everything in a unified view. By default, the top carousel shows your library, featured photos, featured memories, favorites, and videos. You can add or remove different elements from this carousel.
Direct Access and Customization
You can access the library in the default view and scroll down to see the albums and other 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.
Intelligence in Photos
Apple noted in the keynote that it uses “intelligence” (not Apple Intelligence) in the Photos app to create new collections, such as 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 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 relying solely on the Memories feature.
iOS 18’s Language and Transcription Tech
Language Updates
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 customize your lock screen and contact cards with numerals and fonts in the non-Latin script. iOS 18 tunes language search for Assamese, Bangla, Devanagari, and Gujarati scripts, allowing you to search for similar-sounding words with different spellings.
Transcription Features
The transcription feature is now used across the system for call recording, notes, voice memos, and a new way to add entries to the Journal app. The Notes app allows you to add live transcriptions for events like lectures and stores transcripts for call recordings.
Calls and Messages in iOS 18
Phone App Updates
The phone app now provides a search function to 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 an essential feature phone). Apple is expanding Live Voicemail to more regions with support for Indian English, Mandarin, and Cantonese.
SIM Toggle and Mic Mode
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 broad spectrum modes.
Messages App Updates
Messages get new text effects, formatting, and support for tapbacks using any emoji or sticker. The app lets you schedule messages for later, but the menu is hidden under the “+” sign. Apple should move that to a long-press of the send button like in other messaging apps.
RCS Support
Apple briefly mentioned at the keynote that the Messages app now supports RCS (Rich Communication Service). That means your friends on Android can send high-quality media files and 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 connect to someone through the new Messages via the Satellite feature.
Other Notable Additions in iOS 18
Notes App Enhancements
The Notes app now supports audio recording, collapsible sections, solving math equations, and a new way to highlight text.
Journal App Updates
Apple had integrated mood and emotion logging directly in the Journal app. Plus, the journal app allows adding mindfulness minutes based on your writing time. The Journal app also supports widgets with prompts to make it easier for you to get started. Plus, a new insights view shows you different stats like streaks.
Apple TV App
The Apple TV app now has an Insights tab that shows info like the music track playing and actors currently on the screen. This is similar to Amazon Prime Video’s X-ray feature.
Accessibility Features
Apple has added new accessibility features, such as action triggers for different sounds and eye tracking, to let you control your phone with your eyes.
Calendar App
The Calendar app now shows reminders directly in the app. Plus, a new monthly view is available for viewing your schedule.
So, What’s iOS Without Apple Intelligence?
Apple is catching up with Android by offering icon customization and language support features. 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 watch out for when the company releases Apple Intelligence features. However, with the varied and unspecified timelines of the feature rollout, we don’t know how much Apple Intelligence we will experience in the next few months. It’s too early to declare this TV show a hit.
