KUALA LUMPUR, June 11 – Apple unveiled its new iOS 18 at WWDC24 and the latest version brings a host of new features and additional customizations that many have requested for the iPhone.
There are also additional privacy improvements and new generative AI features introduced as part of Apple Intelligence.
Customize your iPhone home screen like an Android
With iOS 18, you can finally customize your iPhone’s home screen like an Android smartphone. Apps and widgets can be rearranged more flexibly. If you don’t want your icons to cover up your beautiful wallpaper, you can now place your app icons and widgets at the bottom of the screen, with white space in between.
For an extra personal touch, you can change the look of the icons for dark mode or simply add a tint effect for a monotone look. iOS 18 also lets you adjust the size of the icons so they appear larger on the home screen.
Advanced Control Center
Apple unveils its new iOS 18 at WWDC24 – SoyaCincau pic
Control Center provides a quick shortcut for important controls and things you access every day. As more devices become connected to the Apple ecosystem, iOS 18 offers new layers of customization with additional panels to add more shortcuts and toggles for your frequently used tools and smart devices.
For the first time, you can now change the default lock screen shortcuts like camera and flashlight to other functions. Alternatively, you can remove them completely to get a clearer lock screen.
Major overhaul of the Photos app
According to Apple, the Photos app has received its biggest redesign yet on iOS 18 and is designed to help users find and relive their special moments. By default, you can get a single view that shows your typical grid, but now there’s a new carousel view that presents highlights that update daily and show people, pets, places, and more.
For example, if you’ve been on a day trip, you can easily browse your photos and videos by pre-selected themes. This lets you catch up on your moments without having to organize them into a new album. As you browse, the content plays automatically, so you can enjoy it as you browse.
New effects for the messaging app
The Messages app that manages your SMS and iMessages has received an update that gives your messages more dynamic and animated effects. The Tapbacks shortcut has been expanded to allow any emoji and stickers. You also have the option to compose a new message and schedule it to be sent at a later time.
Additionally, you can express yourself with additional formatting such as bold, underline, italics and strikethrough, and add additional effects such as exploding, shaking, rippling and jerking.
And after years of pressure, Apple is finally making it work with other Android devices. The Messages app on iOS 18 now supports RCS, enabling richer media and group messaging for texting with non-Apple devices.
Send messages via satellite
If you don’t have cellular or Wi-Fi reception, Apple introduced Messages over Satellite in iOS 18. This feature lets you send and receive text messages, emojis, and Tapbacks via iMessage and SMS. As you’d expect from Apple, iMessages sent over satellite are also end-to-end encrypted.
However, this feature only works on iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro and later, and we expect it will continue to be subject to regional and phone availability.
Email app improvements
The Mail app has also been updated to help you better manage your inbox. Similar to Gmail, the app can now sort your emails by Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. There’s also an Overview view, which essentially groups all emails from a particular company together so you can see what’s more important at the moment, like an active flight you have with an airline.
The email list can also display a summary so you can quickly get an overview without having to open each individual email.
Hide and lock your apps, protected by Face ID
If you need to give your phone to someone else unlocked, it can be difficult to keep certain apps and history safe from prying eyes. With iOS 18, Apple added an additional privacy feature that lets you hide an app by locking it and moving it to a hidden app folder. Once locked or hidden, the internal contents are hidden from search, there is no notification, and it cannot be accessed without your permission.
To give you more control over sharing, iOS 18 lets you select specific contacts to share with an app. Additionally, Apple allows developers to connect third-party accessories to an iPhone without giving it permission to see other devices on the user’s network.
New AI features based on Apple Intelligence
The biggest star of the show, of course, is Apple Intelligence, which brings generative AI to the Apple ecosystem. Key AI-powered features include writing tools that let you summarize or rewrite text messages based on the intended tone, AI-generated images and Genmojis, AI-powered object remover for photos, and a smarter Siri that is more personal and better understands context and screen awareness.
Which iPhone supports iOS 18?
iOS 18 is now available to developers through the Apple Developer Program and will be released as a public beta on Apple’s beta site in July. The full public release will be available in the fall (sometime in September 2024) in time for the release of the next iPhone.
In terms of device compatibility, it works with recent devices that support iOS 17. According to the listing, it supports the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone SE 2nd generation or later. However, note that the new Apple Intelligence features require at least Apple A17 Pro, which is limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max for now. – SoyaCincau
