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For now, enhanced native applications and greater personalization are available with the most recent iPhone upgrade.
Now that iOS 18 is available in public beta, Apple is giving you even more power over how your iPhone is laid up. The most anticipated update, Apple Intelligence, is noticeably (but not unexpectedly) missing.
Along with improving a number of native applications, the update also makes improvements to Notes, Photos, and Messages (RCS! Gasp!). However, Apple Intelligence will be adding even more features and tips. There's more to discover as we all wait for the capability to create our own emojis. It's a tad bit drier than the WWDC teaser that Apple revealed.
Enrolling on Apple's website will give you access to the iOS preview and push the beta to the Software Update area of your iPhone. As always, make sure your iPhone is compatible and make a backup of it beforehand. (iOS 18 is compatible with iPhone XS, XR, and later models from 2018).
Even More Personalization Is Coming With iOS 18
Beyond widgets and app folders, iOS 18 offers more aesthetically pleasing and practical customisation. You may tint each one to your own hue in addition to giving them a new Dark appearance. In contrast to earlier iOS dark modes, this one further "dims" individual app icons to maintain consistency with the darker theme. Alternatively, you may ask iOS to select the color for you based on the background on your iPhone. If it sounds familiar, it is because Material You, which Google released for Android in 2021, is remarkably similar to it.
Additionally, you may significantly enlarge the program icons without compromising the quantity that fits in a single pane. By doing this, the text labels are removed, therefore you had better be certain you can identify each program icon without using words. Additionally, you may relocate your icons outside of a top-to-bottom, left-aligned snap grid—a fantastic feature that will excite tens of pedants worldwide. Would you like the Safari symbol to be the only one hovering in the lower right corner? That is something you can do right now.
Additionally, iOS 18 adds two new methods for app security. An application can be set to be hidden or locked. When you lock an app, FaceID access is required. This is helpful for photos and a lot of other applications, especially if you share your phone with kids frequently. Completing it will also prevent data from that location from showing up in other iOS areas, such as searches and alerts. The app may also be hidden, which moves it into a special folder and locks it behind FaceID.
Apple has also updated the settings dropdown menu and control panel. Just like iOS did when it first introduced widgets a few years back, smart home shortcuts, launch timers, and other features can now be added through a dedicated control gallery.
Apple separated this into four tabs to prevent the control panel from becoming cluttered. You may access all of the sections in one continuous scroll, or you can touch on the little icons to the side to get to a certain area. Your most frequently used functions may be arranged at the top, and additional areas will include networking, entertainment playback, and smart home controls. Is your hotspot shortcut missing? It's available now. Additionally, you may resize each control to order the most important ones first.
At last, the iOS lock screen controls are now also customizable. If you never use the flashlight, you may replace it with a more useful item, such a timer, or in an emergency, it can even be used as a shortcut to Shazam.
Messages
Rich Communication Services, or RCS, is now available on iPhones—at least those running iOS 18. Advanced text features including voice notes, bigger file attachments, group chat, greater picture support, and the ability to view receipts are all combined into one. However, you received all of those over iOS's iMessage, which makes RCS seem a little boring.
Nonetheless, you might begin using Messages similarly to other third-party chatting programs if your buddies are spread out throughout iOS and Android platforms. Does it have every function that WhatsApp has? No. Does it do every function possible in iMessage? No.
However, it will be beneficial. For instance, you can use RCS to transmit messages over WiFi even when there is no phone coverage. There have been times when I've been late for appointments, been stuck on the metro without service, and couldn't contact the other person to let them know. RCS indicates that if you connect to a passing Wi-Fi network, those messages will be sent.
Beyond RCS, there are more advancements. Text messages can also be scheduled, much like emails and corporate chat programs may already allow you to do. If you enjoy using Apple's newly released message tapbacks, which are emoji reactions, you may now use any emoji, including custom Live Stickers created from your own pictures and photos. iOS 18 also has a series of adorable word animations that resemble WordArt come to life, along with formatting options for bold, italics, underlining, and strikethrough for even more expressiveness. It's frivolous, foolish, and without purpose. I adore it.
Pictures
Given that many of us have owned iPhones (along with photo collections) for more than fifteen years, Apple has made some significant modifications to the way it organizes its images app, which are buried away. Furthermore, we won't look at every one of those images. Most of them won't even get a glance from us. Apple removed the "Library," "For You," "Albums," and "Search" sections from iOS 18. You'll notice that some area has been set aside for your most recent material, carefully chosen albums, recollections, and more, rather than your most recent images, screenshots, and videos filling up the whole screen.
Although it's a contentious strategy, I believe how you respond to your images will determine how you feel about it. Others in my life are frequently pleasantly surprised when services and devices can automatically construct an album of images after a day out or vacation; I know where my favorite photos are or how to find them. They appear to be the target of this overhaul.
How about Apple Intelligence, too? It will eventually offer some more tips, such as Cleanup, which may assist in removing any extraneous elements from your pictures. Users of Pixel (and Galaxy) phones have been able to test this functionality for some time now, but we still have to wait for Apple Intelligence to arrive. See my colleague Cherlynn's in-depth post on Apple's changes to the Photos app for further information about what will be added to your gallery with iOS 18.
Additional Features of iOS 18
There are also some great improvements in iOS 18 if you use the Notes app on a regular basis (yeah, I'm guilty). Conversations and meetings may now be simply transcribed into the app. For the transcription icon, as in the above image, to display, you must make sure your iPhone is configured to use US English and US as a region at the time of my testing.
We also gain access to Math Notes, which is available via the calculator and the Notes app. You may write calculations and sums down here, and your iPhone will figure them out. It will even retain numbers for use in further computations. This seems specialized, but it does have some use, especially if you're trying to figure out how much money you'll need for a DIY project or vacation.
I found the new collapsible subheadings in Notes to be more helpful. I can now better organize my several lengthy Note files and discover what I need without having to look for particular phrases.
With its Reader on Safari, which can add a table of contents and even try to summarize an item before you even start reading it, Apple takes a similar tack. Recipe intros that meander: you could have been placed on notice. However, I say "may" since I haven't been able to test this on any websites I've visited as of yet.
In many respects, the new Passwords app is essentially a simpler alternative to navigating through your iPhone's settings to retrieve your iCloud passwords. The application organizes your passwords into groups like as Wi-Fi networks, codes, accounts, and passkeys. It is built to support both the Chrome extension and the iCloud for Windows client. Additionally, you may distribute password collections to guests, loved ones, or pals.
Apple is also speculatively working on developing iOS 18's smart home capabilities. Express mode will now open linked doors for you as soon as you get close, provided that your iPhone or Apple Watch is with you. In the meanwhile, Apple has included a guest access page that allows you to allow visitors access to certain areas of your smart home and even plan when to leave a garage door open, for example, in case of a package delivery. You may alos read this: Latest Innovations in Sonos Ace Headphone Technology
Conclusion
My initial thoughts about iOS 18 aren't as comprehensive as I would have liked. This public beta does not include Apple Intelligence or the majority of the intriguing features that were hinted at at WWDC. iOS 18 feels more like iOS 17.5 without them. Though most of them are incremental, there are additional features.
Finally, RCS is here to provide additional capability to cross-OS text messaging, which may scare companies like WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Apple is concentrating on improving and updating its native applications. The decisions the firm took were... intriguing. With the addition of Math Notes, calculation history, and a new scientific calculator mode, iOS 18 even beefs up Calculator.
Since the public beta is rather stable, anybody wishing to have early access to the newest iPhone features may easily promote it. However, deriving further inferences about iOS 18 will have to wait in the absence of Apple Intelligence.