5 biggest highlights of iOS 18

Apple's latest operating system, iOS 18, has finally arrived. It brings a slew of new features and enhancements designed to make your iPhone more powerful and user-friendly than ever before. This year's update heavily focuses on integrating artificial intelligence and introducing a wave of long-awaited customization options. Besides that, there are a lot of updates to key apps like Mail, Messages, Photos, and more.

The latest OS update marks one of the biggest iOS upgrades in years. Below, you can check the biggest highlights of the iOS 18.

Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinion.

Best features of iOS 18

1) A new level of customization

iPhone users can now make their home screen more personalized (Image via Apple)

iPhone users will now have new ways to customize their home screen and lock screen. With the new update, the tech giant finally allows users to place the apps and widgets anywhere they want on the home screen. Apart from that, iOS 18 will come with a Dark Mode shading for app icons and the ability to customize icon colors to match the wallpaper. So, you can customize the home screen like you prefer.

The customization options extend to the lock screen as well. Currently, you will find Torch/Flashlight and Camera shortcut on the lock screen. For the first time, users can now replace them with other apps.

The Control Center also gets some significant changes for better navigation. The redesign adds multiple pages to the Control Center with the user’s most utilized controls, such as media playback or Home controls. You can add new control shortcuts, change their layout, resize them, or create entirely new groups.

2) The Photos App gets a revamp

The Photos app is more organized (Image via Apple)

According to Apple, the Photos App receives its “biggest-ever redesign.” The app is now more organized and simplified. The new interface of the app is 60% occupied by the regular gallery of photos, while the rest includes Collections. The collections will automatically organize your images into different categories, such as Recent Days, Trips, and People & Pets.

The iOS 18 adds a new carousel view, which shows the highlighted images that update each day and feature different collections, picked from suggestions (automatically) or customized by you. Users can right-swipe from the grid to go to the new Carousel.

3) Message enhancements

Various new features are added to make communication more effective (Image via Apple)

There are lots of updates coming to Messages as a part of the new iOS 18. Users can now schedule a message, add text formatting like bold, underline, italics, and strikethrough, or use any emoji or sticker as a Tapback.

Furthermore, Apple has added a new text effect feature to the iMessage, which allows users to add an animated effect to any letter, word, phrase, or emoji, adding more fun to the conversations.

RCS support is also added, bringing additional functionalities like typing indicators, read receipts, and support for high-resolution media. This means users will get a better texting experience for inter-platform communication.

Moreover, iPhone 14 models and later will have access to satellite connectivity, allowing users to send or receive messages when cellular and Wi-Fi connections are not available. This includes texts, emoji, and Tapbacks. To protect users' privacy— all the messages will be end-to-end encrypted.

4) Apple Intelligence

Apple has added multiple AI features to the upcoming OS update (Image via Apple)

Apple Intelligence is one of the biggest updates coming to iOS 18. It allows users to enhance their writing and communicate more effectively with the new systemwide Writing Tools built into the upcoming operating system update.

Apple Intelligence will be available in beta on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (talking only about the devices that run on iOS) for now. Users will be able to rewrite, proofread, and summarise text in almost every app where they can write.

Besides writing, image-generation capabilities are also added in the new iOS 18. Users can create images in seconds in three different styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. This can be done using Image Playground, an app built directly into apps like Messages.

A new Clean Up tool to remove the unnecessary objects in the background of a photo will be powered by Apple Intelligence. Communicating with Siri will be more natural, contextually relevant, and personal.

5) Locked and hidden apps

iOS 18 will give users even more control over apps (Image via Apple)

Thanks to the new iOS 18 update, iPhone users can now lock the apps for additional privacy. Apps that are locked won’t display notifications or appear in search or Spotlight suggestions.

If you want more privacy, you can hide an app entirely. The app will automatically be sorted into a designated 'hidden apps' folder in the App Library, making it invisible and inaccessible without Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. This ensures complete privacy, as others won't even know the app is installed.

Additional features in iOS 18

Apple has brought the Game Mode to iPhones. It enhances the gaming experience by reducing the background activities and prioritizing the title you are playing to deliver high and consistent frame rates.

Apps like Mail, Safari, Passwords, Maps, and other also gets significant changes. Users can now send and receive Apple Cash by simply holding two iPhone devices together. Additionally, personalized Spatial Audio is added to the AirPods.

That wraps up our rundown of the key features of iOS 18. While there's much more to explore in the latest update, these were the highlights that stole the spotlight at WWDC 2024.

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Edited by Ashmita Bhatt