With a mix of AI-powered features, advanced customization options, and improvements to core apps, iOS 18 is released today. Here’s what to expect when you update your iPhone.
Compatibility: Who gets what?
iOS 18 is compatible with iPhone 11 and later models, including iPhone SE (2nd generation or later), but the update requires at least 10GB of free storage. The full list of compatible models is:
- iPhone 15 (including Plus, Pro and Max)
- iPhone 14 (including Plus, Pro and Max)
- iPhone 13 (including Mini, Pro and Max)
- iPhone 12 (including Mini, Pro and Max)
- iPhone 11 (including Pro and Max)
- iPhone XS, XS Max, XR and SE (2nd generation or later)
However, the distribution of functions is not uniform across all devices. New functions based on Apple Intelligence are reserved exclusively for the existing iPhone 15 Pro models and the upcoming iPhone 16 series.
This includes Siri’s “lighting up”. In newer smartphone models, the familiar colorful ball is replaced by glowing edges when the voice assistant is called up. The glow oscillates in response to the voice and does not distract the user from what they are doing on the screen.
Customizing the home screen
iOS 18 introduces Home screen customization. No longer are you limited to the rigid grid layout of previous versions. Now you can place app icons and widgets anywhere on the screen—at the bottom for easy thumb reach, on the sides, or scattered across the screen in a pattern that suits your style.
The update also brings new icon options. You can opt for larger icons without labels for a cleaner look, or choose dark and tinted icon variants to match your wallpaper or personal taste. Each home screen page can have its own unique layout, allowing you to create different setups for work, entertainment, etc.
News is being revised
The Messages app has previously been quite restrictive in terms of both reactions and messaging with non-iOS users. With iOS 18, Tapbacks (Apple’s version of reactions) have expanded beyond the original thumbs up, thumbs down, heart, question mark, and “haha” to include all the emojis available in apps like WhatsApp, as well as custom Genmojis that can be created with unique prompts.
You can now add text effects to your messages so that words explode, curl, or slide into view. Formatting options such as bold, italics, and underline are also available.
Messages has also integrated the RCS (Rich Communication Service) protocol, which means it is more compatible with non-iPhones. Sharing images and videos between Android and iOS is improved by adding cross-platform read receipts, voice notes, and emoji reactions.
Apple Intelligence and Siri
Apple Intelligence offers a set of intelligent writing tools that work across the entire app ecosystem. Whether you’re composing an email, drafting a document, or writing a social media post, these tools help you hone your writing skills, similar to Microsoft Copilot. You can ask it to rewrite text in different styles (e.g. more professional or more casual), check for grammar and clarity, or create summaries of longer texts thanks to ChatGPT integration.
Contextual, custom search makes it easier to find the information you want. Siri can understand the content you see on your screen, as well as the personal information stored on the device, and respond accordingly. This means you can ask questions or make requests based on what you’re looking at or doing, without having to provide explicit context. For example, when filling out a form, you can ask Siri to “enter my passport number here,” and the voice assistant will extract and insert the number from a previously saved photo of your passport.
This functionality is extended by what Apple calls “screen awareness.” For example, if a friend texts you about a new coffee shop, if you ask Siri, “How long would it take me to walk there from home?”, the app will “guess” that you’re talking about that coffee shop and calculate a route.
The full range of Apple Intelligence features will not be available with the September 16 update. For example, it will only be available in US English, as more languages are added over the next year.
Apple Inc.
A revision for photos
Apple says it’s the biggest update to the Photos app yet. The new design brings automatically organized collections to the photo grid, making it easier to browse and find content by topic. It uses artificial intelligence to create “smart” albums based on people, places, or events it recognizes in your photos.
Another feature is AI-powered “creative stories.” The Photos app can now automatically create multimedia presentations of your memories, complete with chapters, narration, and matching music. Perhaps not an everyday feature, but something that will help over time group photos by life events like birthdays, weddings, and graduations.
The new Clean-Up tool also uses AI and can remove unwanted elements from your photos, something that previously had to be done using third-party apps. Other handy features include the ability to hide screenshots from your library and smart edits by copying and pasting to apply the same filters, crops, etc. to a batch of photos at once.
Other notable features
- Mail can now group your receipts, purchases, shipping information, and invoices in one place.
- Maps includes topographic maps and an interactive feature for exploring hiking trails in the USA
- Gaming Mode minimizes background alerts and activity for less disruption and improved frame rates.
- Tap to Cash lets iPhone users securely exchange money using Apple Cash by holding their phones together. Additionally, eligible credit and debit cards can now be added by holding them to the back of the iPhone.
What developers need to know
For app developers, iOS 18 presents both opportunities and challenges. The new Apple Intelligence APIs allow developers to integrate AI features into their apps, but the introduction of Swift 6 means developers must migrate their code.
Improved App Intents enable deeper Siri integration with new opportunities for voice-controlled app functions, but developers should also be aware of new privacy requirements, including more granular permissions to access user data. The new App Tracking Transparency feature gives users more control over which apps and websites can track them, which means developers need to ensure compatibility.
