iOS 18 is available today, making iPhone more personal and capable than ever

September 16, 2024

UPDATE

iOS 18 is available today, making iPhone more personal and capable than ever

iOS 18 is now available, bringing iPhone users around the world new ways to personalize their iPhone with deeper customization to the Home Screen and Control Center; the biggest-ever redesign to Photos, making it even easier to find and relive special moments; and major enhancements to Messages and Mail. Starting next month, iOS 18 will introduce Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that is incredibly useful and relevant while protecting users’ privacy and security.¹

More Customization Than Ever

In iOS 18, users can customize their Home Screen in exciting new ways by placing app icons and widgets to frame the wallpaper or create the ideal layout on each page. Users can also choose how the app icons and widgets are presented — light, dark, or with a colored tint — or make app icons appear larger for a new streamlined look. Control Center is redesigned to be even more flexible. Powerful groups of controls — including favorites, media playback, Home controls and connectivity, and the new controls gallery featuring options from third-party apps — can be organized so that they’re always just a swipe away. Users can also access their favorite controls from the Action button, and for the first time, users can change the controls on the Lock Screen or remove them entirely.

The Biggest Photos Redesign

The biggest-ever update to Photos makes it easier to find and relive special moments. The beautiful, simplified layout puts the library into a unified yet familiar view. New collections like Recent Days, People & Pets, and Trips automatically keep the library organized with on-device intelligence, so users can spend less time searching and more time enjoying their memories. Users can personalize their experience with a customizable layout that reflects what is most important to them and pin favorite collections to keep them easily accessible.

Powerful Ways to Stay Connected in Messages and Phone

Messages offers major updates to the ways users express themselves and stay connected. Formatting options like bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough let users better convey tone; all-new text effects bring words, phrases, and sentences to life; emoji and sticker Tapbacks give users endless ways to react in a conversation; and users can compose an iMessage to send later. For times when cellular and Wi-Fi connections aren’t available, Messages via satellite connects users to a satellite in space right from the Messages app to send and receive texts, emoji, and Tapbacks over iMessage and SMS.² When messaging contacts who do not have an Apple device, the Messages app now supports RCS for richer media and more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.³

The Phone app helps users stay organized with the ability to record and transcribe live calls, making it easier to recall important details later.⁴ Call participants are notified before a recording begins, and transcripts are conveniently saved to the Notes app, allowing users to quickly search and review what was discussed.

Intelligent Categorization in Mail

Available later this year, categorization in Mail organizes messages to help users stay on top of their inbox. The Primary category lets users focus on the messages that matter most or contain time-sensitive information. Transactions, Updates, and Promotions are grouped by sender in a new digest view that pulls together all relevant emails from a business, allowing users to quickly scan for what’s important in the moment.

Distraction-Free Browsing with Safari

Safari is the world’s fastest browser, and with iOS 18, it offers even more capabilities for browsing the web.⁵ Highlights intelligently surface key information — like a location’s address, a summary, or more information about a movie, TV show, or song — after a webpage is loaded. The redesigned Reader brings more ways to enjoy articles with a streamlined view, a summary, and a table of contents for longer articles. With Distraction Control, users can hide items on a webpage that they may find disruptive to their browsing, such as sign-in banners or content overlays within a website.

The Brand-New Passwords App

Passwords is a new app built on the foundation of Keychain that makes it even easier for users to access their passwords and see all their credentials — like passwords, passcodes, and verification codes — all in one place. Passwords is backed by incredibly secure end-to-end encryption; seamlessly syncs across devices; and alerts users when a password could be easily guessed, has been used multiple times, or has appeared in a known data leak.

Privacy Features Designed to Empower Users

iOS 18 gives users tools to manage who can see their apps, how their contacts are shared, and how their iPhone connects to accessories. Locked and hidden apps offer users peace of mind that information they want to keep private, such as app notifications and content, will not inadvertently be seen by others. Users can now lock an app, and for additional privacy, they can also hide an app, moving it to a locked, hidden apps folder. When an app is locked or hidden, content like messages or emails inside the app are hidden from search, notifications, and other places across the system. In addition, iOS 18 lets users share only specific contacts with an app, and developers can offer users a more seamless and private experience when connecting third-party accessories with iPhone.

The First Set of Apple Intelligence Features Available Next Month

Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 18, harnessing the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks — all while protecting users’ privacy and security. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available next month, delivering experiences that are delightful, intuitive, easy to use, and specially designed to help users do the things that matter most to them.

With Writing Tools, users can refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps. In Photos, the Memories feature now enables users to create the movies they want to see by simply typing a description. In addition, natural language can be used to search for specific photos, and search in videos gets more powerful with the ability to find specific moments in clips. The new Clean Up tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject. And in the Notes and Phone apps, users can record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call in the Phone app, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to help recall key points.

Siri becomes more natural, flexible, and deeply integrated into the system experience. It has a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active on iPhone. Users can type to Siri at any time on iPhone, and can switch fluidly between text and voice as they use Siri to accelerate everyday tasks. With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words and can maintain context from one request to the next. In addition, with Siri’s extensive product knowledge, it can now answer thousands of questions about the features and settings of Apple devices.

With many Apple Intelligence models running entirely on device, as well as the introduction of Private Cloud Compute — which extends the privacy and security of Apple devices into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence — Apple Intelligence represents an extraordinary step forward for privacy in artificial intelligence.

Additional Features

• In Apple Maps, users can browse thousands of hikes across U.S. national parks and easily create their own custom walking routes, which they can access offline. Users can also save their favorite national park hikes, custom walking routes, and locations to an all-new Places Library, and add personal notes about each spot.

• Game Mode enhances the gaming experience with more consistent frame rates, especially during long play sessions, and makes AirPods, game controllers, and other wireless accessories even more responsive.

• Users get new ways to pay with Apple Pay online and in apps on iPhone and iPad. Starting today, eligible U.S. users will be able to redeem rewards with Discover credit cards,⁶ as well as apply for loans directly through Affirm, and eligible U.K. users will be able to access installments with Monzo Flex right at checkout when they use Apple Pay.⁷ With Tap to Cash, users can send and receive Apple Cash by simply holding their iPhone near another iPhone or Apple Watch.⁸ And with the new ticket experience in Apple Wallet, fans can access even more information about their events, such as venue maps, local weather forecasts, recommended Apple Music playlists, and much more.⁹