iOS 18 is here, and these 6 features stand out the most

First up, go download iOS 18 and update your iPhone

In case you didn’t notice, iOS 18 has been rolling out for a couple of hours. But don’t worry; if you have enabled automatic updates, your phone will notify you when it’s ready to install. If you want to download iOS 18 manually, open the Settings app and tap General > Software Update.

For the first time, iPhone users can place app icons anywhere on the grid. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

One request: before you download iOS 18, make sure your phone is eligible to receive the update. If you own a second-gen iPhone SE, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, or any newer models from iPhone 11 through 15, you will be able to run iOS 18.

Fully personalise your home screen

Perhaps the most noticeable change when you update to iOS 18 is the slightly different home screen. For the first time, iPhone users can place app icons anywhere on the grid rather than being locked to a fixed pattern. That’s not all. You can also tint your app icons to match your phone’s wallpaper, set them to dark mode, or let them adjust automatically from morning to night.

To edit your home screen, simply long-press on the screen, and when the apps start to jiggle, tap the Edit button in the upper-left corner. You can also adjust the app size and the brightness of your background. Additionally, iOS 18 introduces changes to the Control Center, which can now be fully customised. All toggles are now replaceable, and some offer multiple sizes.

Apple is finally making it easy to customise your iPhone’s home screen. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

The larger toggles and tiles mean you may run out of space sooner, but don’t worry—you can create multiple pages and customise them as needed. To customise the Control Center, swipe down from the top-right corner and then long-press on the screen. You can resize controls with rounded edges and reposition all of them across any of the pages. Tap “Add a Control” at the bottom of the screen to see all available controls.

You can also remove or replace the camera and flashlight toggles on the Lock Screen, though it might not be as significant an update as some had hoped. Android users may poke fun at it, but Apple is finally making it easy to customise your iPhone’s home screen. We’d say it’s a step in the right direction (thank you, Apple!).

Send cash with a tap

Imagine sending money by simply touching and tapping another iPhone. It may sound unbelievable at first, but the feature is actually live and can be used in iOS 18. The condition is that both iPhones need to be running iOS 18 to use Tap to Cash, which more or less makes it obvious what the feature is all about.

The app will require Face ID to open it. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

To use the new Tap to Cash option in Apple Wallet, you need to have money stored in Apple Cash and can only send money to an iPhone running iOS 18. The feature takes advantage of the iPhone’s NFC chip, if you’re curious about how it works. To enable it, go to Wallet > Apple Cash > Send or Request > Tap to Cash. Enter an amount, tap your iPhone to the receiver’s iPhone, and you are all sorted. Apple notes that sending cash simply by touching your iPhones together is safe and the feature transfers money without having to share any personal info—a nice privacy element.

AI transcription for voice memos

When you update your iPhone to iOS 18 and open the Voice Memos app, you will notice that it now displays a live transcript of your speech while recording audio. Previously, iPhone users had to download a third-party app to transcribe voice memos, but that’s no longer necessary.

The recording interface is straightforward to use, and you can get text transcriptions by tapping on the speech bubble icon. You can similarly record audio and view the transcript in the Notes app as well. It’s a great feature for journalists, students, or anyone who wants to record meeting minutes. This is an AI feature, similar to what you get on a Google Pixel smartphone.

 

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Notes can solve math for you

The iPhone can double as a diary or ledger to record monthly expenses, such as how much you spent on groceries when to pay your iPhone EMI, and more. You can already log your daily expenses in the iPhone’s Notes app, but there is a new addition in iOS 18 that crunches numbers for you automatically.

Notes solve it and update the result if you change the amounts. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

No need to use a calculator. For example, you can type a problem like ’90+30=’ and the Notes app will display the answer on the screen. You can use the equals sign to set values for variables (for example, ‘EMI = Rs 2500’, ‘Netflix = Rs 200’). By using these variables in a math problem, Notes solves it and updates the result if you change the amounts assigned to the variables. Forget about making spreadsheets for your monthly budget—Notes can handle it all with ease.

Reorganise your photos

The Photos app has received a major revamp in iOS 18, and it’s quite drastic. For starters, the library still has the same feel as in the previous version, but as you scroll down, you will see new automatically generated groups of pictures. You will find albums as before, but now there are also collection folders such as Recent Days, People & Pets, Pinned Collections, Memories, Trips, Utilities, and Media Type. You can customize the visibility and order of these items. However, the new changes to the Photos app have faced some backlash.

The redesigned Photos app offers an interesting way to explore your photo collection. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

Although Apple aimed to adopt a single-page design, the interface has become much more difficult to navigate, and the app now appears fuller and more cluttered. We just hope that Apple listens to users’ feedback and makes the Photos app interface cleaner. That being said, the redesigned Photos app still offers an interesting way to explore your photo collection. Maybe Apple needs to tone down the interface a bit to make it less disorienting.

Lock down sensitive apps

Apple has made it harder for anyone to access sensitive apps and steal information you want to keep private. In iOS 18, you can use Face ID to add an extra layer of protection for any app—a handy way to safeguard sensitive information, such as in your SBI app or Paytm.

You can cash simply by touching your iPhones together. (Image: Anuj Bhatia/The Indian Express)

The app will require Face ID (or Touch ID, or a passphrase, depending on what your phone supports) to open it. Given that India is seeing so many banking scams and frauds lately, a feature that locks down sensitive apps offers a sigh of relief for users who rely on digital apps for payments.