Waiting for Apple Intelligence for the real upgrade

iOS 18 is out in public beta, and Apple is once again offering more control over the layout of your iPhone. However, Apple Intelligence, the most interesting update, is noticeably (but unsurprisingly) absent.

The update also improves several native apps, such as Photos, Messages (RCS! Gasp!), and Notes, though Apple Intelligence will add even more features and tricks. Until we can generate our own emojis, there’s still a lot to discover. It’s just a little drier than what Apple announced at WWDC.

You can access the iOS preview by signing up on Apple’s website, which will move the beta to the Software Update section of your iPhone. As always, remember to back up your iPhone first and make sure it’s compatible. (iOS 18 will work on the 2018 iPhone XS and XR and newer phones.)

iOS 18 means even more customization

Beyond app folders and widgets, iOS 18 adds other functional and aesthetic customizations. In addition to a new dark look, you can tint them all to the color of your choice. Unlike previous dark modes on iOS, this time around it also “darkens” individual app icons to keep them consistent with the darker theme. You can also have iOS choose the color for you, basing its recommendation on your iPhone’s wallpaper. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s very similar to Material You, which Google brought to Android in 2021.

You can also slightly increase the size of app icons, without reducing the number you can group in a single panel. This removes text labels, so you have to be sure to know, without words, which app icon corresponds to which. And, in an exciting move for dozens of pedants everywhere, you can move your icons outside of a left-aligned snapping grid, from top to bottom. Want the Safari icon to float in the bottom-right corner, all by itself? You can do that now.

iOS 18 also brings two new ways to secure your apps. You can set an app as locked or hidden. Locking an app will require FaceID access, perhaps useful for Photos or a plethora of other apps if you often share your phone with kids. Locking also means that information from that app won’t appear or circulate in other parts of iOS, like search and notifications. You can also choose to hide the app, which puts it in a dedicated folder, locked behind FaceID.

Apple has also refreshed its Control Panel and Settings drop-down menu. Like when iOS introduced widgets a few years ago, there’s now a dedicated Control Gallery for adding smart home shortcuts, starting timers, and more.

It could get cluttered, but Apple has divided it into four different tabs. While you can tap the small icons on the side to jump to a specific section, you can also access all of them in one continuous scroll. Your most-used features can be placed at the top, and other sections group your smart home controls, entertainment playback, and connectivity. Lost your hotspot shortcut? It’s here. All of the controls are also resizable to prioritize the most crucial ones.

Finally, you can now customize iOS lock screen controls. If you never use the flashlight, you can replace it with something more convenient, like a timer, or even act as a shortcut to Shazam when needed.

messages

RCS (Rich Communication Services) has arrived on the iPhone, or at least those running iOS 18. It brings together advanced text features, like support for richer images, larger attachments, voice notes, group chats, read receipts, and more. But you got all of that via iMessage on iOS, which makes RCS seem a bit mundane.

However, if your friends are split between Android and iOS, you can start using Messages like other third-party messaging apps. Does it have all the features of WhatsApp? No. Does it do everything you can do in iMessage? No.

But it can help. For example, with RCS, you can send messages over Wi-Fi without a phone signal. I’ve had problems before when I’ve been late for appointments, stuck on the subway with no signal, unable to send a text to let the other person know. RCS means that these messages will be sent if you connect to a passing Wi-Fi network.

There are other advancements beyond RCS. You can also schedule text messages, as you might already do in business chat apps and email. If you like Apple’s recently introduced message reactions (emoji), you can now do so with any emoji, including your own Live Stickers based on your photos and images. For even more expression, iOS 18 also adds italics, bold, underline, and strikethrough formatting, as well as a family of cute word animations that make WordArt look like it’s come to life. It’s silly, it’s frothy, it’s pointless. I love it.

Pictures

Apple has hidden some major changes to the way it structures its Photos app, reflecting the fact that many of us have had iPhones (and photo libraries) for more than a decade and a half. And we’re not going to look at all of those photos. We’re probably not even going to look at most of them. In iOS 18, Apple ditched the Library, For You, Albums, and Search tabs. Instead of your most recent photos, screenshots, and videos taking up most of the screen, you’ll see space carved out for your most recent content, curated albums, memories, and more.

It’s a divisive approach, but I think your reaction will depend on how you interact with your photos. I know where my favorite photos are or how to find them, but other people in my life are often pleasantly surprised when services and devices can automatically organize an album of photos taken on an outing or vacation. This redesign seems to be aimed at them.

And what about Apple Intelligence? Eventually, it’ll add a few more tricks, like Cleanup, which can help remove unwanted objects from your photos. It’s a feature that Pixel (and Galaxy) phone users have been enjoying for a while, and we’re still waiting for Apple Intelligence to arrive so we can test it out. For more on what’s coming to your gallery in iOS 18, check out my colleague Cherlynn’s in-depth article on what Apple did to the Photos app.

Other highlights of iOS 18

If you use the Notes app on a daily basis (yes, I’m guilty), iOS 18 also brings some interesting advancements. You can now transcribe conversations and meetings directly within the app. At the time of my testing, you had to make sure your iPhone was set to US English and the US as your region for the transcription icon, shown in the image above, to appear.

We also have Math Notes, which is accessible via the Notes app and from the calculator. Here, you can write down sums and calculations and your iPhone will solve them. It will even remember the numbers for future calculations. This seems like a niche app, but it is certainly useful, perhaps if you are looking to add up a holiday budget or a DIY project.

The new collapsible Notes subheadings have proven to be more useful to me. I have several large Notes files and now I can organize them better and not have to search for specific words to find what I need.

Apple offers a similar approach with its Reader on Safari, which can add a table of contents and even attempt to summarize an article before you even get started. Meandering recipe introductions: You may have been warned. But I say “maybe” because as of this writing, I haven’t been able to test this feature on the sites I’ve visited.

There’s also a new Passwords app that, in many ways, is simply an easier way to access your iCloud passwords instead of diving into your iPhone’s settings. The app divides your passwords into different categories like Accounts, Codes, Wi-Fi Networks, and Passkeys, and, wisely, will support the iCloud app for Windows and a Chrome extension. You can also share password collections with visitors, friends, or family members.

Apple is also continuing to expand its smart home features in iOS 18. The company is adding an Express Mode to automatically unlock smart doors when you approach them, as long as you have your iPhone (or Apple Watch) with you. In the meantime, Apple has created a Guest Access tab so you can grant access to certain parts of your smart home and even schedule times when a garage door, for example, stays unlocked, perhaps for a package delivery.

Conclude

My first impressions of iOS 18 are more limited than I wanted. Apple Intelligence and most of the cool features it unveiled at WWDC aren’t part of this public beta. Without them, iOS 18 feels more like iOS 17.5. There are more features, but most of them are incremental.

RCS is Finally Here, Apple is adding more features to cross-OS text messaging (and perhaps worrying WhatsApp), while elsewhere, Apple is focusing on upgrading and improving its native apps. The company has made some… interesting choices. In iOS 18, even the calculator is getting a boost, with math notes, calculation history, and a new scientific calculator view.

The public beta is relatively stable, so it’s easy to recommend for those looking for early access to the latest iPhone features. However, without Apple Intelligence, we’ll have to wait to draw more meaningful conclusions about iOS 18.

This post contains affiliate links; if you click on one and make a purchase we may earn a commission.