The iOS 18 public beta is now rolling out for download. This means anyone can now effort out iOS 18 and all of its fresh features. The update includes a broad scope of fresh features for iPhone users, specified as fresh customization options, upgrades to Messages, a completely redesigned Photos app, and much more.
Head below for our full recap of everything fresh in iOS 18…
How to install iOS 18 public beta
If you’re curious in signing up for Apple’s public beta investigating program, you can do so via Apple’s website right here. Apple’s fresh software version will be complete in the fall, at which point it will be released to the general public. For the time being, testers should inactive anticipate performance and stableness issues erstwhile moving the iOS 18 public beta on primary devices.
What’s fresh in iOS 18?
Home screen customization
iOS 18 adds multiple fresh ways for users to customize their iPhone’s Home Screen. You can now place app icons and widgets anywhere on your Home Screen grid. This allows you to leave blank spaces and have full control over where your icons and widgets appear.
iOS 18 besides now lets you tint your Home Screen app icons and widgets. You can choose any colour you want, or opt for a fresh dark mode option that turns almost all of Home Screen app icons dark.
New Control Center features
Control Center has gotten a significant overhaul in iOS 18, giving you full control (ha) over the layout and organization of your experience. You can have multiple pages in Control Center, which you can easy swipe between.
There is besides a fresh API that allows third-party apps to donate controls to the fresh Control Center interface. For example, the Ford app could adopt this API and offer Control Center controls for things like starting your car, beginning your trunk, and more.
Change Lock Screen controls
As part of the fresh Control Center revamp, iOS 18 now lets you customize the 2 controls that appear on your iPhone’s Lock Screen. You can replace the flashlight and camera buttons with any of the fresh Control Center controls, even including third-party controls.
All of these controls can besides be assigned to the Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro.
New Messages features
iOS 18 includes multiple new features for the Messages app. First, there are fresh text effects that can be applied to individual words in messages. These options include big, small, shake, nod, explode, ripple, bloom, and jitter. You can besides now add formatting like bold, underline, italics, and strikethrough to any letter, word, or phrase in iMessage.
The Tapbacks strategy has been revamped in iOS 18, so you can respond to messages utilizing emojis or stickers.
Scheduled messages are besides now supported in Messages with iOS 18. You can compose a message and then choose to have it delivered in the future, specified as erstwhile you know the another individual will be awake.
RCS support
Speaking of the Messages app, iOS 18 includes support for RCS messaging for the first time. RCS unlocks better cross-platform communication between iPhone and Android devices. This includes things like read receipts, typing indicators, better group chat support, advanced quality photos and videos, and more.
RCS support will vary from carrier to carrier around the world. Availability will likely grow as we get closer to iOS 18’s general release in September.
iPhone Mirroring
In conjunction with macOS Sequoia (which is besides now available in public beta), iOS 18 adds a fresh iPhone Mirroring feature for accessing your iPhone via your Mac. This feature allows you to interact with your iPhone, receive push notifications, and decision files between both devices.
Here’s an in-depth look at how iPhone Mirroring works with iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia:
SharePlay upgrades
iOS 18 revamps the experience of utilizing screen sharing with SharePlay. Now, you can draw on someone’s screen so they can see what you can do on theirs, or you can control their screen and take actions yourself.
If you supply quite a few iPhone or iPad tech support, this feature will be a lifesaver for you.
All-new Photos app
The Photos app is getting a major revamp in iOS 18, with Apple describing this as the biggest-ever update to the app. There are no more tabs at the bottom of the Photos app, and instead, it features a unified layout that has been simplified into a single view
One shelter pole of the Photos app is simply a series of collections. Apple explains that your library is organized by theme, letting you browse by fresh Days, People & Pets, Trips, on a map, and more. The fresh Photos app is besides highly customizable, so you can rearrange and pin different Collections, filter out circumstantial types of content (like screenshots), and more.
The search functionality in the iOS 18 Photos app has been completely revamped as well. You can now search by combinations of people, places, and more.
New features in Safari
iOS 18 brings a fresh Highlights feature to Safari, which Apple says uses device learning to surface key information from the webpage you’re visiting:
- Summary: Review a summary of an article to get the gist before reading on.
- Location: See the location of a restaurant, hotel, or landmark.
- People: grow your cognition about a individual you’re reading about.
- Music: perceive to an artist’s hit track right from an article about the song or album.
- Movies and tv shows. Check out a movie or tv show or add it to your watch list.
New Passwords app
Apple has yet given us a dedicated Passwords app. This fresh app, included in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and visionOS 2, gives easy access to all of your passwords, passkeys, and another login information. The app besides stores your Wi-Fi passwords.
New features for Apple Notes
The Notes app has added a number of fresh features with iOS 18:
- In-line math support: Enter an expression and have it solved instantly while typing.
- Collapsible sections: Simplify and hide text with collapsible section headers, making it easy to manage your most text-heavy notes.
- With the fresh item kind feature, it’s easier to rapidly mark up your notes and make text stand out.
Gaming improvements
Apple continues its efforts to make the iPhone a gaming powerhouse with iOS 18:
- Maximize gameplay performance: Game Mode minimizes background activity to sustain consistently advanced frame rates for hours of continuous gameplay.
- More responsive AirPods and controllers: Game Mode dramatically reduces audio latency with AirPods, and makes wireless game controllers incredibly responsive.
Apple Wallet upgrades
The Wallet app is getting noticeably better with iOS 18 this year. These upgrades are headlined by a fresh Tap to Cash feature. By simply bringing your telephone close to a friend’s iPhone, you can send money instantly – transferring from your Apple Cash account to theirs.
Apple Wallet’s support for event tickets has besides been redesigned in iOS 18, as Apple explains:
Event tickets in Apple Wallet receive their top transformation ever, with a beautiful fresh plan and richer experience for fans. Tickets in Wallet can put key event information at users’ fingertips, specified as a map of the venue and parking details; useful services like in-seat food delivery; recommended playlists from Apple Music; local forecasts from Weather; and easy access to location sharing to aid fans find their friends erstwhile they arrive.
A new Tap to Provision feature coming to Apple Wallet this year. erstwhile available, this feature will let you add fresh credit or debit cards to Apple Wallet by simply tapping your card on the back of your iPhone.
Apple Pay is besides coming to Chrome and another third-party web browsers and computers with iOS 18. Apple says you will just request to scan a code from the website utilizing your iPhone and then complete the payment.
Finally, Apple Pay and Apple Wallet are besides adding fresh integrations with rewards and installment payments from banks. possibly most notably, Apple says that users in the United States will be able to apply for loans straight through Affirm erstwhile they check out with Apple Pay.
New Home app and HomeKit features
In the Home app with iOS 18, you can now grant circumstantial controls with guest access. This will aid you better manage how and erstwhile people can enter your home. You have the flexibility to give access to things like garage openers, alarm systems, and door locks only at circumstantial times.
iOS 18 besides adds hands-free unlock support for HomeKit smart locks. The thought is that UWB support will make the process truly hands-free, utilizing proximity to automatically lock and unlock doors as you arrive and depart. Unfortunately, you’ll request a UWB-enabled smart lock for this to work, and those don’t be yet.
You can now set a preferred Home Hub in iOS 18. In the past, the Home app has attempted to automatically choice the best Apple tv or HomePod in your home to service as your Home Hub, but this gives you direct control over which is used.
New privacy features
As usual, iOS 18 includes a number of fresh privacy and safety features for iPhone users. First, you can now lock any app behind Face ID, contact ID, or a passcode. This means no 1 will be able to open the app without your authentication.
More than that, iOS 18 besides includes support for hidden apps. The app name and icon are hidden on the Home Screen and in search, and you won’t receive notifications from the app. Instead, the app is only accessible via a fresh hidden apps folder in the App Library and requires Face ID, contact ID, or your passcode to be opened.
More fresh privacy features:
- Improved Contacts sharing: Choose which contacts to share with an app, alternatively of giving an app access to all your contacts.
- Accessory Setup Kit: A fresh way to pair Bluetooth accessories without giving the app visibility of another devices on your network.
- Settings app changes: A redesigned Privacy & safety interface in the Settings app makes it easier to manage what information you’re sharing with apps.
Accessibility
Here are any of the fresh Accessibility features in iOS 18:
- Eye Tracking gives users a built-in option for navigating iPad and iPhone with just their eyes.
- Music Haptics is simply a fresh way for users who are deaf or hard of proceeding to experience music on iPhone. The Taptic Engine in iPhone plays taps, textures, and refined vibrations to the audio of the music.
- With Vocal Shortcuts, iPhone and iPad users can delegate customized utterances that Siri can realize to launch shortcuts and complete complex tasks.
- Vehicle Motion Cues is simply a fresh experience for iPhone and iPad that can aid reduce motion sickness for passengers in moving vehicles.
- Accessibility features coming to CarPlay include Voice Control, colour Filters, and Sound Recognition.
And much more…
Outside these headlining features, iOS 18 includes many another changes and fresh features.
Apple Maps:
- Topographic maps
- Browse a selection of hikes available at national parks across the United States
- Create and save customized walking and hiking routes
- Get turn-by-turn navigation for hiking and walking routes.
Journal:
- Log your state of head and temper straight in the diary app.
- New “insights” feature for keeping track of your journaling goals like streaks and stats
- New widgets for your Home Screen or Lock Screen
- Search and kind support
Phone:
Calendar:
- A redesigned period view makes it easier to get an overview of your period ahead.
- You can create, view, edit, and complete reminders from the Reminders app right in Calendar.
Freeform:
- Scenes let you to organize and present your board section by section.
- Share a copy of your board with anyone utilizing a simple link.
- The enhanced diagramming mode simplifies forming connections on your canvas.
- Align your board content precisely by snapping items to the grid.
More tidbits:
Coming later: Apple Intelligence
These are just any of the fresh features in iOS 18 available today. A number of fresh features, including Apple Intelligence, will rotation out over the next year.
As we’ve reported before, Apple Intelligence is Apple’s suite of AI features that it says will revolutionize how people usage their Apple devices. This includes a set of Writing Tools for proofreading and rewriting your text. A fresh precedence Notifications feature powered by AI will surface your most crucial notifications first.
Apple Intelligence besides includes Genmoji, a fresh feature for creating your own emoji utilizing natural language right from your keyboard. Image Playground is simply a fresh feature where you can make first images that can be utilized anywhere.
Siri is besides getting a dramatic revamp as part of Apple Intelligence and iOS 18:
Powered by Apple Intelligence, Siri becomes more profoundly integrated into the strategy experience. With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri is more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal, with the ability to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. It can follow along if users stumble over words and keep context from 1 request to the next. Additionally, users can kind to Siri, and control between text and voice to communicate with Siri in whatever way feels right for the moment. Siri besides has a brand-new plan with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen erstwhile Siri is active.
Again, no of the Apple Intelligence features are available in the iOS 18 public beta. These features will be released over the months to come.
iOS 18 device compatibility
iOS 18 is compatible with the following iPhone models:
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS and XS Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max
- iPhone 12 and 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13 and 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 14 and 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 15 and 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 and 15 Pro Max
- iPhone SE (2nd gen)
- iPhone SE (3rd gen)
Hands-on with iOS 18 [Video]
Wrap up
Now that the iOS 18 public beta is available, are you planning to effort it out? Or will you wait for the unchangeable release in September? Let us know in the comments.
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