A new version of iOS has arrived, and this one has some great features. Here are 8 features you should try first in iOS 18.
The new version of iOS has arrived, and despite the fact that it doesn’t contain a single Apple Intelligence feature just yet, there are still plenty of great features that have been added in iOS 18. You can now customize your Home Screen like never before, make your Control Center more useful, and even use a feature that harks all the way to the days of old-school phones before smartphones were even a thing. So, Once you’ve upgraded, here are eight features you should try first in iOS 18.
The good news is that you don’t need to wait to get a brand-new iPhone 16 to use iOS 18. If your current iPhone runs iOS 17, it will also run iOS 18, and the update is available right now.
Customize Your Home Screen
Since the dawn of the iPhone, there’s only been one layout for app icons. All of your apps had to remain in neat little rows, and any new apps you added would automatically fill in the next available space. If you tried to move an app icon, another would jump in to fill the space.
Finally, however, it’s possible to put your app icons where you want them. Well, within reason, this is Apple, after all. Your apps still have to conform to the same grid as they always have done, but it’s finally possible to leave empty gaps without any app icons at all. You can now arrange your apps around the edge of your screen if you wish or place them to more artistically show off the contents of your wallpaper. You can even arrange them into the shapes of the letters G and P in honor of your favorite tech website if you want.
Send an RCS Message to Your Android Friends
If you thought hell would freeze over before Apple let us put our app icons where we wanted, just wait until you get a load of this one. RCS messaging has finally come to the iPhone, meaning that chats with Android friends using the Messages app are no longer like something from 1997.
RCS messaging adds a whole host of features that were missing from green bubble chats before, such as typing indicators when other people are tapping away at their messages, delivered message notifications, message reactions, and the ability to send high-resolution photos and videos. It’s also finally possible to add and remove people from group chats across Android and Apple phones.
Messages sent from iPhone to iPhone still get the exclusive blue bubbles, however, so Android users remain green (with envy).
Lock Apps with Face ID
If you’re a parent who likes to pass their iPhone to their kids to keep them quiet for a while, this one could be a real game changer. In iOS 18, it’s now possible to lock apps with Face ID so that only you can open them. Any apps that are locked this way require authentication before they will open, so you don’t have to worry about anyone accidentally opening Safari and googling things that they shouldn’t do.
It’s even possible to hide locked apps too, which end up in a hidden folder that can only be opened using Face ID. It’s a great place to put the Ashley Madison app, for example…
Customize Your Control Center
Swiping down from the top right of your Home Screen is now a whole lot more useful, thanks to the ability to customize your Control Center so that you have the exact controls that you want (almost).
You can rearrange the controls to put the ones you use the most at the top of the screen, but you can also add additional controls if the ones you won’t are currently showing. You can even add controls for third-party apps and Shortcuts, which is sure to delight power users.
It’s not quite perfect, however. In its wisdom, Apple has inexplicably dumped the Bluetooth control inside an uneditable folder, so it now takes an extra tap (or gesture) to toggle Bluetooth on and off. Don’t worry though, because that AirPlay control you definitely use all the time has its own dedicated spot instead. Seriously, Apple?
Check Out the Passwords App
Your iPhone has been able to store your passwords for more than a decade, with iCloud Keychain first being introduced all the way back in 2013 as part of iOS 7. It’s always been a bit of a mess, however, with no simple way to access your passwords without trudging your way through the Settings app.
In iOS 18, we finally get a dedicated Passwords app that makes accessing all of your saved passwords so much easier that even Aunt Agnes can manage it. Using the Passwords app, you can even share selected passwords with contacts, which would have been even more useful before Netflix started cracking down on password sharing.
Your passwords sync across all of your Apple devices, with the Mac getting its own Passwords app, too.
Hide Distractions in Safari
If you are driven insane by every website you ever visit taking twenty minutes to access because you have to wade through pages of cookie consent pop-ups and unnecessary video content, then you’re going to love this feature.
The Hide Distraction tool in Safari lets you select parts of a web page, such as that annoying cookie consent pop-up, and have it disappear before your very eyes. Apple has even made the animation look like what happened to half the living beings in the universe when Thanos clicked his fingers. It really is incredibly satisfying.
The feature isn’t perfect; if you’re hoping to be able to destroy all the ads on a website before you read it then you’ll be disappointed, as these tend to keep popping back up, but it’s still a very welcome tool in the fight against frustrating browsing.
Do Math in Notes Feature in iOS 18
The calculator app has had a big upgrade, and one of the best features is that it’s now possible to do math directly within Notes. Let’s look at why it’s one of the features you should try first in iOS 18. If you’re making a shopping list, for example, you can just add text such as “Eggs=$1.50” and “Bacon=$2” in your note.
But the real magic happens when you want to find the total for your shopping. Just type “Eggs+Bacon=” into your note, and the answer of $3.50 will automatically appear, calculated in the background for you.
Math in Notes can be more complicated than simply adding up a few numbers, but it’s a really useful way to figure out numerical problems without having to open the Calculator app. This is helpful if you frequently use the Notes app, making it one of the eight features you should try first in iOS 18.
Use T9 Dialing Like it’s 2003
This feature is easy to miss, but it’s one of my favorites despite being possible on phones more than two decades ago: T9 dialing or predictive text.
In addition to flip phones, T9 dialing takes me further back. Remember the days of landlines and dialing 1-800-US-Banks to check your balance or seeing the psychic infomercial on late-night TV wanting you to spend money calling the psychic hotline via a spelled-out number? Perhaps you don’t, and I’m dating myself here, but T9 takes me back to the days when we didn’t have supercomputers in our pockets. But I digress.
T9 dialing in iOS 18 allows you to search for a contact to call directly from the Keypad view in the Phone app. Do you see those little letters written beneath each number on the keypad? All you need to do is start to spell out the name by tapping the appropriate key for each letter, and after you’ve tapped a few numbers, you should see suggestions of contacts appear at the top of the screen.
For example, if you want to call Donald, for example, tap 3 for D, then 6 for O, then 6 for N, and you should see Donald’s number appear as a suggestion at the top of the screen. Tap the suggestion to call that contact. While considered an old technology, this is definitely one of the eight features you should try first in iOS 18.
The best part? If you want to call “Mom” all you need to do is type 666…seriously!
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