What's Coming with the New iOS 18 Update

It seems like everything from the past year has been leading to this satisfying payoff. With the new iOS 18, Apple has announced a ton of new features, improvements, and tweaks to their beloved operating system.

Here are some of the new things announced for iOS 18 in WWDC 2024.

• Design Changes to the Home Screen
• Feature and App Updates
• Apple Intelligence is the new AI
• Devices Supporting iOS 18?

Design Changes to the Homescreen

iOS 18 is going to bring some of the biggest changes to the home screen that needed a long-awaited makeover.

In the newer version of iOS, users will be given more options to change the layout of their home screen with the ability to place the icons anywhere they want on the screen. While there is still going to be a 4x6 grid for organization, now you can easily create blank spaces, without needing the Blank Spaces app.

You will also be able to change the icon colors by adding your own tint or changing their theme to dark or light, based on your system preference.

There is also an addition of large icons, which will remove the text labels and make the icons bigger.

Not just that, the Control Center is getting a redesign and includes full customization now. Developers can also provide tools for their third-party apps in the control center and users can swipe to access different pages in the control center.

Lock screen controls can now be set to any action you want as well.

Feature and App Updates

Here are some of the updates coming to apps in iOS:

• Photos: The entire app is getting a redesign and the app will be unified in a single view, with the grid at the top that shows the entire library with collections organized below. The bottom part allows you to sort your images by People, Time, Trips, Memories, and more.
• Mail: Emails can now be sorted into categories and priority mails will be shown first. Also, instead of showing the first few sentences of the email, Apple will show intelligent summaries of the email in the email preview.
• App Locking: Users will be able to lock apps using Face ID, along with hiding apps, which will also remove them from Siri and Search.
• Messages: Tapbacks now been redesigned so users can react using any emoji. You can also schedule your messages to be sent later and format text using bold, italics, underlines, and strikethroughs. Users can also add text effects to emphasize phrases or words. Messages can also be sent using a satellite connection.
• Wallet: Apple Wallet now allows you to send and receive cash by simply holding two iPhones together using the Tap to Cash feature.

Apple Intelligence is the new AI

Apple has finally revealed what they are bringing to the iPhones with their new AI efforts. This is something that everyone has been waiting for, especially because Apple is the one to do it last.

The biggest factor that separates Apple Intelligence from the rest is the fact that it's done entirely on-device. Where competitors like Bing AI and Google Gemini require a constant internet connection, Apple Intelligence won't require an internet connection to do most of the things that can be done on the device.

Apple Intelligence will allow you to generate images using a prompt, create drawings in notes, and even create emojis by combining other emojis or using your appearance to create them.

However, Apple also announced a new collaboration with OpenAI, that’s going to integrate ChatGPT 4o, into some parts of iOS 18. 

These features will require a fast and reliable internet connection like Xfinity. You can check out some of the plans on offer by contacting Xfinity customer service

While most people are worried about their privacy, Apple promises to keep user privacy at the forefront and not share their data with third-party providers.

Which Devices Are Going to Support iOS 18?

Great news! iOS 18 is going to come out for the same devices that support iOS 17, which means that you aren’t going to be due for an upgrade this year.

However, if you’re excited about the new AI features, there is some bad news. Apple Intelligence is only going to be supported on the A17 Pro and later chips, which means that you’re going to need an iPhone 15 Pro or above.

iOS 18 is going to be available on iPhone 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, XS, XR and SE2 models.

Wrapping Up

With iOS 18, Apple has announced some of the features that iPhone users have been craving, and this update is shaping up to be one of the biggest updates by Apple yet.

While we don’t have a set date for iOS 18 yet, it’s coming out this year with the release of the new iPhone 16 models in September 2024.