No matter how you use your iPhone, Apple’s huge iOS 18 update is certain to bring some big changes to your favourite apps.
Revealed at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week, Apple’s latest update will hit devices in autumn this year.
From the controversial ability to hide apps to the ability to generate new emojis with AI, iOS 18 is set to roll out with a truly bewildering amount of changes.
But the software update won’t just give you new features, – it will also bring the new ‘Apple Intelligence’ AI integration to compatible phones.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the absolute mountain of new content in this huge update, here’s MailOnline’s guide to the biggest features to look out for.
From hidden apps to Tap to Cash and AI-generated emojis, iOS 18 will bring a bewildering number of new features for iPhone users
Apple’s biggest announcement of WWDC was the launch of Apple Intelligence, the company’s new suite of AI-focused tools
Siri is getting an AI makeover
Apple’s biggest announcement was that iOS will be packed full of AI features.
Apple Intelligence is the tech giant’s new AI system, which will affect almost all aspects of the operating system.
One of the biggest changes is that Siri, Apple’s much-bemoaned digital assistant, will be getting an AI makeover.
‘With the power of Apple Intelligence, Siri takes a major step forward, becoming even more natural, contextually relevant, and personal,’ Apple explained.
Users will be able to speak to Siri more naturally without needing to worry about restarting their request if they stumble over a word.
To make things even easier, users will also be able to type out their requests for Siri directly rather than speaking.
Siri will also be getting ‘onscreen awareness’ which lets it access information on your phone and act in apps on the users’ behalf.
This also means that Siri will be able to help explain certain functions on your phone by checking what’s on your screen for context.
In theory, this should let people use the assistant in a much more natural way and actually have Siri assist with certain tasks.
Apple Intelligence will provide a boost for Siri, letting users type their requests and have the digital assistant take actions in far more apps
ChatGPT integration
Although Apple Intelligence will be bringing a lot of in-house AI to Apple’s products, the trillion-dollar tech giant isn’t doing it all alone.
In fact, one of the most exciting changes in iOS 18 is a partnership between Apple and OpenAI which will integrate ChatGPT with the company’s devices.
This AI boost should kick in whenever users request a task that Siri isn’t capable of – such as providing information about a photo or scanning a large document.
iPhone users will also get a new ‘Compose’ feature which lets them generate original images or text from a simple prompt.
According to Apple, iPhone users will get free access to the premium ChatGPT-4o model directly through Siri.
Where Siri can’t meet a user’s request, iPhone users will now be able to draw on the power of OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help
Genmoji
While AI tools might not always be particularly fun, one of Apple’s biggest AI features certainly is.
Genmoji, possibly the most anticipated of iOS 18’s features, will let users create custom emoji using AI.
Even with the thousands of emoji already available to iPhone users, you might not feel that there is one which truly captures what you are trying to express.
Thankfully, in iOS 18 users will be able to simply type out a short text prompt and watch as their phone generates new emojis.
One of the biggest new AI features is the ability to automatically create new emojis (pictured), or ‘genmojis’, based on simple text prompts.
The AI will generate a few options for users to choose from and the prompt can be refined to get the exact result you want.
iPhone users will even be able to generate emoji based on real people by pulling up a picture of them and adding a short prompt.
Once generated, these genmoji can be found in the keyboard just like any other emoji and can even be used to react to messages in a chat or used as stickers.
Hidden apps
In iOS 18, users will have the ability to lock or hide certain apps on their phone.
Locked apps can only be opened using Face ID, meaning that if someone gets onto your phone they still won’t be able to access all your private information.
For even more security, users can also ‘hide’ an app by moving it to a locked folder.
Anyone accessing your phone won’t even be able to see what apps are in your hidden folder.
All app content like messages, emails, or notifications will be kept hidden from the search function and won’t be accessible without Face ID.
One of Apple’s most controversial new features is the ability to hide and lock apps, which some are calling a ‘cheaters paradise’
However, this feature has certainly been one of the most controversial and has generated a huge online reaction.
Apple says this is designed to ‘offer users peace of mind’ that information will not ‘inadvertently be seen by others’.
But, on social media, many commenters suggested that this would make iOS 18 perfect for those cheating in a relationship.
More customisation
Ask any die-hard Android user what their biggest issue with Apple is and you are almost certain to hear the complaint that iPhones lack options for customisation.
Apple users have generally been locked into a set aesthetic style and a limited number of ways of arranging their device’s content.
However, the latest iPhone update is set to give users significantly more control over how their phones look and function.
With iOS 18, Apple is finally ditching the app grid and letting users place app icons wherever they want on the home screen. Users can also change the size and colour of the icons
Apple will be ditching the app grid that it has used for almost 20 years, finally allowing users to place app icons anywhere on the home screen.
Users will also be able to personalise the app icons themselves, tweaking the colour or converting them to dark mode.
App icons and widgets will also be available in varying sizes, letting users set up their home screen just how they like it.
iOS 18 is also set to overhaul the Control Centre – the swipe-down menu which normally shows settings for the torch, brightness, or media.
The update adds taps to the Control Centre which include favourites, media playback, and smart home controls.
The Control Centre will now be fully customizable, giving users options to change the size and layout of icons as well as adding controls for third-party apps.
Apple is also overhauling the Control Centre by letting users customise the arrangement of controls and add their own from third-party apps
Tap to cash
Apple Wallet will also see its capabilities expand in the update, with a new feature for peer-to-peer payments.
The feature, called ‘Tap to Cash’, lets users quickly send money using Apple Wallet just by bringing two phones close to each other.
Speaking at WWDC, Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, said that Apple was ‘continuing on our journey to replace your physical wallet’.
Apple didn’t give many details about how the payment system will actually work but notes that users won’t have to share personal details like phone numbers or email addresses.
The feature will be available for iPhone users in iOS 18 and Apple Watch users with WatchOS 11.
Using Tap to Cash, users will be able to send money without exchanging phone numbers or email addresses just by bringing their phones together
AI editing
As part of Apple Intelligence’s rollout, users will soon be able to do more than just make fun new emoji.
New AI features will give iPhone users more ability to edit both text and photo content on their phones.
iOS 18 will let users draw on the new AI capabilities to improve their writing through two new tools: Rewrite and Proofread.
Rewrite, as the name suggests, will help users rewrite their text to get the tone exactly how they intend.
That could include adjusting an email to make it sound more professional or tweaking a draft of a letter to be friendlier.
Proofread, meanwhile, will provide users with suggested edits and explanations for written text.
Apple’s new AI tools Rewrite and Proofread will help users refine their own writing and make sense of large blocks of text
Just like other popular AI writing tools, Proofread will offer suggestions about grammar, word choice, and sentence structure.
The update will also include a ‘Summarise’ tool which can identify key points of long texts such as emails.
iPhone users are also set to get a number of AI tools to make editing and organising their photos easier than ever.
iOS 18 will introduce the ‘Image Playground’, a feature which is integrated into other apps as well as its own app.
This lets users generate images based on text prompts, suggested themes, or even pictures of people from your photo library.
Apple’s new Image Playground lets users generate images using AI by selecting suggested themes, simple prompts, and pictures of people from their photo library
For example, you could select a person, costume, and setting to automatically generate a new scene involving that person.
The update also includes an AI image generator only available in the Notes app called Image Wand.
Using this feature, users can draw a circle around a sketch to produce an upgraded, refined version or circle an empty space to generate an image based on nearby text.
The Photos app itself is also getting an AI boost, with automatically generated categories to sort your library and an AI-powered search function.
Users will also be able to quickly make slideshows called ‘Memory Movies’ by giving a written text prompt.