iOS 18 has landed in public beta <\/a>and Apple is offering up more control, yet again, of the layout of your iPhone. However, Apple Intelligence, the most exciting upgrade, is conspicuously (but unsurprisingly) absent.<\/p>\n The update also improves several native apps, such as Photos, Messages (RCS! Gasp!) and Notes, although Apple Intelligence will add even more features and tricks. While we all wait for the ability to generate our own emojis, there is still plenty to explore. It\u2019s just a little drier than what Apple teased at WWDC.<\/p>\n You can access the iOS preview<\/a> by enrolling on Apple\u2019s website<\/a>, which will nudge the beta to your iPhone\u2019s Software Update section. As always, remember to back up your iPhone first and ensure it\u2019s compatible. (iOS 18 works on will work on 2018\u2019s iPhone XS and XR and newer phones.)<\/p>\n Beyond app folders and widgets, iOS 18 adds further functional and aesthetic customization. Alongside a new Dark look, you can tint all of them in a color of your choosing. Unlike previous dark modes on iOS, this time it also \u2018dims\u2019 individual app icons to keep it consistent with the darker theme. You can also have iOS choose the color for you, basing its recommendation on your iPhone\u2019s wallpaper. If that sounds familiar, it\u2019s because it is very similar to Material You<\/a>, which Google introduced to Android in 2021.<\/p>\n You can also increase the size of the app icons ever so slightly, without reducing the number you can pack into a single pane. Doing so does strip away the text labels, so you better be sure you know, without words, which app icon is which. And, in a thrilling move for tens of pedants everywhere, you can move your icons outside a left-aligned, top-to-bottom snap grid. Do you want the Safari icon floating in the bottom right corner, all alone? You can do that now.<\/p>\n iOS 18 also brings two new ways to secure your apps. You can assign an app as locked or hidden. Locking an app will require FaceID access, useful perhaps for Photos or a plethora of other apps if you often share your phone with children. Doing sp will also mean information from there won\u2019t appear or bubble around other parts of iOS, like searches and notifications. You can also choose to hide the app, which nudges it into a dedicated folder, locked away behind FaceID.<\/p>\n Apple has also refreshed its control panel and dropdown menu for settings. Similar to when iOS introduced widgets a few years ago, there is now a dedicated control gallery to add smart home shortcuts, launch timers and more.<\/p>\n This had the potential to clutter up the control panel, but Apple has divided this into four different tabs. While you can tap on the little icons to the side to leap to a specific section, you can also access all of them in a single continuous scroll. Your most used features can live at the top, and other sections pull together your smart home controls, entertainment playback and connectivity. Have you lost your hotspot shortcut? It\u2019s here. All the controls are also resizeable to prioritize the most crucial ones.<\/p>\n Finally, you can now customize the iOS lock screen controls, too. If you never use the flashlight, you can swap it out for something more practical, like a timer, or even act as a shortcut to Shazam in a pinch.<\/p>\n RCS (Rich Communication Services) has landed on the iPhone, or at least on those running iOS 18. It pulls together advanced text features, like support for richer images, larger file attachments, voice notes, group chat, read receipts and more. But you got all those through iMessage on iOS, making RCS sound a little uneventful.<\/p>\n However, if your friends are divided across 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 in iMessage? No.<\/p>\n But it will help. For example, with RCS, you can send messages over Wi-Fi without a phone signal. I\u2019ve had issues before when running late for appointments, trapped on the metro with no signal, unable to text to let the other person know. RCS means those messages will send if you latch on to a passing Wi-Fi network.<\/p>\n There are more advances beyond RCS. You can also schedule text messages, like you might already do on work chat apps and email. If you\u2019re into Apple\u2019s recently introduced message tapbacks (emoji reactions), 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, and a family of cute word animations that feel like WordArt come to life. It\u2019s silly, it\u2019s frothy, it\u2019s pointless. I love it.<\/p>\n Apple has hidden away some major changes to how it structures its photos app, reflecting the fact that many of us have had iPhones (and photo libraries) for over a decade and a half. And we\u2019re not going to look at all of those pictures. We\u2019re likely not even going to look at most of them. In iOS 18, Apple has ditched the tabs for \u201cLibrary,\u201d \u201cFor You,\u201d \u201cAlbums\u201d and \u201cSearch.\u201d Instead of your latest photos, screenshots and videos taking up the majority of the screen, you\u2019ll see some space carved out for your latest content, curated albums, memories and more.<\/p>\n It\u2019s 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 auto-curate an album of photos from a day out or a vacation. This redesign seems aimed at them.<\/p>\n And what about Apple Intelligence? Eventually, it will add some additional tricks, like Cleanup, which can help erase any unwanted objects in your photos. It\u2019s a feature that Pixel (and Galaxy) phone users have enjoyed for a while, and still, we await the arrival of Apple Intelligence to be able to test this. For more on what\u2019s coming to your gallery in iOS 18, check out my colleague Cherlynn\u2019s detailed article on what Apple\u2019s done to the Photos app<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a daily Notes app user (yes, I\u2019m guilty), there are some nice advances in iOS 18, too. You can now transcribe conversations and meetings directly into the app. At the time of my testing, you\u2019ll have to ensure your iPhone is set to US English and US as a region for the transcription icon, shown in the image above, to appear.<\/p>\n We also get Math Notes, which can be accessed through the Notes app and from the calculator. Here, you can write out sums and calculations and your iPhone will solve them. It\u2019ll even remember figures for future calculations. It feels niche, but there\u2019s some definite utility here, perhaps if you\u2019re looking to add up a vacation budget or DIY project.<\/p>\n Notes\u2019 new collapsable subheadings proved more useful for me. I have several lengthy Note files, and now I can organize them better and not have to search for specific words to find what I need.<\/p>\n Apple brings a similar approach to its Reader on Safari, which can add a table of contents and even attempt to summarize an article before you even get your teeth into it. Meandering recipe intros: you may have been put on notice. But I say \u201cmay\u201c because as of this writing, I haven\u2019t been able to test this on any sites I\u2019ve visited.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a new Passwords app, which, in a lot of ways, is just an easier way to access your iCloud passwords instead of diving into your iPhone\u2019s settings. The app divides your passwords into different categories like accounts, codes, Wi-Fi networks and Passkeys, and, wisely, will support the iCloud for Windows app and a Chrome extension. You can also share password collections with visitors, friends or family.<\/p>\n Apple continues to tentatively develop its smart home features within iOS 18, too. It\u2019s adding express mode to automatically unlock connected doors as you approach \u2014 as long as you have your iPhone (or Apple Watch) on you. Meanwhile, Apple has created a guest access tab so you can grant access to parts of your smart home and even schedule the times a garage door, say, stays unlocked, perhaps for a package delivery.<\/p>\n My early impressions of iOS 18 are more limited than I wanted them to be. Apple Intelligence and most of its exciting features teased at WWDC, are not part of this public beta. Without those, iOS 18 feels more like iOS 17.5. There are more features, but most of them are incremental.<\/p>\n RCS is finally<\/em> here, adding more functionality to cross-OS text messaging (and possibly worrying the likes of WhatsApp) while elsewhere, Apple focuses on upgrading and enhancing its native apps. The company made some… interesting choices. In iOS 18, even Calculator is getting beefed up, with Math Notes, calculation history, and a new scientific calculator view.<\/p>\n The public beta is relatively stable, so it\u2019s easy to recommend to those looking for early access to the latest iPhone features. However, without Apple Intelligence, drawing more meaningful conclusions on iOS 18 will have to wait.<\/p>\n This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission.<\/p>\n<\/div>\niOS 18 means even more customization<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Photos<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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More iOS 18 highlights<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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