If you can’t afford to buy a new iPhone every year, the next best thing is an iOS refresh. And this fall, iOS 18 brings a few tricks with a focus on productivity, fun, and AI (if you have a high-end iPhone 15). Here’s what you have to look forward to in Apple’s newest mobile operating system.1. Schedule Your Messages
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Text messages are a primary form of communication for many, but on iPhones, it’s a real-time chat. No option to save for later like on email. Until iOS 18. This fall, you’ll be able to schedule a message ahead of time. So whether you have a middle-of-the-night deep thought for your early riser BFF or don’t want to forget someone’s birthday, type it out and select a time and date for it to fire off. Screenshots suggest you should be able to edit or cancel if needed.2. More Tapback Options
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On Instagram, there’s a wealth of emoji at your fingertips for reacting to memes and Reels. Over on Messages, you’re restricted to a slim selection of reactions, known as Tapbacks: the heart, thumbs up or down, exclamation points, question mark, or laughter. You can drop emoji into a Messages chat itself versus affixing them to a specific message, but that can clutter things up. With iOS 18, you’ll be able to react with a much wider range of emoji and stickers.You’ll also be able to add emphasis to certain messages with formatting like bold and italics, but also special effects like Shake or Ripple. (Think the balloons that appear in iMessage when someone says happy birthday or the fireworks for “Happy New Year.”)If you have an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, meanwhile, iOS 18 will let you ask Apple Intelligence to create a Genmoji from a text prompt or photos of friends and family. It may remind you of the company’s Memoji/Animoji (remember those?).3. Apple Intelligence
The company’s AI solution will debut as a beta across its newest OSes in the fall, provided you have the hardware to run it. There’s a ChatGPT integration and productivity-focused features like editing help and generative AI art suggestions. There’s a lot we don’t know, like when exactly Apple will offload your data to its servers versus processing it on your device. But we’ll be sure to put it through its paces when it arrives.4. Satellite Messaging on iPhone
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Apple introduced Emergency SOS with the iPhone 14, which connects people with emergency services using satellites when they’re in remote areas without a cellular connection. As its name suggests, however, Emergency SOS is reserved for times when you need immediate assistance and is limited in functionality. With iOS 18, Apple extends its satellite phone service to the Messages app for when you’re in a cellular dead zone.It’s being pitched as helping you “stay connected when you’re without Wi-Fi or cellular.” For those with an iPhone 14 and up, Messages will prompt you to connect to a nearby satellite and your connection status will be displayed in the Dynamic Island. It will support texts, emoji, and Tapbacks. One question is whether Apple will ever charge for this. Initially, it said Emergency SOS would be free for a year, but that was later extended for another year; Apple didn’t mention any sort of fee for iMessage satellite connections at WWDC.Speaking of, if you do find yourself in a sticky situation, Apple says Emergency SOS in iOS 18 will support live video, so you can share streaming video and audio or recorded clips during emergency calls. “Emergency dispatchers will send you a request to share live video or photos over a secure connection, making it easier and faster to get the help you need,” Apple says.
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5. Custom Control Centers and App Organization
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Control Center offers quick access to frequently used functions on the iPhone with a swipe: Airplane mode, flashlight, Wi-Fi, and even Shazam song recognition. But it’s just a single menu with limited customization options. On iOS 18, you’ll be able to create multiple Control Centers that you can swipe through. Create one for just your smart home devices, for example. For Android users, this type of stuff is old hat, but Apple has held a tight grip on its tech for a long time. Part of that journey is allowing people to put their app icons wherever they want on the home screen in iOS 18. Put a row at the top and bottom or along the edge. And top it off with color tints, so the whole thing looks yellow or red. 6. Hide Your Embarrassing Apps
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Want to keep an app away from prying eyes? You could bury it in an unrelated or boring folder, but iOS 18 will do you one better and let you hide it in a private Hidden folder that’s only accessible via Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. You can already do this with Photos, but now you can do the same with Tinder or even Google Docs if you have a particularly salacious diary entry you don’t want falling into the wrong hands. When an app is locked, it also won’t show up in search, notifications, and other places across the system, Apple says.
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7. Passwords App
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Apple is moving in on the password manager business with the Passwords app, which will sync codes across Apple devices, as well as on Windows, in iCloud and even the Vision Pro. All the info will be stored in a standalone Passwords app, which Apple says is end-to-end encrypted.Apple already has a password-storage service with iCloud Keychain, but it’s a little hard to parse and mostly hums along in the background for those who want to use it. Notably, Apple mentions in its WWDC press materials that Keychain “was first introduced over 25 years ago,” so it’s clearly trying to get you to focus on the newer, more modern Passwords app.8. Tap to Cash
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Apple Cash is Apple’s version of mobile payment apps like Venmo and Zelle and allows for cash transfers between those with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. With iOS 18, the company is simplifying these transfers; just hold two compatible iPhones together to send money. If you’re worried about someone standing close to you and draining your account, Apple says each phone owner will need to authenticate using Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode and then hold their phones together to get paid. Apple introduced a similar contact-sharing feature with iOS 17 called NameDrop, and despite some initial concerns about security, there don’t appear to have been any major issues. Your phone number is much different than your cash, of course, so we’ll have to see how it goes.9. InSight in the Apple TV App
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One of the better features on Prime Video is the X-ray functionality, which serves up information on the actors on the screen when you hit pause, pulling data from Amazon-owned IMDb. Apple will now do the same in Apple TV+ via something called InSight. Look up actors, characters, and music from Apple TV+ movies and shows; an integration with Apple Music means you can quickly add to a playlist on the music-streaming service. Technically, this is a tvOS 18 feature, but it’s also coming to the Apple TV app in iOS 18, so you can see it on your phone, too.
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