iOS 18 Settings: What’s new? – 9to5Mac

iPhone Settings has become busier and busier over the years and iOS 18 looks to solve that with a redesign. It keeps the main attributes of the historical UI, but the new Settings in iOS 18 offers a reorganized and simplified experience with improved search.

The main Settings screen in iOS 18 still features your account at the top followed by top-used features like Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Personal Hotspot. But now with iOS 18 is the addition of Battery to the top section.

The second section of settings in iOS 17 and earlier has been moved down with the second collection in iOS 18 consisting of General, Accessibility, Action Button, Camera, Control Center, Display & Brightness, Siri, Wallpaper, and more.

Below Notifications, Sounds & Haptics, Focus, and Screen Time is a new security/privacy grouping, followed by the last trio of App Store, Game Center, Wallet & Apple Pay.

One of the biggest ways Apple reorganized and cleaned up iOS 18 Settings is by putting all third-party app settings (and some of its own) at the very bottom under a new “Apps” section.

iOS 18 Settings: Here’s how it looks

Main Settings screen

On an iPhone 15 Pro, the first Settings page is just over 2 pages worth of content – much reduced from iOS 17 and earlier.

General and Search

Here’s the new Settings > General and Search layouts. Multiple settings that previously were on the main Settings page have been moved to the General or the Apps sections.

Search features suggestions at the top and in my testing they feel improved with more accurate and relevant results.

Another change throughout is large headers in various Settings menus like General, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular, Personal Hotspot, Accessibility, Face ID & Passcode, Siri, Screen Time, and more.

These give more detailed descriptions of what you can do and links with each to learn more.

While there aren’t major UI changes, I’ve found iOS 18 Settings are cleaner and easier to navigate and will hopefully be more friendly for users across the board.

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