This Might be the Most Useful iOS 18 Feature Coming to iPhone 15

Of all the stuff coming to iOS 18, some of the most immediately useful things probably won’t be “Apple Intelligence.” Sometimes, the small touches matter most, such as how iOS 18 will apparently still show you the time even when your iPhone is completely out of juice or is off and still charging.

Now that the iOS 18 developer beta 1 is out to select users, we’re catching a glimpse of all the small, interesting capabilities coming to the iPhone. A user on the r/iOSBeta subreddit (via MacRumors) shared an image showing their phone’s battery screen is out. The time sticker is still available on the top left corner of their screen. For those who don’t carry a watch, it will be a nice little aid if you’re out in town and forget to pack a portable charging brick.

The iOS 18 beta may be much better at keeping your battery healthy. As spotted by 9to5Mac, Apple is changing up the battery settings page to give users more control over charging limits. Instead of setting it to a maximum of 80%, now users can choose to set the limit to 85%, 90%, and 95%.

That page also has new notifications if you’re using a slow charger. Users will get notifications if their charging rate isn’t up to snuff, but the graphs in the battery menu now point out periods of slow charging in orange.

The new control center gallery that’s part of the OS update will also make the iPhone 15 Pro’s action button far more useful. iOS 18 is supposed to introduce control center galleries, essentially swipeable folders for different control center actions. MacRumors showed how current iOS 18 beta 1 will allow iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max users to map their special Action Button to dark or airplane mode functions. Perhaps the Action Button will be expanded to other specific functions in future betas, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

With the rumors of the future iPhone 16 models all sporting action buttons, we wouldn’t be surprised if Apple offers far more capabilities to the Action Button, even if we never got those “taptic” controls.

Now it’s good to remember nothing in the beta is ever final. Remember all the hubbub about the end call button location on iOS 17? A few small changes always add up to a much better iPhone experience.

The iOS 18 beta won’t be available for regular users until next month. The full release is anticipated for September or sometime this fall.

Want more of Gizmodo’s consumer electronics picks? Check out our guides to the best laptops, best TVs, and best headphones. If you want to learn about the next big thing, see our guide to everything we know about the iPhone 16.