What to expect with the iOS 18 iPhone update

With a blend of AI-powered features, enhanced customization options and improvements to core apps, iOS 18 drops today. Here’s what to expect when updating your iPhone.

Compatibility: Who Gets What?

iOS 18 will be compatible with iPhone 11 and later models, including the iPhone SE (2nd generation or later). The update, however, requires at least 10GB of free space. The full list of compatible models is:

• iPhone 15 (inc. Plus, Pro and Max)
• iPhone 14 (inc. Plus, Pro and Max)
• iPhone 13 (inc. Mini, Pro and Max)
• iPhone 12 (inc. Mini, Pro and Max)
• iPhone 11 (inc. Pro and Max)
• iPhone XS, XS Max, XR and SE (2nd generation or later)

However, the distribution of features isn’t uniform across all devices. New functionality powered by Apple Intelligence will be exclusive to existing iPhone 15 Pro models and the forthcoming iPhone 16 lineup.

This includes the Siri ‘glow up,’ where glowing edges will replace the familiar colorful orb on the newer smartphone model when the voice assistant is called; the glow oscillates in response to voice and doesn’t take the user away from what they’re doing on screen.

Home Screen Customization

iOS 18 introduces home screen customization. You’re no longer confined to the rigid grid layout of previous versions; now, you can place app icons and widgets anywhere on the screen—along the bottom for easy thumb reach, off to the sides or scattered across the screen in a pattern that suits your style.

The update also brings new icon options. You can opt for larger icons without labels for a cleaner look, or choose dark and tinted icon variations to match your wallpaper or personal aesthetic. Each home screen page can have its own unique layout, allowing you to create different setups for work, entertainment, etc.

Messages Gets a Makeover

The Messages app to date has been fairly restrictive in terms of both reactions as well as messaging with non iOS users. With iOS 18 Tapbacks (Apple’s version of reactions) has expanded beyond the original thumbs-up, thumbs-down, heart, question mark and ‘haha’ to include all the emojis available in apps like WhatsApp as well as custom Genmoji that can be created with unique prompts.

You can now add text effects to your messages, making words explode, ripple or slide into view. Formatting options like bold, italics and underline are also available.

Messages has also incorporated the RCS (Rich Communication Service) protocol, meaning it will be more compatible with non-iPhones. Sharing of images and video between Android and iOS will be improved, with the addition of cross-platform read receipts, voice notes and emoji reactions.

Apple Intelligence and Siri

Apple Intelligence brings a set of intelligent writing tools that work across its app ecosystem. Whether you’re composing an email, drafting a document, or writing a social media post, these tools, much like Microsoft Copilot, will help refine your writing. You can ask it to rewrite text in different styles (e.g., more professional or more casual), proofread for grammar and clarity, or generate summaries of longer texts due to ChatGPT integration.

Contextual, customized search will make it easier to find what you want. It will allow Siri to understand and act upon the content displayed on your screen, as well as personal data stored on the device. This means you can ask questions or make requests based on what you’re currently viewing or doing, without having to provide explicit context. For example, when filling out a form you can ask Siri to “add my passport number here,” and the voice assistant will extract the number from a previously saved photo of your passport and drop it in.

This functionality extends to what Apple calls “onscreen awareness,” giving the example of a friend texting about a new coffee shop. If you ask Siri “how long would it take me to walk there from home?” it will “guess” that you’re talking about said coffee shop and calculate a route.

The full suite of Apple Intelligence features won’t be available with the September 16 update. For example, it will arrive with U.S. English only as other languages are added over the course of the next year.

An overhaul for Photos

Apple says this is the biggest update ever for the Photos app. The new design brings automatically organized collections to the photo grid, making it easier to browse and find content by themes. It uses AI to create ‘smart’ albums based on people, places or events that it recognizes in your photos.

Another feature is the AI-powered “creative stories.” The Photos app can now automatically generate multimedia presentations of your memories, complete with chapters, narratives and paired music. Maybe not an everyday feature but something that will help, over time, to group photos into life events like birthdays, weddings and graduations.

The new Clean Up tool also uses AI and can remove unwanted elements from your photos, something that previously had to be done with third party apps. Some other handy features include the ability to hide screenshots from your library, and smart copy and paste edits to apply the same filters, cropping, etc. to a batch of photos at once.

Other Notable Features

• Mail can now group your receipts, purchases, shipping information and invoices in one place.
• Maps includes topographic maps and an interactive feature to explore hiking trails across the U.S.
• Gaming Mode minimizes background alerts and activity for less disturbance and improved frame rate.
• Tap to Cash lets iPhone users exchange money securely through Apple Cash by touching their phones together, and eligible credit and debit cards can now be added by tapping them against the back of the iPhone.

What Developers Need To Know

For app developers, iOS 18 presents both opportunities and challenges. The new Apple Intelligence APIs allow developers to integrate AI features into their apps but the introduction of Swift 6 means developers will need to migrate their code.

Enhanced App Intents allow for deeper Siri integration, with new possibilities for voice-controlled app features, but developers should also be aware of new privacy requirements, including more granular permissions for accessing user data. The new App Tracking Transparency feature gives users more control over what apps and websites can track them, meaning developers will have to ensure compatibility.