All that's new in iOS 18

Before we delve into the new features, first a few words about the availability of the new system. Those signed up to the Apple Developer Program can try out an early version of iOS 18 right now. If you're in no rush, wait, as early builds are usually full of bugs and will ruin your otherwise flawless experience.

When iOS 18 is ready, it will understandably be available first for the iPhone 15 (and 16 when they go on sale). Apple's intelligence, which covers all AI functions, is said to be initially only available for the Pro and Pro Max models, and there are rumors of a possible queue.

Later, iOS 18 should also come to older phones, up to the iPhone 11 and iPhone SE.

Apple Intelligence: Apple's attempt to build in artificial intelligence

Apple is among the last to tackle artificial intelligence. All other manufacturers have already introduced AI features to their phones in one form or another. Undoubtedly, it is led by Samsung, which took it even more seriously. Samsung Galaxy AI covers functions from recording clips to transcription and live translation.

What about Apple Intelligence? Apple's intelligence is not exactly an independent function of the new iOS 18 system, but a kind of connecting thread that will connect various functions. Apple wants it to be at the heart of the everyday experience—from composing text to creating and editing images.

Siri will be one of the features that will be heavily influenced by Apple Intelligence. The voice assistant will be imbued with the power of artificial intelligence and will go beyond the framework of a chatbot with standard commands and responses and become more similar to the artificial intelligence models we are used to recently. It will better understand what you're saying, provide more natural responses, and know your phone's features and settings. It will also work between apps, so you can ask it to add a sentence from the Notes app to a photo in Gallery and then send it via email.

Apple Intelligence is mostly based on internal development. However, in order to cover all user needs, they have teamed up with the OpenAI company and borrowed the power of ChatGPT. The news did not please everyone. Elon Musk has commented that he doesn't trust data to stay on the phone alone, and that iPhones will be banned from his companies if Apple allows OpenAI to have system access to the phones.

Focus on personalization

Apple resisted for a long time, but nevertheless relented and will soon allow specific customization of the phone according to users' wishes. Most of the listed functions have been available on Android phones for some time, and iOS users will be able to play with iPhone settings for the first time without having to jailbreak it.

In the control panel, the controls are in groups, where you can change their order, compose your own groups, change the layout and resize the controls. With the new interface, you can even add new buttons, including custom buttons from third-party apps. You can also change which buttons are shown on the lock screen, such as flashlight and camera.

From now on, you will be able to change application icons in a concrete way. There will be tons of colors, a new dark look, in short, very similar to what is available on Material You for Android phones. The first impression is in favor of Android. Apple's implementation, at least for now, feels very unfinished. With some colors, the icons are unrecognizable and the text unreadable.

The ability to move, resize applications and widgets on the home screen is also introduced for the first time. You will be able to hide applications from others or lock them with additional protection (PIN, password, face recognition)

News in the Gallery

While Samsung offered quite a few new capabilities for editing photos and videos, including moving subjects, aligning and slowing down photos, Apple focused more on the organization of Gallery. With the help of artificial intelligence, you will be able to quickly organize pictures into groups, for example vacation, pets, family and the like. You'll also be able to pin collections for faster access, and there's also a new Carousel view that will organize your best photos into a poster view. How it will determine your best photos is not yet known.

The Photos app for iOS 18 will feature a new tool called Clean Up. It will allow you to circle a certain part of the photo, move it (or remove it) with the help of generative artificial intelligence, which will also fill the empty space. It will work very similarly to Samsung and Pixel phones.

Communication will be different and also more fun

Messages (iMessage) already allow basic text editing, such as italics and bold. In iOS 18, however, you could add animations to certain words. As an example, Apple wrote the word "blown away" and the word got a wind animation. It is not clear whether this will also apply to the Slovenian text.

With the Tapback function, you will be able to add any smiley to received messages in the same way as you can already do in WhatsApp, for example. As a finishing touch, you will be able to decorate your messages with stickers from collections that you will download online or make yourself from photos. With the help of generative artificial intelligence, it should also be possible to create arbitrary smileys with text commands.

Of course, there is also support for RCS messaging, which means better quality of sent photos and recordings and the display of read receipts when you talk to Android users. Scheduling messages to send later will also be available.

American users will also be among the first to have the option of sending messages via satellite, which is convenient when the user finds himself somewhere where the network is not available, and at the same time, messages will also be encrypted for additional security. It is not yet known when this feature will be available in Europe. Even Android phones have been capable of this in theory for some time, but at least for now satellite messaging is not overly widespread.

The e-mail application will have more filters or categories, such as promotions, ads, and the like. By separating the mail, they want to make sure that the relevant mail is visible first, and the unwanted mail is only really accessible if you are deliberately looking for it. It should also have the ability to recognize which mail is most important and show it to you in a new priority view. Apple's intelligence is supposed to help when writing messages, but again it is not clear how much it will help Slovenian users.

You will be able to record phone calls, and artificial intelligence will transcribe the conversation into text in real time with the help of transcription. It will also create a short summary. If you are going to record the conversation, the interlocutor will be notified beforehand.

They also added support for the T9 keyboard.

Weathered wallet

Apple Wallet will get a new Tap to Cash feature in iOS 18. This will allow you to send money directly to another Apple Wallet user by simply placing your phone nearby and confirming the transfer. With this, they want to eliminate the need to provide personal data. Whether the function will be immediately available in Europe remains to be seen.

An even healthier battery

Apple didn't talk about this feature at the event, but experts found it while testing the developer version of iOS 18. The feature is actually an improvement on the current charging limit feature. This system tool allows you to prevent your phone from charging beyond a certain percentage, which helps maintain a long battery life. In iOS 17 this was locked to 80 %, but in iOS 18 you can choose between multiple breakpoints between 80 % and 100 %.

Playground for photos

Image Playground is Apple's tool that aims to compete with Dall-E and Midjourney. It will allow us to create photos with text commands, as we are used to with similar solutions. We will also be able to create without classic prompts and help each other with pre-prepared concepts (costumes, themes, places...). While creating a photo preview, the tool will offer us even more editing options.

Image Playground will have its own dedicated app, but will also be integrated into other Apple apps. Apple also releases the Image Playground API so that developers can incorporate this image creation tool into their apps.

The note will be more sophisticated

The Apple Notes app will get quite a few new features, including the ability to record audio and auto-transcribe. Apple's intelligence will also be able to make a summary of a conversation or document in seconds. She will also help with organization and design.

Some more interesting novelties

A new Highlight function will be available in the Safari browser, which will automatically highlight important information on a web page and at the same time offer the possibility to view additional information. For example: if you are going to see a certain place, the new feature could suggest the best route or historical background.

A new password manager app is also coming, which will store passwords and credentials with end-to-end encryption. Passwords will be synchronized across all Apple devices. What will happen to the existing KeyChain application is not yet known.

iOS 18 will also introduce a new feature for gamers (Game Mode), which will ensure that fps are consistent while playing, the connection is always reliable, and notifications are uninterrupted.

Finally, the Calculator will also be available, and the iPhone will be able to solve mathematical equations wherever text can be entered with a keyboard.

After a long, really long wait, Slovenian users will be able to use the iPhone in the Slovenian language.