This Week's Apple iPhone iOS 18 Update

We all know that Apple devices are sexy, secure, and smart but with iOS 18 available now, it gets even better. This update will make your iPhone more personal and capable than ever, all while protecting your privacy and security, as always. To get you up to speed real quick,

Let’s talk about some of the new iPhone features we noticed, like;

• Deeper customization to the Home Screen and Control Center;

• Biggest-ever redesign to Photos, making it even easier to find and relive special moments;

• Major enhancements to Messages and Mail;

• Starting next month, iOS 18 will introduce Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that is incredibly useful, relevant, with privacy and security (as always).

Get a simple overview of each below or feel free to skip ahead to the sections that matter to you.

Customized Home Screen and Control Center

In iOS 18, you can customize your Home Screen in exciting new ways by placing app icons and widgets to frame the wallpaper or create your ideal layout on each page. You can also choose how the app icons and widgets are presented — light, dark, or with a colored tint — or make app icons appear larger for a new streamlined look.

Control Center is redesigned to be even more flexible. Powerful groups of controls — including favorites, media playback, Home controls and connectivity, and the new controls gallery featuring options from third-party apps that can be organized so that they’re always just a swipe away. Users can also access their favorite controls from the Action button, and for the first time, you can change the controls on the Lock Screen or remove them entirely.

More customization than ever

The Home Screen can be customized by arranging apps and widgets in any open space, and users can choose between a light, dark, or tinted look to create the experience that is perfect for them.

We love the monochromatic and matchy-matchy. What will you do?

Just a simple swipe away

Control Center has been redesigned to provide easier access to many of the things users do every day, and the new controls gallery displays the full set of available controls, including new options from third-party apps.

Ground control to Major Tom, we like this a whole lot.

Biggest-Ever Re-Design to Photos

The biggest-ever update to Photos makes it easier to find and relive special moments. The beautiful and more simplified layout makes your library more unified without compromising familiarity. New collections like; Recent Days, People & Pets, and Trips automatically keep the library organized with on-device intelligence, so users can spend less time searching and more time enjoying their memories.

You can personalize your experience with a customizable layout by what’s most important to you and pin favorite collections for easy access.

Less time searching

Collections give users a way to browse by themes, like recent days or trips, without having to organize content into albums.

Major enhancements to Messages

Major updates to Messages enhances the way you can express yourself and stay connected.

Fun, new formatting options like bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough will let you really convey tone. All-new text effects bring words, phrases, and sentences to life with emoji and sticker Tapbacks that give you endless ways to react in a conversation and for those of us working or planning ahead, you can compose an iMessage to send later. Yessssss!

For times when cellular and Wi-Fi connections aren’t available, Messages via satellite connects users to a satellite in space right from the Messages app to send and receive texts over iMessage and SMS. If you message a contact who does not have an Apple device, the Messages app now supports RCS for richer media and more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS.

The Phone app helps users stay organized with the ability to record and transcribe live calls, making it easier to recall important details later. Call participants are notified before a recording begins, and transcripts are conveniently saved to the Notes app, allowing users to quickly search and review what was discussed. We can’t wait!

Intelligent Categorization in Mail

Available later this year, categorization in Mail organizes messages to help you stay on top of your inbox. The Primary category lets you focus on the messages that matter most or contain time-sensitive information. Transactions, Updates, and Promotions are grouped by sender in a new digest view that pulls together all relevant emails from a business, allowing users to quickly scan for what’s important in the moment.

Distraction-Free Browsing with Safari

Safari is the world’s fastest browser, and with iOS 18, it offers even more capabilities for browsing the web. Highlights intelligently surface key information — like a location’s address, a summary, or more information about a movie, TV show, or song — after a webpage is loaded. The redesigned Reader brings more ways to enjoy articles with a streamlined view, a summary, and a table of contents for longer articles. With Distraction Control, you can hide items on a webpage that you may find disruptive when browsing, i.e., sign-in banners or content overlays.

One of our personal favs; The Brand-New Passwords App

Passwords is a new app built on the foundation of Keychain that makes it even easier for us to access our passwords and see all our credentials — like passwords, passcodes, and verification codes — all in one place. Passwords is backed by incredibly secure end-to-end encryption; seamlessly syncs across devices; and alerts users when a password could be easily guessed, has been used multiple times, or has appeared in a known data leak. Cyber-security is our favorite topic and this is a cool new feature.

Apple Intelligence Features Available Next Month

Does AI stand for “Apple Intelligence”, we think so! It’s coming. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available next month, delivering experiences that are delightful, intuitive, easy to use, and specially designed to help users do the things that matter most to them.

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