After being announced at WWDC 2024 Yesterday, Apple has released the first beta of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 to developers. The update includes new home screen features, upgrades to the Messages app, and much more.

Apple will release a public beta of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 in July. For now, the update is only available to developers for beta testing. iOS 18 is supported on all the same iPhone models as iOS 17.

New home screen features and more

 

 

 

 

Apple’s new software version won’t be complete until the fall, at which point it will be released to the general public. Testers should still expect performance and stability issues when running the iOS 18 public beta on primary devices for the time being.

Some of the biggest changes in iOS 18 are for the home screen, which is now more customizable than ever. You can place app icons freely on the grid, tint app icons, customize Control Center, and much more. Keep in mind, many of the new Apple Intelligence features – including ChatGPT integration – won’t be available until later this year.

iOS 18: Here’s the list of iPhone models compatible with the update

 

 

 

 

After many rumors, Apple finally announced iOS 18 at WWDC 2024 on Monday. The new version of the iPhone operating system comes with a new Home Screen that lets users customize the icons, as well as a redesigned Photos app, Apple Intelligence, and much more. And if you’re wondering whether your iPhone is compatible with iOS 18, we have the answer.

“Apple today previewed iOS 18, a major release that features more customization options, the biggest redesign ever of the Photos app, new ways for users to manage their inbox in Mail, Messages over satellite, and so much more,” the company said in a press release.

iOS 18 compatibility

iOS 18 is compatible with the following iPhone models:

• iPhone XR
• iPhone XS and XS Max
• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 and 12 mini
• iPhone 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 and 13 mini
• iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max
• iPhone 14 and 14 Plus
• iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max
• iPhone 15 and 15 Plus
• iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max
• iPhone SE (2nd gen)
• iPhone SE (3rd gen)

As you can see, all the same iPhones running iOS 17 can be updated to iOS 18. However, there’s a catch. According to Apple, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are compatible with the new AI, or Apple Intelligence, features. This is because these features require the A17 Pro or M1 chip or later.

The first beta of iOS 18 will be released to developers later today. A public beta is coming next month, while the official launch is set for this fall.

Apple will support RCS with iOS 18, improving messaging experience between iPhone and Android

 

 

 

 

Apple confirmed today that it will support RCS messaging with iOS 18, releasing this fall. RCS will enable a richer experience when communicating with Android users.

RCS will give your green bubble chats many of the best of features of iMessage, like high-resolution image and video attachments, typing indicators, read receipts and more.

 

 

 

 

Today amidst a host of Apple Intelligence features debuted at WWDC, Apple shared a new feature that will enable you to create an emoji for any occasion. Apple calls this AI-powered feature Genmoji.

 

 

 

 

Despite the growing array of emoji included in iOS each year, we’ve all surely run into that occasion when we wanted an emoji for something, only to find it didn’t exist.

Apple has made that a problem of the past thanks to iOS 18.

Genmoji is an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that enables you to have new emoji created for your use. All you have to do is type in what you’re looking for, and iOS 18 will present you with a newly-created emoji for your use.

Since emojis are actually unicode characters that work cross-platform, Apple’s Genmoji won’t technically work the same way as other emoji, since if they were, they wouldn’t display properly on non-Apple devices. Instead, Apple creates Genmoji as images. This won’t make much difference to users, but it’s a technical detail worth noting.

Genmoji will be great for expressing a variety of emotions that emoji don’t quite cover right now. Personally though, I’ll be making an iPad emoji first.

Apple integrates ChatGPT deeply into iOS 18

 

 

 

 

Apple Intelligence is the core of generative AI features in iOS 18, but Apple will also let users sign in with their OpenAI account and use ChatGPT models as well.

Once connected, users can select ChatGPT as their model to use inside Siri and as part of the new intelligent writing tools and other features across iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia.

The ChatGPT integration extends the free Apple Intelligence functionality built into the OS. For example, if you ask Siri a question that it can’t answer, it could hand off to ChatGPT instead to respond to the query.

Users can take advantage of the usual free quotas for ChatGPT usage, or connect their paid subscriptions to use their ChatGPT Plus benefits instead.

Apple indicated that it is working on partnerships with other AI model makers to give users more options in the future. So, although OpenAI’s ChatGPT will be the only option to start, you can expect Google Gemini and other models to be offered in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

iOS 18 lets you replace the Lock screen’s flashlight and camera buttons with controls of your choosing

 

 

 

 

Today as part of its iOS 18 unveiling during the WWDC keynote, Apple shared that the upcoming software release provides a feature users have long asked for: the ability to replace the flashlight and camera buttons on the iPhone’s Lock screen with controls of your own choosing.

Here’s how that works.

Customizing your Lock screen

In iOS 18, Apple is making Control Center more customizable than ever. As part of that change, it’s taking many of those same controls and making them available on your iPhone’s Lock screen in place of the existing flashlight and camera buttons.

The nice thing about the feature is that it takes advantage of the existing Lock screen customization features, and enables you to set different Lock screen buttons with different wallpaper/widget combos.

To set your own custom Lock screen controls in iOS 18:

1. Long-press on your Lock screen to pull up edit mode
2. Swipe to the wallpaper that you want to edit and hit ‘Customize’
3. Tap in the lower-left or lower-right corner on the existing buttons
4. Choose which controls you want to replace the flashlight and/or camera

The full list of available controls

When iOS 18 launches this fall, third-party apps will be able to offer their own controls for use on the Lock screen. For now though, only Apple options are available.

Currently in iOS 18 developer beta 1, you have the following control options for your Lock screen across a variety of categories:

Accessibility

• Assistive Access
• Live Speech

Capture

• Camera
• Scan Code
• Magnifier

Clock

• Alarm
• Timer
• Stopwatch

Connectivity

• Airplane Mode
• Cellular Data
• Personal Hotspot

Display & Brightness

• Dark Mode

Hearing Accessibility

• Music Haptics
• Left-Right Stereo Balance
• Live Captions

Home

• Home

Monitor Accessibility

• Switch Control
• Voice Control
• Full Keyboard Access
• AssistiveTouch
• Apple Watch Mirroring
• Control Nearby Devices

Remote

• Remote

Shortcuts

• Shortcuts
• Open App

Sounds

• Silent Mode
• Recognize Music

Translate

• Translate

Utilities

• Flashlight
• Calculator

Vision Accessibility

• Classic Invert
• Color Filters
• Live Recognition
• Increase Contrast
• Reduce Motion
• Reduce Transparency
• Reduce White Point
• Smart Invert
• VoiceOver
• Zoom
• Speak Screen
• Dim Flashing Lights
• Hover Text
• Hover Typing

Voice Memos

• Voice Memo

Wallet

• Wallet
• Tap to Cash

Watch

• Ping My Watch

iOS 18 lets you change widget sizes right from your home screen

 

 

 

 

In addition to major new home screen customization options in iOS 18, Apple has also made it easier to rearrange your home screen. Most notably, you can now adjust widget sizes right from your iPhone’s home screen.

The ability to adjust widget sizes directly from the home screen was previously available only on iPadOS. With iOS 18, however, it has expanded to the iPhone as well. When you put the home screen into “jiggle mode,” you’ll see a new handle in the lower-right corner. You can then drag that handle and your widget will get bigger or smaller.

Alternatively, you can long-press on a widget, and you’ll see multiple different widget sizes you can choose from with a single tap. In this same menu, you can choose to convert a widget to an app icon as well. Finally, you can also long-press on an app icon, and (as long as that app offers home screen widgets), instantly convert the icon into a widget.

Everything new coming to Messages in iOS 18

 

 

 

 

Apple has some major feature upgrades coming to the Messages app in iOS 18.

As announced earlier today during the WWDC keynote, Messages is receiving big enhancements to tapbacks, a new scheduled send feature, the ability to format text with bold and italics, new effects, RCS support, and more.

Here’s everything coming to Messages in iOS 18.

Emoji tapbacks and new tapback designs

 

 

 

 

Tapbacks have gone unchanged on the iPhone for years, but in iOS 18 they’re finally getting some big improvements.

For starters, you’ll be able to send any emoji as a message tapback. Gone are the days of being limited to a handful of tapback reactions. Now you can send a tapback with the eyes-looking emoji, or barf emoji, or anything else that fits the occasion. If emoji options aren’t enough, you can also use stickers as tapbacks.

Your most commonly used emoji and stickers will be accessible with a swipe left on the initial set of tapback options that appear, sliding those default options out of the way to present your most used emoji and stickers.

Speaking of those default options, they’re getting a facelift in iOS 18. The classic thumbs up, heart, and more are being splashed with full color and new designs that will make them fit in better among the wider array of new tapback options.

Schedule messages for later

 

 

 

 

We’ve all had an occasion where we wanted to send a message later. In iOS 18, that will finally be possible. No more need to ask Siri to remind you to send something later, you can simply schedule it yourself.

Prep a message in iOS or iPadOS 18 and, if you don’t want to send it right away, you can choose a later day and time for it to automatically go out. The option is available by pressing the + button on the left side of the screen and selecting the new Send Later option.

Text formatting and special effects

 

 

 

 

Messages was the last major Apple app that supports text input but never supported rich text formatting options like bold and italics. That changes in iOS 18, where you can customize the formatting of words in your message to implement the standard four formatting styles:

• Bold
• Italics
• Underline
• Strikethrough

Joining these options are eight neat special effects that can also be applied on a per-character basis:

• Big
• Small
• Shake
• Nod
• Explode
• Ripple
• Bloom
• Jitter

I’m not exactly sure which messaging occasions will call for some of these effects, but they’re nice options to have nonetheless.

RCS support

Apple had previously announced that it would support RCS in 2024, but it was great to see confirmation of that today.

RCS is a newer, more capable text message protocol that serves as a successor to SMS and MMS. Essentially, by adding RCS support in iOS 18, Apple will make your conversations with Android users more reliable than before.

When communicating over iMessage, everything will stay as-is. Your blue bubble conversations don’t change. But in those situations when, say, you’re in a group chat that includes a green bubble friend, RCS should make the experience better for everyone.

Everything else

 

 

 

 

Genmoji: Though not exclusive to Messages, the place you’re bound to use Genmoji most is in your conversations with friends and family. These AI-generated emoji will provide endless potential for future emoji communications.

Image Playground: Similarly, the new Image Playground tools for creating AI images in a variety of styles will be a useful option to have baked into the Messages app when it launches later this year alongside other Apple Intelligence features.

Messages via Satellite: Messages in iOS 18 also includes support for a new Messages via Satellite feature that’s designed to help you out in situations where you don’t have access to a Wi-Fi or cellular connection.

Wrap-up

Messages in iOS 18 provides a variety of new tools and features that are bound to get a lot of use. Though the core of the app is remaining the same, Apple has provided enhancements that I personally expect to benefit from a lot.