Wesley Hilliard
WWDC 2024 revealed new ways to customize iPhone with iOS 18, including new Home Screen arrangements and filters, Control Center pages, and replaceable buttons on the Lock Screen.
It was clear that WWDC 2024 would focus on artificial intelligence, but Apple started things off with feature upgrades first. iOS 18 has been revealed, and it is more customizable than ever.
The ongoing annual theme of including new customization features continues. Icons can be placed anywhere on the Home Screen, which enables more unique layouts and eliminates the need for blank icons.
Icons can also be themed with colors. Backgrounds can be enabled for dark mode, or icons can have color filters.
Control Center has also gained new customization features. Data is split over pages that can be swiped through, and third-party apps can finally be added to the grid.
Add widgets, change size, organize them, and see different panes for app control, music, and home.
The Lock Screen also gets new customization options, finally allowing users to replace the flashlight and camera buttons with third-party apps.
Apple snuck in a brief mention that RCS is coming with iOS 18. Soon, Apple users will have improved messaging with Android users, including better media sharing.
iMessage has new emoji tapbacks that let users access any emoji to react to a message. There are also new text effects and the ability to schedule messages for later.
Reminders will now appear in Calendar. It allows users to create a reminder and see it in line with scheduled events.
There are several updates across Apple's apps, like Apple Maps. Users can see hiking routes and save them for offline viewing.
Photos has been redesigned with new organization and memories features. There are no longer tabs at the bottom to switch views. Instead, everything is in one scrollable view.
A new collections feature brings memories and topics into groups below the main photo grid. Each collection view has an audio-playing view at the top with plenty of filters to find photos of people and places.
AirPods are getting a new gesture that relies on the device's gyroscope sensors — nods and shakes for yes and no. Voice isolation is also improved thanks to better algorithms.
Apple finally broke Passwords out of the Settings app. It offers access to several password-related functions in a single, accessible location.
- Wi-Fi passwords
- App passwords
- Website passwords
- Verification codes
- Shared passwords
- Sign in with Apple Passkeys
Apple Intelligence
Despite some much-needed upgrades across various iOS systems, all eyes are on Apple's AI features. Instead of going for the industry name "artificial intelligence," Apple has announced it is calling its features "Apple Intelligence."
Apple CEO Tim Cook says its AI has to be powerful, intuitive, integrated, and personal. Of course, it also needs to be private.
Various features shown during the WWDC keynote already use Apple Intelligence, like Safari's new summarization view. It grabs data from the webpage and surfaces it in a quick view panel.
Apple Intelligence is available across the operating system, appearing in apps, in search, and via Siri. Writing Tools will help analyze writing and generate images, while search inquiries will gather summarized data.
If you'd prefer to use ChatGPT, that will be an option later in 2024. Users can target ChatGPT for free without sacrificing privacy and even log into premium accounts.
Apple Intelligence, iOS 18 and the other operating system updates, will be available in the fall. The developer beta has begun, and public betas will begin in July.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
5 Comments
Turn by turn offline hiking sounds great. I wonder if you can load non-US gpx files?
The biggest announcement was about "Apple Intelligence" yet it isn't even implemented yet, won't be implemented until late this year and is only available for iPhone 15/16 Pro versions plus Apple Silicon. When AppleInsider reported Apple having signed a deal with OpenAI just a few weeks ago, I thought that can't be right, they would have signed a deal ages ago in order to hit the iOS18 Beta, but that seems to be the case. Other changes in iOS18 are relatively minor indeed.
Once again, Apple gets dragged kicking and screaming into a new technology, without even implementing the core technology themselves.
18 versions of iOS and they still can’t figure out a way too let us choose app download locations. Still the same clunky method of dropping the app into the first open spot. Still the same pain in the ass game of trying to move it across multiple pages and into folders without accidentally moving your finger a millimeter in the wrong direction and leaving it in an unintended location and fucking up your entire Home Screen.
18.
Is anyone trying the developer beta yet on their 15 Pro? How's Siri in the new OS? I know it's early, but I'd assume a few of the improvements should already be obvious. And yes, I know most of the AI features are not going to be fully available until sometime this fall.