Check Out These Upgrades Coming To iPhone, iPad and Mac With Apple iOS 18 Public Beta
Get a sneak peek at the latest iOS 18 features coming to iPhone, iPad and Mac right now.
Apple has outlined big changes coming to their entire lineup of devices thanks to new iOS 18 software that’s set to roll out for free later this year. For tech fans who just can’t wait for the latest and greatest, Apple is letting users try early editions on iPhones, iPads and Mac through their public beta program, which just went live. Here are the most noteworthy features to check out right now.
iPhone iOS 18
The jewel of Apple’s lineup is also the star of the show in terms of new features this year. iOS 18 brings new form and function to the world’s most popular smart phone.
Deep Customization
The iPhone has been famously uniform since its debut. Home screens could be rearranged and toggles could be adjusted but iOS 18 offers deeper customization system wide. Apps can now coexist with widgets, themes can be applied and icons can be reskinned so the only uniformity is the one you choose.
Control Center
These customizations don’t just apply to the look of the iPhone but the function as well. The pull-down control center tab can now have multiple pages as well as customized controls and layouts for easy and personalized access to the shortcuts you rely on most.
Privacy
Apple is also giving users more control over app privacy with new options to password protect individual apps. That includes hiding content within those apps from search results, an important feature for those who may share devices.
Photos
iOS 18 overhauls the photo app, for better or worse. It’s one of the most conspicuous changes to a stock app that almost everyone with an iPhone heavily relies on. The driving force of these changes to Photos seems to draw inspiration from social media platforms that serve up a different kind of experience. The presentation and curation is noticeably better but many will miss the easy navigation the app previously offered.
Messages
Texting takes a giant leap forward this year. The adoption of Rich Communication Services (RCS) finally levels the playing field and makes green texts a lot less ugly, even retroactively. It seems to have also pushed Apple to make blue texts in iMessage better. Tapbacks get emojis and sticker options. From bold and italic to animated alternatives, text effects will become more expressive than ever. A year after bringing it to the Mail app, iMessage will also get a Send Later option. For the trailblazers who go where coverage is sparse, a new satellite message capability can keep them from going off the grid entirely.
For those who don’t already use some method to organize their inbox, the Mail app in iOS 18 will now do the heavy lifting in applying method to the madness of the thousands of emails that come in each year. A primary category will keep important emails front and center while secondary Transactions, Updates and Promotion categories make finding an essential email readily available.
Game Mode
Apple Silicon has made gaming on an iPhone, iPad or MacBook a platform to be reckoned with, not just for mobile games but for full-blown AAA releases. To enhance that experience, Apple has now brought Game Mode to the iPhone, lowering latency to peripherals like controllers or AirPods, nullifying distractions and focusing the power of the chipset to deliver the best visuals ever on an iPhone.
iPadOS 18
Apple’s tablet benefits from many of the same upgrades that are found in iOS 18 but iPadOS 18 gets a few unique new tricks that make it even more valuable for the wide variety of iPad fans out there.
Calculator
Thanks to the Apple Pencil and its new Pro iteration, writing on an iPad is a satisfying and useful experience for students and professionals alike. Apple has finally delivered the long overdue calculator app, complete with scientific functions, to the iPad. More interesting, however, is the new capability for handwritten equations to automatically solve themselves. That extends to algebra and calculus too as changes to variables are live updated as they’re adjusted.
Notes
The Notes app gets a supercharge this year with handwriting getting refined to be smoother and straighter but without ever losing the personal style that gets laid down on the page. Hand-written notes can also be auto-corrected and copied and pasted, including options to paste text into the learned handwriting. New options for highlighting have also been introduced, making the iPad an unparalleled productivity companion.
Shareplay
Apple has been trying to make Shareplay commonplace for the past few years with mixed results. It’s a great, if niche, feature for those who like to consume content together. iPadOS 18 seeks to broaden the appeal of the feature by allowing live sharing of drawing on screens as well as screen-sharing in case a hands-on approach is better.
MacOS Sequoia
The backbone of every Apple computer is MacOS and the latest version, Sequoia, makes the usual improvements to power and battery, gets some messaging bumps like the rest of the hardware lineup but also comes with some high-profile features unique to MacOS.
iPhone Mirroring
An oddball feature that becomes easy to rely on very quickly, iPhone Mirroring connects a Mac and an iPhone on the same account and wifi network. The result is an iPhone that can be put on its charger while a virtual clone appears as a slick little window on the Mac. All apps and messages can be accessed like usual and iPhone-specific shortcuts can be executed directly from the Mac’s screen.
Window Tiling
MacOS has no shortage of options on how to organize open windows but automatic tiling, long a feature of Windows PCs, has finally reached the Mac. For those who find themselves with a clutter of documents open at any given time, the ability to automatically size and position them is a welcome change.
Video Conferencing
Remote working isn’t going anywhere so Apple has focused on improving video conferencing. Whether on FaceTime or Zoom, new tools to fine-tune presentation sharing have been added to MacOS. That means never accidentally screen-sharing something…unwanted. It also means new backgrounds that can keep your personal space private when on a call.
Passwords
Apple is perpetually working to improve privacy and keep data safe and the Passwords app is the latest effort in that vein, attempting to organize passwords across devices, peripherals, networks and the web. It’s the latest step in a larger plan that hopefully ends with simply using TouchID or FaceID for all sign-in needs. For now, it’s a neat way to reliably organize all passwords that doesn’t require paying for a third-party app since it’s now built-in to all these Apple devices.
Apple’s Public Beta Program is open now for iOS 18, iPadOS18 and MacOS Sequoia. Follow the link and register to get the new software now ahead of its rollout later this year.
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