The idea is to make it easier to talk to Siri naturally. When you ask a question, the Assistant will understand more context than ever before. You can say, “Play that podcast my wife sent me the other day,” and Siri will play it for you. Things like that.
Siri can also explain things to you if you’re not sure how to use a certain feature on your phone (Samsung might be on to something with Bixby). And if you make a mistake mid-sentence, you don’t have to start all over again: Not only can Siri understand your mistake, it can also understand the context of your previous question, so you don’t have to repeat yourself over and over again.
Just like Google’s Gemini pulls context based on what’s happening on the screen, Siri can now understand what’s on the screen when it’s launched. So if someone texts you an address, you can launch Siri and ask her to add the address to their contact card. All of this is expected to work across first-party and third-party apps.
ChatGPT Integration
Photo: Apple
Apple Intelligence apparently still needs some work, which is why Apple is using ChatGPT from OpenAI to enhance its capabilities. The company says it uses the GPT-4o model, and users can control when Siri uses ChatGPT. This powers features like when you ask about the subject of a photo or document (such as scanning a 100-page PDF), and Compose, which can generate original images and text from your queries.
All of these GPT features are free and do not require an account, but if you’re already a subscriber, you can link your account to access the paid features.
What’s new in iOS 18?
Now, moving on to more traditional software features, we’ve summarised the major features of iOS 18 below, but there are plenty of smaller changes as well – you can find the full list directly from Apple.
Eliminate the app grid
For the first time, you can arrange your apps and widgets however you want (just like Android), swearing off the rigid grid list that Apple has imposed on you for nearly two decades. You can also further customize your app icons, color them a specific way to match or complement your wallpaper, or even go dark mode. You can also make those apps and widgets appear larger.
More control with Control Center
Control Center, the hub you reveal when you swipe down on the right edge of your iPhone, is now more customizable. Control Center now has tabs that you can scroll through with one continuous swipe on the Home screen. Tabs include the most important items you want to access in Control Center (Favorites), media playback, smart home controls, and more.
You can customize the size and layout of everything in Control Center. This also applies to the Lock screen controls, allowing you to switch out the two icons at the bottom of your iPhone Lock screen for something more useful. Stay tuned for new controls from third-party apps.
Lock and hide apps
Finally, you can hide apps to stop others from snooping, or lock them so they require a passcode or biometric authentication every time you launch them. Information from the app will also be hidden system-wide in notifications and searches. Google has announced a similar new feature called Private Spaces, which will be coming to Android later this year.
Redesigned Photos app
Apple’s Photos app has been significantly redesigned in iOS 18, with a photo grid at the top and different collections below that you can swipe through, like Recent Days, Travel, People & Pets, etc. This upgrade ties into several other improvements powered by Apple Intelligence, including Clean Up, which lets you erase unwanted objects in the background of your photos, and the ability to easily find images in search.
RCS and Satellite Messaging
It’s fair to say that one of the most anticipated announcements from Apple ended up as a small footnote in the company’s announcement: RCS is Rich Communication Services, a text messaging standard that follows SMS/MMS. Android phones have supported RCS for several years, bringing an upgraded text messaging experience that borrows from instant messaging apps, including typing indicators, read receipts, and improved photo and video quality. However, because Apple doesn’t support RCS and uses the older SMS standard, all of these features won’t work if an Android user sends a text message to an iPhone (or vice versa).
That’s now changing, according to Apple’s marketing materials: “RCS Messages deliver richer media and provide delivery and read receipts, even to people who don’t use iMessage.” Those texts will still appear in green instead of blue when you send them to other iPhone users via iMessage, but this may finally put an end to the flawed texting experience that has left many people confused.
