If you can’t afford to buy a new iPhone every year, the next best thing is an iOS refresh. And come Sept. 16, iOS 18 (and iPadOS 18) brings a few tricks focusing on productivity, fun, and—eventually—AI. It should run on every iPhone back to the iPhone XR and 2022 iPhone SE. Here’s what to expect in Apple’s newest mobile operating system.
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1. Schedule Your Messages
(Credit: René Ramos; Apple)
Text messages are a primary form of communication for many, but on iPhones, it’s a real-time chat. There’s no option to save for later, like on email, until iOS 18. So whether you have a middle-of-the-night deep thought for your early riser BFF or don’t want to forget someone’s birthday, type it out and select a time and date for it to fire off. Here’s how it works.
2. More Tapback Options
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On Instagram, there’s a wealth of emoji at your fingertips for reacting to memes and Reels. Over on Messages, you’re restricted to a slim selection of reactions, known as Tapbacks: the heart, thumbs up or down, exclamation points, question mark, or laughter. You can drop emoji into a Messages chat itself versus affixing them to a specific message, but that can clutter things up. With iOS 18, you can react with a much wider range of emoji and stickers.
You can also add emphasis to certain messages with formatting like bold and italics, but also special effects like Shake or Ripple. (Think of the balloons that appear in iMessage when someone says happy birthday or the fireworks for “Happy New Year.”)
3. Satellite Messaging on iPhone
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Apple introduced Emergency SOS with the iPhone 14, which connects people with emergency services using satellites when they’re in remote areas without a cellular connection. As its name suggests, however, Emergency SOS is reserved for times when you need immediate assistance and is limited in functionality. With iOS 18, Apple extends its satellite phone service to the Messages app for when you’re in a cellular dead zone.
It’s being pitched as helping you “stay connected when you’re without Wi-Fi or cellular.” For those with an iPhone 14 and up, Messages will prompt you to connect to a nearby satellite and your connection status will be displayed in the Dynamic Island. It will support texts, emoji, and Tapbacks. One question is whether Apple will ever charge for this. Initially, it said Emergency SOS would be free for a year, but that was later extended for another year; Apple didn’t mention any sort of fee for iMessage satellite connections at WWDC.
Speaking of, if you do find yourself in a sticky situation, Apple says Emergency SOS in iOS 18 will support live video, so you can share streaming video and audio or recorded clips during emergency calls. “Emergency dispatchers will send you a request to share live video or photos over a secure connection, making it easier and faster to get the help you need,” Apple says.
4. Custom Control Centers and App Organization
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Control Center offers quick access to frequently used functions on the iPhone with a swipe: Airplane mode, flashlight, Wi-Fi, and even Shazam song recognition. But it’s just a single menu with limited customization options. On iOS 18, you can create multiple Control Centers that you can swipe through. Create one for just your smart home devices, for example. For Android users, this type of stuff is old hat, but Apple has held a tight grip on its tech for a long time. Part of that journey is allowing people to put their app icons wherever they want on the home screen in iOS 18. Put a row at the top and bottom or along the edge. And top it off with color tints, so the whole thing looks yellow or red.
5. Hide Your Embarrassing Apps
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Want to keep an app away from prying eyes? You could bury it in an unrelated or boring folder, but iOS 18 will do you one better and let you hide it in a private Hidden folder that’s only accessible via Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode. You can already do this with Photos, but now you can do the same with Tinder or even Google Docs if you have a particularly salacious diary entry you don’t want falling into the wrong hands. When an app is locked, it also won’t show up in search, notifications, and other places across the system, Apple says.
6. Passwords App
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Apple is moving in on the password manager business with the Passwords app, which will sync codes across Apple devices, as well as on Windows, in iCloud, and even the Vision Pro. All the info will be stored in a standalone Passwords app, which Apple says is end-to-end encrypted.
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Apple already has a password-storage service with iCloud Keychain, but it’s a little hard to parse and mostly hums along in the background for those who want to use it. Notably, Apple mentioned in its WWDC press materials that Keychain “was first introduced over 25 years ago,” so it’s clearly trying to get you to focus on the newer, more modern Passwords app. Here’s a rundown on how to store your logins in the Passwords app.
7. Tap to Cash
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Apple Cash is Apple’s version of mobile payment apps like Venmo and Zelle and allows for cash transfers between those with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch. With iOS 18, the company is simplifying these transfers; just hold two compatible iPhones together to send money. If you’re worried about someone standing close to you and draining your account, Apple says each phone owner will need to authenticate using Face ID, Touch ID, or a passcode and then hold their phones together to get paid. Here’s how it works.
Apple introduced a similar contact-sharing feature with iOS 17 called NameDrop, and despite some initial concerns about security, there don’t appear to have been any major issues. Your phone number is much different than your cash, of course, so we’ll have to see how it goes.
Apple Intelligence? Not Yet
The company’s AI solution includes a ChatGPT integration and productivity-focused features like editing help and generative AI art suggestions. But we don’t expect to see the first Apple Intelligence features until iOS 18.1 in October. You’ll also need a higher-end iPhone 15 or one of Apple’s new iPhone 16 smartphones. There’s a lot we don’t know, like when exactly Apple will offload your data to its servers versus processing it on your device. But we’ll be sure to put it through its paces when it arrives.
