This week, Apple took to the virtual stage to show off all the new features coming to iOS 18 when it releases this spring. While most of the company’s WWDC presentation was spent showing off Apple Intelligence—the company’s take on AI—there are tons of other little updates that Apple has made along the way.
There are, of course, a stunning amount of small and noteworthy changes being made in iOS 18—too many to highlight in a single article—and there will probably be more in future beta releases, too. For now, though, I wanted to highlight a few really cool and sometimes subtle changes and features that Apple didn’t spend much time on, so that you have a better idea of what to expect out of iOS 18 when it hits your iPhone later this year.
Expanding bezels
One of the most noticiable changes that iOS 18 beta users have picked up on is the appearance of new haptic-like “puffs” along the bezels of the iPhone. These puffs appear whenever you press the Volume or Power buttons, and some have speculated they could point toward Apple’s possible plans to have a completely “buttonless” iPhone in the future.
It’s a small detail, but it does add some nice dynamic animation to the screen when you’re interacting with it. Though, its definitely one of those “blink and you’ll miss it” kind of changes.
You can change apps to widgets right from the home screen
The home screen is getting a major overhaul in iOS 18, and a lot of that starts with basic customization like letting you move icons around wherever you want, hiding labels, and even being able to change the color and theme of the icons themselves.
But, one thing Apple didn’t talk about during its WWDC presentation is the fact that you can now turn any app icon into a widget (assuming it has a widget associated with it) just by long-pressing and then selecting one of the widget options from the popup.
It’s a great way to make customizing your home screen even easier, and I can definitely see folks getting a lot of usage out of this one when they start reorganizing their home screens after iOS 18 goes public.
You can now share “Sign-in with Apple” logins with Groups
Sign-in with Apple has been one of the easiest ways for Apple users to sign into different apps and websites for a long while now. However, because you’re using your Apple info to sign in, you couldn’t really share that information with anyone on another iPhone before.
That’s changing now, though, as Apple’s new Passwords app will allow you to share Sign-in with Apple logins to others using the Group share functionality. It still takes a little work to make it happen, but it’s nice to know that we can finally share those specific logins with family as needed.
Share Wi-Fi networks using QR codes
Another plus for the new Passwords app is the ability to generate and share QR codes for wireless networks. This will make sharing your wireless network with visiting friends and family much easier, as you can just generate the QR code and then send it over to the people who need it.
And, since the QR code is store in Apple’s Passwords app, you should be able to access it across all of your devices, too.
Reminders and labels appear in Calendar
Apple is also giving the Calendar a much-needed facelift by adding labels for events and even Reminders to Monthly and Daily views. This makes it easy to see what you have going on at any given time, though the smaller text can definitely be harder to read in some cases.
Still, it’s nice to see this addition to the Calendar, especially with Reminders now appearing in the Calendar view. You can even complete those Reminders from there, too.
Pinch to zoom in the Calendar app
Another very handy change to the Calendar that Apple didn’t highlight during its presentation is the ability to pinch in and out on the Calendar to adjust the zoom level. This allows you to zoom in on the various events you have going on.
You can zoom all the way out to a full month view without any of the details, and then slowly zoom in to see more details as you go. You can’t zoom all the way to the daily view just yet, but maybe that’s something Apple will add down the line.
Apps now have their own page in Settings
This change is going to either be a pro or a con, depending on how you like your iPhone Settings app. Personally, I think it’s a good move. But others might not be as convinced. That’s because Apple has now moved all of the individual Apps that used to be listed under the main Settings page on your iPhone to a new section called Apps.
The obvious pro here is that it cleans up that initial screen and makes it easier to know exactly where you need to go to find access to apps, especially since they are now alphabetized, too. However, some may find the addition of more taps to get to those settings annoying. Either way, the change is here for now. We’ll have to wait to see if Apple changes it throughout the rest of the iOS 18 beta.
More control over Flashlight brightness and width on newer iPhones
I use the flashlight on my iPhone a lot—almost daily, in fact. Because of that, the addition of new Flashlight controls in iOS 18 is a welcome change. The new controls are part of the Dynamic Island, which means they’ll likely only be visible on iPhone 14 Pro and newer, as older devices don’t offer that hardware component. It is possible that Apple might make a control box for older phones, though.
The new controls allow the option to change how bright the flashlight is, and on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, you can even control how wide of a spread the light emits.
Another cool iOS 18 feature is that you can change the flashlight beam angle (at least on 14 Pro and 15 Pro which have the adaptive True Tone flash) #WWDC24 pic.twitter.com/ggSfzMPoTD
— iSoftware Updates (@iSWUpdates) June 11, 2024
A new Power button in the Control Center
Finally, the last change I want to highlight today is the addition of a new Power button in the newly designed Control Center. Yes, you can still turn off your iPhone using the tried and true Power + Volume Down. But, if like me, you sometimes forget whether you should press Volume Down or Volume Up, you can now pull down the Control Center and tap a little Power icon at the top right of the screen.
This will bring up the Power off slider, allowing you to turn off your iPhone. it’s worth noting that you don’t get access to the other options that holding Power + Volume Down provides, though that could change in later versions of the iOS 18 beta.
Image: Apple