Apple announces iOS 18

Apple has announced iOS 18. The new version of the operating system for iPhones includes the option to customize the home screen.

Apple makes it possible to arrange the home screen according to your own wishes. Until iOS 17, users are stuck with the grid of icons, but from iOS 18 icons and widgets can be placed in arbitrary places. It is also possible to adjust the color of app icons to make them look better in folders and on home screens. Larger icons are also possible. There will also be a function to hide apps.

It will also be possible to customize the buttons of Control Center elements in the interface itself. Now this has to be done in Settings. Third-party apps can also add buttons. These can also be placed on the lock screen.

When showing contacts, users can also choose to grant access to some contacts. iOS will also have the option to close apps and only make them discoverable when the user re-authenticates.

The Mail app will have categories, like Gmail has had for years. Photos will have the option to organize collections of photos yourself. There will also be a carousel with random photos from the library that the user has marked as favorites. The Clean Up function removes objects from the background. In addition, searching in videos becomes possible.

There will also be a Memory Movie option to create a video based on a set of photos. That resembles features that BlackBerry 10 and HTC Sense had more than a decade ago and that Google Photos has also had for years. Apple does have the option to choose its own music. In the Phone app it will be possible to record and transcribe conversations.

There will be a Calculator app for iPadOS, which was missing until now. The Smart Script function converts handwritten notes into a more readable version and Math Notes converts written sums into sums it can calculate.

In the field of artificial intelligence, the manufacturer has come up with the brand name Apple Intelligence. Much of this happens on the device itself. An algorithm determines whether a request to the cloud is necessary and if so, the phone sends only the necessary data to a server running on Apple's own chips with source code that researchers can check.

Siri is getting an upgrade to better serve users through a deeper understanding of apps and their features, allowing the assistant to find features if the user has forgotten the name. After the upgrade, iPhones and iPads can summarize many things: web pages, missed notifications and meeting minutes.

The generative AI can also suggest or rewrite replies to emails, after which users can copy them at the touch of a button. Messages gets a feature to create custom emojis based on text prompts, which Meta does with stickers in WhatsApp. There will also be a Focus mode in which AI chooses the notifications that come through.

In Messages it will be possible to use GenMojis, emojis based on a text prompt. There will also be an Image Playground to play with generated images. This can also be done in Notes.

ChatGPT is in Siri. In addition, there is a button to forward a question to ChatGPT, which works in the background with GPT-4o. ChatGPT can, among other things, generate text and photos within apps on iOS and iPadOS. That also works with paid ChatGPT customers, who can use paid features.

Many features are limited to English, with other languages ​​coming later. The new operating systems will be released in a developer beta on Monday, with a public beta next month and a release in the fall. The new version will be available for iPhone XR and newer, but Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max.