Apple Announces iOS 18 With New Customization Features, Redesigned Photos App, and More

Apple today previewed iOS 18, the next major update to the operating system for the iPhone, with new customization features, a redesigned Photos app, and more.

ios 18 tile summary
iOS 18 features new customization tools for the Home Screen. App icons now feature Dark Mode and users can tint them with a color to create a unique look. Apps can also now be placed anywhere on the ‌Home Screen‌ freely.

The Control Center is redesigned and highly customizable with a new gallery. Developers can provide tools for their apps in the Control Center. Users can continuously swipe to access other Control Center screens. Lock Screen controls are also customizable.

In Messages, tapbacks have been redesigned and users can now react with any emoji. Users can also schedule messages to send later, as well as format text with bold, italicization, underlining, and strikethrough. New text effects provide ways to emphasize words and phrases with automatic suggestions. Users can also now send and receive messages with satellite connectivity.

In Mail, emails are automatically sorted into categories to help prioritize messages. There are also new topographical maps with trail networks and hiking routes in the Maps app. In Wallet, a new Tap to Cash feature sends cash by holding iPhones together.

The ‌Photos‌ app is completely redesigned in ‌iOS 18‌. The app has been unified into a single view, with a photo grid at the top that views the entire library and collections organized by theme below. Users can use Months and Years views at the bottom, and there's a filter button that allows you to hide screenshots and sort in other ways.

The space below the grid includes Collections with the ability to browse by topics like Time, People, Memories, Trips, and more. Recent Days shows photos from the past few days, with things like photos of receipts filtered out automatically. People and Pets now gathers photos of groups of people and collections can be reordered or pinned. Swipe right from the grid and you'll see a new carousel with Featured ‌Photos‌ and other favorite collections. It automatically refreshes to surface new images.

Users can now Lock apps with authentication, simultaneously hiding information from Search and Siri. ‌iOS 18‌ also includes a new way to connect accessories more seamlessly.

‌iOS 18‌ brings RCS messaging support to the ‌iPhone‌, larger ‌Home Screen‌ icons, and Reminders integration in calendar.

Game Mode also comes to the ‌iPhone‌ for the first time, minimizing background activity to keep frame rates high, plus more responsive connections to AirPods and wireless game controllers.

The first developer beta of ‌iOS 18‌ is available starting today, with a public beta following in July, and official release to the public in the fall.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

soulreaver99 Avatar
13 months ago

All the talk of AI and there is literally nothing.

Gurman totally wrong yet again.
this comment didn't age well.. :D
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MakaniKai Avatar
13 months ago

All the talk of AI and there is literally nothing.

Gurman totally wrong yet again.
Congrats on jumping to conclusions half way through the presentation. There was an entire section devoted to AI.

Gurman totally right yet again.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
glsillygili Avatar
13 months ago
Thank you for implementing Jailbreak tweaks from 2010 Apple. Hidden apps too.

Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
xgman Avatar
13 months ago
looks like every other ios for the last 15 years.
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
vertsix Avatar
13 months ago
Android is finished.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DMG35 Avatar
13 months ago
All the talk of AI and there is literally nothing.

Gurman totally wrong yet again.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)