In a nutshell: Though “Apple Intelligence” (generative AI) is the primary star of this 12 months’s iOS, iPadOS, and macOS updates, different vital new options will even be launched. iPhone will lastly enable RCS textual content messaging, a significant revamp is coming to the management heart, Apple will introduce an iPad calculator app, and Mac customers will have the ability to entry all iPhone performance by means of mirroring.
Builders can now preview iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, with common availability set for this fall. The foremost updates carry modifications to display screen customization, Siri, Safari, messages, and extra.
The primary addition is Apple Intelligence, which embeds generative AI options throughout the consumer expertise. Much like instruments from different tech giants, it could rewrite textual content, create photographs from scratch, and carry out duties by routinely combining info from a number of apps.
The most important differentiator stands out as the high quality of the output – could possibly be higher or worse than present apps by the point the options are public – or how effectively built-in they’re into the workflow of Apple’s software program. Siri will have the ability to carry out these capabilities as effectively by means of textual content and voice instructions akin to ChatGPT and Copilot.
Though Apple Intelligence will solely come to the iPhone 15 Professional and Apple methods with M-series chips, the opposite modifications will assist earlier gadgets.
iPhone and iPad customers will have the ability to organize their residence display screen icons to suit their wallpaper routinely. Moreover, a brand new customizable darkish mode will recolor app icons so additionally they match the background.
The management heart will obtain in depth customization choices, letting customers rearrange capabilities, add widgets from third-party apps, and alter which controls seem on the house display screen. The brand new management heart will even have a number of pages, permitting for a lot of extra capabilities.
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Moreover, Apple is altering how photographs are routinely organized. The Pictures app will attempt to manage photos by themes with out customers needing to create albums, however handbook customization will even be potential.
Formatting choices like daring, italics, and animations will come to the Messages app, which is able to enable customers to schedule messages. Messaging over satellite tv for pc will even be accessible when out of Wi-Fi vary.
iOS 18 permits RCS messaging when speaking with non-Apple gadgets, which permits for high-resolution media, higher encryption, and different enhancements in comparison with SMS. Firms like Google, Meta, and quite a few telecoms have begged Apple to maneuver on from SMS for years, and a number of firms tried and failed to bypass Cupertino’s stubbornness on the matter, so RCS could possibly be one in every of iOS 18’s largest additions.
Reader mode in Safari (all gadgets) can use machine studying to summarize articles and generate a desk of contents with out counting on Apple’s new generative AI performance. Furthermore, the brand new Safari can spotlight an internet web page’s most necessary info like map areas.
Apple will introduce a brand new app known as Passwords which capabilities as the corporate’s equal to 1Password or BitWarden, saving passwords and serving to customers preserve good password self-discipline. Along with Apple gadgets, the service will come to Home windows by means of the iCloud app.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 enable customers to cover and lock apps so their content material would not seem elsewhere on the system. Opening hidden and locked apps requires authenticators like FaceID or passcodes. Moreover, customers can prohibit which contacts an app can see.
Essentially the most vital iPad-exclusive addition is the calculator app, which is able to enable writing or typing equations and shortly inserting graphs. The iPad calculator will even introduce unit conversions. Different iPad additions embody a brand new tab bar and enhancements to Apple Pencil handwriting.
In the meantime, macOS Sequoia considerably enhances the connectivity between the iPhone and Mac, permitting customers to entry all iPhone apps, recordsdata, and different performance on a Mac with out unlocking the telephone. Furthermore, dragged home windows on Sequoia routinely change form to slot in organized tiles. Video conferencing software program on the brand new macOS provides digital backgrounds and reveals customers previews of recordsdata earlier than sharing them.
iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia assist the next gadgets:
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 Professional
- iPhone 15 Professional Max
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Professional
- iPhone 14 Professional Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Professional
- iPhone 13 Professional Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Professional
- iPhone 12 Professional Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Professional
- iPhone 11 Professional Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone SE
- (2nd technology or later)
- iPad Professional (M4)
- iPad Professional 12.9-inch (third technology and later)
- iPad Professional 11-inch (1st technology and later)
- iPad Air (M2)
- iPad Air (third technology and later)
- iPad (seventh technology and later)
- iPad mini (fifth technology and later)
- iMac 2019 and later
- iMac Professional 2017 and later
- Mac Studio 2022
- MacBook Air 2020 and later
- Mac mini 2018 and later
- MacBook Professional 2018 and later
- Mac Professional 2019 and later
