New features list: Apple reveals details of iOS 18
iOS 18 will be available on Monday. If you want to find out in advance what Apple has changed, you can now find a summary on 22 PDF pages.
iOS 18 overview: It can also be a little more precise, as Apple's PDF shows.
(Image: Apple)
It won't be long now before it's time for iOS 18: the next major operating system update for iPhones will be available from September 16, i.e. next Monday. Many new features are already known. For example, the home screen can be configured much more broadly in future (including icon placement and coloring), the Control Center has been completely revised and there have been extensive changes to many apps, including Photos and Messages (RCS support). If you need a complete overview of all the new features, you can now help yourself in English at Apple. This week, the company published a comprehensive PDF that summarizes what it claims are over 250 new functions on 22 pages.
Little things that have slipped through so far
The overview available for download on Apple's server is also practical because it lists many interesting little things that may have slipped through the cracks during the presentation of iOS 18 in June and the subsequent beta phase. What can be ignored in the list for now, however, are the Apple Intelligence functions. The manufacturer does mention them in the PDF, but they will not be available before iOS 18.1 from October, and some will not even be available until the end of the year in iOS 18.2. The complete feature set of the AI system is also not expected before 2025, and probably even later in Europe.
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Nevertheless, there is a lot to learn in the PDF. For example, you can read that the live voicemail function, which has been available since iOS 17, will finally be available in German (but only in Germany, not Switzerland). Other English variants, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese and Portuguese are also included. The new Passwords app also collects Wi-Fi passwords and makes them even easier to access than via the system settings. The Wallet app features "Tap to Provision": you can simply tap your NFC credit or debit card on the device to store it on your iPhone.
CarPlay, Matter, Spatial Audio, note search
Apple has integrated support for spatial audio (3D audio) into CarPlay in iOS 18. However, this only works with certain models, not only with Apple Music, but also with supported third-party programs. Spatial audio can also be streamed to AirPlay-compatible devices.
The Home app now allows you to control Matter devices that use Wi-Fi directly and without a home hub (this is still necessary for Thread and BLE hardware). In the future, the Notes app will be able to look for a document inline if you have dragged a PDF into it. The live transcription function in Notes, one of the highlights, is unfortunately only available in English, which Apple confirms in the PDF.
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