Apple announced a host of new features and updates on stage during its keynote at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this week, including updates to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, VisionOS, and the introduction of Apple Intelligence.
Now that people are using the developer betas and exploring the event sessions, more features that were not announced on stage are appearing. Here is a non-exhaustive list of those features.
Messenger service
- Apple didn’t mention Rich Messaging Service (RCS) support on stage, but briefly showed off the feature in a tile while showing the iOS feature collage. RCS support means Android users will be able to send and receive high-quality media while chatting with their friends using Apple products. RCS will also allow you to write indicators and read receipts. However, all RCS-enabled messages will still be green bubbles, so the battle is not over.
- Another messaging-related update is that in iOS 18, you can see who tapbacked which emoji.
- Plus, you can add text effects to emojis while sending them.
Design
- Users have the option to hide the text on the icons by making them larger through the customization menu.
- Apple has said it will provide an API to developers to customize app icon tones.
- iOS 18 allows users to swap lock screen action buttons. Through API-based integrations, developers can now get users to access your camera apps directly from the lock screen – in a way, making them the default camera app.
- Safari has a user interface of creating new tab groups when you swipe right from the tab switching screen.
- A device that requests Bluetooth permission has a new user interface that displays the map with the device’s current location.
- Apple launched the new Control Center with a multi-page interface and better customization. On top of that, the company added a useful button to turn off the device directly. Therefore, users do not have to long press the power + volume button.
- There’s a new Apps menu in Settings, which replaces all the apps listed on the main page.
- Search in settings now shows Spotlight-style suggestions.
- Apple has said there will be mobile device management (MDM) controls for administrators to disable AI-powered features like ChatGPT and Math Notes.
- The iCloud page in settings has a new design.
Language and input
- Multilingual keyboards are a new feature now. This means you can type in multiple scripts and languages without switching keyboards.
- Live Text now supports Arabic.
- Apple is adding online completions in French and Spanish.
- The company added Hindi as a language option in the translation app.
Utility
- The Weather app has new Home and Work location settings.
- The Weather app displays a visual graph of actual temperatures versus “sense” temperatures. There is also a visual indicator of how much “Feels” makes a difference to the actual temperature in the main app.
- The Voice Memo app will allow you to record in stereo.
- You can now define the recommended upload limit in settings.
- The new update will tell you if you are connected to a trickle charger.
- The calendar now has a list and multi-day view to easily give you an idea about upcoming events.
- You can pinch to zoom on the monthly view in the Calendar app and see your schedule at a glance.
- The Notes app finally lets you assign different colors to text.
- You can now share Wi-Fi credentials as a QR code through the new password app.
Photos
- The Photos app now has an album of wallpaper suggestions.
- There are new types of utilities in the Photos app, including receipts, handwriting, QR codes, documents, and map illustrations. Along with this, there are other categories like Recently Viewed, Recently Edited, and Recently Shared.
- The photo edit button has been moved to the bottom bar from the top right.
Accessibility
- iOS 18 now has motion cues with dots on the screen to reduce motion sickness while sitting in a vehicle.
- The new update also allows people to set up Eye Tracking so they can control devices using eye movement.
- iOS 18 allows you to define voice shortcuts. That means that when you say a custom phrase, your iPhone will perform an action related to it. For example, you can set a phrase to go to the home screen, open the camera, activate a shortcut, or invoke a Siri request.
- Additionally, you can define sound actions via the touch menu to assign actions to sounds such as Click, Cluck, Eh, La, oo, and Sh.
- iOS 18 will allow users to experience music through haptic sensations such as touches, textures, and refined vibrations that match the audio of the track.
This is probably just a set of features that people who used the beta in the early days, including us, have found. We will continue to update this story as more features become available.
If you would like to highlight some features found in the developer beta versions of the new Apple platform updates, you can contact this reporter at im@ivanmehta.com.
