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Apple (AAPL) on Monday released its latest, artificial intelligence-capable operating software, iOS 18, Monday.
The tech giant debuted its latest iPhone, smartwatch, and AirPod models last week at its annual event. While hardware tends to take center stage for most consumers, iOS 18 stole the spotlight as the first operating software to support Apple’s first foray into AI, Apple Intelligence.
While the iPhone 16, which became available for pre-order Friday, comes loaded with AI, Apple Intelligence features will roll out as a software update next month. These delays have tempered some of the excitement for the new lineup of smartphones, which saw a yearly drop-off in first-weekend sales compared to the iPhone 15, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Once you upgrade your iPhone, here’s what you can expect to see.
- 📱 Even more customization of your home screen. iOS 18 allows users to move around app icons and widgets to frame their phone wallpaper and deck out their layout on each page. Users will also be able to change the coloring and size of apps and widgets.
- 🎛️ A more powerful Control Center, including adding shortcuts for favorites, and media playback. Users will now even be able to change the controls on the Lock Screen or remove them entirely.
- 📸 The redesigned Photos app is more organized, personalizable, and makes finding old photos easier.
- 💬 Expressive iMessages. That means more emoji reactions and formatting options, like bold, italic, underline, and strikethrough.
- ✉️ Smarter Mail categories, to organize your inbox.
- 👀 Distraction Control on Safari, to help get rid of distracting website pop-ups and banners.
- 🔑 A new Passwords app that takes Keychain to the next level. A place for users to keep their passwords and credentials.
- 🕵️ Privacy, privacy, privacy. Lock and hide apps — and their notifications.
- 🔧 Tweaks to Apple Maps, Apple Pay, Notes, Calendar, Journal, and other apps and features.
While all iPhones from the iPhone XR onward will be able to upgrade to the new iOS, only iPhone 15 Pro models and higher will have access to Apple Intelligence. Although analysts have hoped the AI tools will spark a new era of growth and kick off the “biggest upgrade cycle in” Apple’s history, a minority of consumers opt to upgrade their iPhone for new features. The rest wait until their phone is obsolete, lost or broken.
In the first weekend since its debut, Apple sold about 37 million iPhone 16 smartphones — down nearly 13% from iPhone 15 first-weekend sales a year ago, according to Kuo’s analysis.