I can’t be alone in this: when Apple introduced Face ID with the iPhone X in 2017, it changed how you turned the phone off and it drove me nuts. Now, things have just got a little easier. In iOS 18, in developer preview now and reaching general release this September, there’s a change.
A subtle change coming to the iPhone with iOS 18.
Before the iPhone X, all iPhones had a Home button. To this day, all iPhones with the front-mounted button, are turned off just by pressing what Apple calls the side button and everyone else calls the power button. Press, wait for the screen to show a wide ellipse that says “slide to power off,” slide it and you’re done.
Years of muscle memory were undone when the new system arrived. On Face ID iPhones, you need to press and hold the side button plus either the volume up or volume down button on the other side of the iPhone. In due course, the slider appears and you slide that to slide it off.
I cannot tell you how much this tiny change foxed me—not least because I was suddenly getting used to swiping up on the display instead of pressing the Home button to get back to the first page of apps. It was a double whammy.
Of course, I got used to it, and I admit it’s a lot easier to achieve than some other phones which require you to press the side button and a volume button when they’re both on the same side. But still.
So, while I’d love to tell you that Apple has switched the system back—it hasn’t—but it has introduced a change to the Control Center screen.
As you’ll know, this is the page of controls which appear when you swipe down the screen from the top right. This maneuver works from any screen, including the lock screen.
The useful little power icon in the top right corner of Control Center in iOS 18.
With iOS 18, a tiny power button has appeared onscreen, deep in the top right corner from which you’ve just swiped. Tap this and the power slider appears instantly. Not perfect, but much better, and it feels quicker, too.
Note that with this mechanism, the slider is all that appears apart from the Cancel button, whereas with the two-sided button approach adds two more options, Medical ID and Emergency Call.
Oh, and one more thing, as they say. The first Face ID iPhone, the iPhone X, is not compatible with iOS 18. So, it’ll never get this neat little upgrade. That’s ironic.