Get your iPhone ready: Apple’s new iOS 18 software update is out later on Monday.
The refreshed version of Apple’s mobile operating system is bursting with new features and improvements.
All told, the update should give you more ways to customise your iPhone’s home screen and settings than ever before.
As usual, it will be available as a free download that you can install over the internet. Here’s when you can grab iOS 18, including its expected release time in the UK and around the world.
We know that iOS 18 is confirmed to land on iPhones today, but what time can you grab it?
iOS 18 will let you personalise your iPhone’s home screen with new app colours
Apple
In the absence of an official launch time, we can take a stab at guessing its ETA based on Apple’s past release schedules.
If history is any guide, iOS 18 will roll out globally at the following times today:
- 6PM in the UK
- 10AM Pacific Time / 1PM Eastern Time
- 7:00 PM in most of Europe
- 10:30 PM in India
- 1:00 AM (September 17) in China and Singapore.
Apple hasn’t confirmed exactly when iOS 18 will land, so we’d recommend keeping an eye on your iPhone settings if you want it straight away.
What about Apple Intelligence?
Apple Intelligence is an entirely new AI-powered system running across its platforms (Apple)
The headline feature Apple has been promoting for iOS 18 is a powerful new suite of generative AI tools, branded as Apple Intelligence. These new tools can create weird and wonderful emojis on the fly, summarise emails and rewrite them, prioritise notifications, and erase people and objects from photos.
There’s just one problem: Apple Intelligence won’t be available with iOS 18 at launch later today. Instead, the new features will gradually roll out in the coming weeks and months as part of future updates, starting with iOS 18.1 in October.
Meanwhile, emoji generation (or Genmoji as Apple calls it) may not arrive until iOS 18.2 in December. And, you may be forced to wait till next Spring to get the new and improved Siri, which boasts better natural language skills (bringing it closer to ChatGPT).
The iPhone 16’s new Visual Intelligence perk, which turns the phone’s camera into a visual search engine, is one of several AI features that won’t be available at launch.
Apple
Still, there are plenty of other, non-AI iOS 18 features that make the update worth downloading. Here’s what you can expect:
Icon and home screen customisation
- Ability to tint app icons with a single colour to match your home screen or preferred shade.
- Option to automatically switch icons to a dark look in dark mode.
- Place apps and widgets anywhere on the home screen, not just rigid grids.
Redesigned Control Centre
- Swipe through different pages of Controls including main, smart home, and media playback.
- Third-party apps can create custom controls in a new controls gallery.
- Rearrange the layout and resize icons for controls.
- Replace the camera and flashlight icons on the lock screen with custom controls.
Lock screen customisation
- Replace flashlight/camera icons at the bottom with other app icons or controls.
- Lock apps behind Face ID for privacy when handing the phone to others.
- Schedule messages to be sent later.
- React with any emoji via tapbacks.
- Text formatting including bold, italics, and underline.
- Animated text effects.
- Send encrypted messages over satellite when there is no mobile signal.
- Single view grid with recent photos at the top.
- Automatic organisation into collections such as trips, people and pets.
- New carousel view with featured/favourite photos.
- Filter out screenshots and view them by month/year.
- Tap to cash for payments between friends and family in the Wallet app.
- Game Mode for higher frame rates and improved AirPods audio on iPhone.
Which iPhones will support iOS 18?
The iPhone 16 will come with iOS 18 pre-installed when it releases on September 20.
Apple
Apple has confirmed that iOS 18 can be downloaded on the following iPhone models:
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 Pro
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone XR
- iPhone SE (second generation or later).
Alongside iOS 18, Apple has also announced that new software updates for iPad, Macs, and Apple Watch devices will be released today (September 16).
iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia and watchOS 11 should all be available at the same time (6pm in the UK).
This is a departure from Apple’s usual practice, as Mac software updates typically came a week after iPhone and iPad in previous years.