iPadOS 18

Your iPhone's Mail inbox may look a little different lately — with faces, initials, brand logos, and even icons like an airplane, shopping bags, storefronts, or a heart with an ECG waveform on it showing up beside emails. That's by design, and if it's not your thing, you can turn it off.

Apple's iOS 18.5 update may be lighter on headline features than its predecessor, but it still brings a few quality-of-life upgrades and behind-the-scenes enhancements that make using your iPhone just a bit smoother. It's a smaller release, but if you dig into the details, you'll find thoughtful refinements across core apps and settings that help simplify tasks and give you more control.

If you're in the US, your iPhone lets you set default apps for emailing, messaging, calling, web browsing, and even contactless payments and access. With iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, Apple also lets you pick a new default translation app.

In an era where cybersecurity threats are constantly evolving, knowing whether a website is secure is more important than ever. Apple has finally addressed a long-standing limitation in Safari for iPhone and iPad, allowing us to view SSL/TLS certificate details in iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 — something we could already do on macOS for over a decade.

Apple introduced a new Ambient Music feature for iPhone and iPad designed to enhance user well-being through curated soundscapes. This option offers four distinct categories — Chill, Productivity, Sleep, and Wellbeing — each providing a curated auditory experience to suit various moods and activities.

The last emoji refresh for iPhone was over a year ago, but thanks to the Unicode 16.0 update, a new wave of fun and expressive characters just hit your Apple devices, bringing fresh glyphs to your keyboard.

Safari has a hidden feature for your iPhone that will change how you share, receive, and interact with links — and barely anyone knows about it. The feature works on the latest iOS software, as well as the latest iPadOS and macOS versions. Still, you won't find any information about it in Safari's app or settings, so it's pretty hidden if you haven't seen it by accident yet.

Apple's iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 updates are here, packed with enhancements that take device intelligence to the next level. New Apple Intelligence features lead the release, offering smarter tools for creativity, productivity, and everyday tasks. However, there are also new features for all iPhone, iPad, and Mac models — not just those supporting Apple Intelligence.

One of the most significant changes to iPhone that came with iOS 18 lets you text Android users in the Messages app with iMessage-like features such as typing indicators, read receipts, large file sharing, high-quality photos and videos, and even emoji reactions.

Apple just released iOS 18.3, its latest software update for iPhone, on January 27 — after 42 days of beta testing. While it's not as feature-packed as the previous updates for iOS 18.2 and iOS 18.1 were, there are still a few important changes you'll want to know about.

Apple Intelligence has followed a predictable path so far, bringing plenty of AI features designed for everyday users. But even with new AI updates in every iOS release since iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, there's still plenty of room for growth — especially in generative AI (gen AI). And Apple seems to be leaning into that, as shown by its recent updates enabling Apple Intelligence by default and expanding language support.

One of the coolest aesthetic features of iMessage is its animated message effects. If you're like many users, you might even have discovered them by accident, where wishing your friend a "Happy Birthday!" or congratulating them on a promotion unexpectedly flooded your screen with balloons or confetti.

Apple Maps keeps getting better and better for all the hikers in the world. With iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia 15, you can access thousands of detailed trail maps within U.S. national parks and topographic views, but you can also create your own walking and hiking routes.

Night Shift, Dark Mode, Reduce White Point, and Zoom's Low Light Filter all help reduce the harmful effects on your body's clock that bright iPhone and iPad screens have at night. But there's another option on iOS and iPadOS that turns your entire display red, and it's useful for so much more than just late-night browsing in bed.

Voice Control has long been a cornerstone of hands-free convenience on iPhones, but for users with unique speech patterns or atypical speech, standard recognition systems often fall short. Apple's solution? Vocal Shortcuts. While this innovation is a game-changer for those with speech differences, it's also a versatile tool for anyone looking to streamline tasks.

If scrolling through your phone during a car ride makes you feel queasy, you're not alone. Motion sickness often occurs when your inner ear senses movement but your eyes focus on something stationary — like your iPhone's screen. Apple's Vehicle Motion Cues feature aims to alleviate this discomfort with subtle, dynamic on-screen visuals that sync with your vehicle's movements.

Growing up, I was told that hard work could get me anything I wanted. But with Apple's Image Playground, I can create almost any illustration or drawing imaginable just by typing or selecting a suggestion. This groundbreaking feature in Apple Intelligence lets you generate images from simple prompts, opening up exciting possibilities for creativity.

Siri has long relied on basic sources like Google and Wikipedia for answers, but with iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, Apple is taking its virtual assistant to a new level by integrating ChatGPT. Now, you can use Siri to generate text and images with ChatGPT — and that's not all. ChatGPT is deeply integrated into Apple Intelligence and goes beyond just Siri.

Drawing in Apple Notes can be fun, but our sketches may not always turn out as polished as we'd like (cue the "my 5-year-old can draw better than that" jokes). Thankfully, Apple's new Image Wand feature in iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 aims to make creating professional-quality visuals a breeze, even if you lack artistic skills.

Apple has yet another new game for Apple News+ subscribers on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. With the latest software updates, Sudoku officially joins Crossword, Crossword Mini, and Quartiles in the News app's Puzzles section.

A new iPhone and iPad setting gives you control over how loud your device's built-in speakers get, which can help you avoid being startled by loud auto-playing videos, waking up someone sleeping nearby, hurting your ears, or degrading your speakers' quality and performance.

Since 2020, you've been free to set your preferred web browser and email app as the default on your iPhone or iPad. Now, four years later, Apple is expanding this flexibility in the U.S., allowing even more apps to be set as defaults for specific actions. Plus, there's now a centralized menu to manage all these default app settings.

If you can't always see what you're typing very well on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you no longer have to adjust the font size for the app or entire system just to read your writing more easily. One of Apple's newer Accessibility features gives you a customizable, magnified view in a floating window so you can see every character with crystal-clear clarity in real time.

Election Day is today, and Apple News is making it easy for you to stay informed with real-time results for the 2024 presidential election through a new Live Activity feature on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.

Apple's official feature list for the Music app on iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 may highlight only one update, but there's much more happening under the surface than that. Whether you subscribe to Apple Music, the latest version brings hidden gems that enhance your up-next queue, playlists, and overall experience.

Apple has revolutionized how we write with the introduction of its new Writing Tools, powered by Apple Intelligence. In beta on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, these tools allow you to select text and use intelligent features to summarize, proofread, or rewrite it until the tone and wording are just right. In a future beta, Writing Tools can even write original content for you.

With Apple's Photos app, you no longer need a third-party tool on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac to blur or pixelate faces in your photos, helping you safeguard identities when sharing online.

Apple's Messages app already has a ton of great features, from audio message transcriptions to message editing and screen effect triggers. But some important new features and changes are included in the latest software updates for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that make Messages even better.

With iOS 18, you get better note-taking capabilities in the revamped Notes app, advanced features like conversions and results history in the more powerful Calculator, and interactive Math Notes, a feature in both apps that's a game changer for students and professionals dealing with complex equations. But Apple didn't forget about Reminders, which has become more than a simple to-do-list app.

Multitasking often seems like a good idea until you find yourself exhausted from all the back and forth between apps. In the latest software updates for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, Apple has streamlined the process for its Calendar and Reminders apps — making it easy to create and manage both calendar events and tasks from a single location.

In the ever-evolving world of podcasting, Apple has once again turned up the volume with new upgrades to its beloved Podcasts app. As the go-to platform for millions of listeners worldwide — thanks to its seamless integration with iOS, iPadOS, and macOS — Apple Podcasts continues to refine how we discover, enjoy, and manage our favorite shows.

There are new features for the Apple TV app on the latest software updates for Apple devices. While some are pretty noticeable and have been promoted by Apple, others are more hidden or coming soon.

At first glance, Apple's Messages app has always seemed pretty basic when it comes to text formatting options. However, there were and still are hidden ways to format text in your messages. But Apple's latest software updates give us even more ways to dress up text in messages, including more text effects.

You could already schedule an email to send on a specific day and time in Apple's Mail app, but that functionality is now also available in the Messages app. What's even better is that scheduled messages sync across your iPhone, iPad, and Mac, something you don't get in the Mail app.

The updated Messages app for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS has creative new ways for you to format and send messages, from standard text formatting to fun text effects. But Apple also includes another way to make your messages appear precisely as you want: more control over how links appear for you and your recipients.

It's no secret that Apple's Notes app supports attachments such as photos, videos, and web links, as well as other file types like PDFs, word documents, spreadsheets, locations on a map, and audio tracks. While images, videos, and document scans are simple to add on an iPhone or iPad, other file types aren't as easy — at least until you know how.