Apple executives always describe new hardware and software as the “best” or “biggest” ever, but the delivery doesn’t usually live up to the hype (see last year's iPads). However, iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 might be deserving of a few of those adjectives. The latest version of the operating system has the usual degree of year-over-year quality-of-life improvements, but Apple Intelligence steals the limelight.
This is Apple's implementation of artificial intelligence-powered tasks that have been sweeping through the tech industry over the past few years. Even Siri got an overdue upgrade—the biggest since the voice assistant’s debut 13 years ago. Here are all the new iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 features, how to download the current version, and what exactly you’ll experience with Apple Intelligence.
Updated January 2025: We've added new details about iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.
What Is Apple Intelligence?
Every major tech company has been integrating artificial intelligence into its hardware and software, from Google to Samsung to Microsoft, and now it's Apple's turn. Apple Intelligence is the term you'll see the company throw around over the next few years, and it powers many of the new AI features in its devices.
It's powered by Apple's large language models (partly trained through data from the public web, according to Axios’ Ina Fried). It requires Apple silicon, the company's bespoke chips that have a hybrid architecture designed to run AI tasks. Even though the devices Apple Intelligence runs on are capable of the on-device processing needed to complete AI tasks, sometimes the task is too big and needs to be sent off to the cloud. When a task requires more processing, it'll be sent to a secure data center stacked with computers that also run Apple silicon. While this method of computing is typically less private, Apple claims that its Private Cloud Compute platform focuses on ensuring data privacy for each user. Only data relevant to your query is sent to these servers, and the data is only used for your requests and never stored.
Before you get too excited, Apple Intelligence is not available for every device that supports iOS 18. It's only supported on select processors (and languages).
What exactly is Apple Intelligence? Apple breaks down its key capabilities into three buckets: Language, Images, and Action.
Throughout Apple's hardware and software, you'll find new writing tools that draw on the power of generative AI to assist your writing. This includes Rewrite, which can help change the tone of your text to sound more friendly or more professional (like in an email), and Proofread, which more or less does what the name suggests. You can also summarize selected text with a tap.
These text-based improvements go past writing. It also powers Priority notifications, which appear at the top of your notification list and summarize it so you get a more digestible summary at a glance. Similarly, the Mail app will see Priority messages, which means important emails will float to the top of your inbox. You can also get summaries of long emails, and a Smart Reply function lets you quickly respond to emails (even answers to multiple questions posed in an email), not unlike what's available in Gmail.
For now, however, Apple has paused notification summaries for news apps following multiple instances where the feature failed to summarize articles accurately. Notifications summarized by Apple Intelligence will now appear as italicized text.
In the Notes, Voice Memos, and Phone app, you can hit the record button (yes, even on a call) to get an audio recording with a transcript, and Apple Intelligence can create a summary of that transcript. Apple says that in states that require two-party consent for recordings, the person on the other end of the line will be made aware that the call is being recorded.
Finally, there's a new Focus mode called Reduce Interruptions that can understand your personal context, so while it hides incoming stuff that could distract you, it knows enough about what you've got going on to allow a text from your babysitter to come through.
The Apple Intelligence image features largely revolve around generating new images through artificial intelligence. Much of this happens in Image Playground, an experience baked into other apps (though it also exists as a stand-alone app). You can generate images based on a description, suggested concepts, and even from people in your Photos library. You have control over the style, and it can be tweaked to match whatever's happening in the app you're using it in.
Genmoji just might be the most anticipated feature out of everything Apple has announced. It lets you generate emojis directly from the keyboard with text prompts. You can also pull a person's photo from your Photos library to make an emoji based on their looks. You'll have to provide a description first, but then you can adjust the description until it suits what you are going for.
Image Wand is another image generation system that works specifically in the Notes app. With your finger or Apple Pencil, you can circle a sketch to have Apple Intelligence create something that looks more refined, but you can also circle empty space, and it will generate an image based on the surrounding text. It's an easy way to add more visual variety to your notes.
The Photos app is getting a few AI features. You can make a Memory Movie by entering a description like “All the desserts I ate during the summer last year, set to a pop song,” and Apple's AI will find the right images and video, put it to a song, and craft a shareable movie out of it. It'll also be easier to search for specific photos—just describe what you want and it'll find it, even moments in video clips (similar to Google's Ask Photos feature). Lastly, you can erase unwanted objects in the background of your photos with the new Clean Up tool in the photo editor—exactly like Magic Eraser on Pixel phones and Samsung's Object Eraser.
The final part of Apple Intelligence is arguably one that might be used the most often, and it involves Siri. The assistant has a new look—when activated, the edges of the screen will glow—and you can now type your requests to Siri instead of using your voice (something you've been able to do with Google Assistant for several years).
The idea is you'll be able to speak more naturally with Siri, and the assistant will be able to understand context better than ever before. You can say, “Play the podcast my wife sent me the other day,” and Siri will be able to pull it up. That kind of thing.
Siri can also help explain how to do certain functions on your phone if you're not sure (maybe Samsung was onto something with Bixby). And if you make a mistake mid-sentence, there's no need to start over again. Siri will be able to understand your slipup, and it remembers the context of your previous query, so you won't need to repeat things.
Much like how Google's Gemini is drawing on context based on what's happening on the screen, Siri can now understand what is on the screen when you activate it, so if someone texts you an address, you can activate Siri and ask it to add the address to the person's contact card. All of this is expected to work in first- and third-party apps.
Apple Intelligence still needs a boost on some occasions, so Apple has tapped OpenAI's ChatGPT to power them. The company says it's using the GPT-4o model, and you are in control of when Siri uses ChatGPT. This powers features such as when you ask about the subject of a photo or a document (like scanning a hundred-page PDF), and Compose, which lets you generate original images and text from a query. All of these GPT features are free with no account required, though if you already are a subscriber, you can link your account and access paid features.
Then there's Apple's version of Google Lens, dubbed Visual Intelligence. This is where the new Camera Control button comes into play on the iPhone 16 range. Press and hold it and it will open the camera viewfinder, but instead of taking a photo, you can “Ask” ChatGPT to explain what you're looking at or search it through Google. You can use this to figure out who that actor is on a movie poster, find out the type of flower in front of you, or glean more information about a landmark. You can also use the feature to add a Calendar event when scanning a flyer.
Top iOS 18 Features
OK, onto the more traditional software features. I've collected the top features in iOS 18 below, but there are tons of smaller changes. You can view the full list directly from Apple.
For the first time, you can arrange your apps and widgets however you'd like (just like on Android). Say goodbye to the fixed list of grids Apple has forced on us for nearly two decades. You can make further personalization to the app icons as well, tuning them to a specific color to match or complement your wallpaper, and even convert them to dark mode. You can make these apps and widgets look larger too.
Control Center, the hub that appears when you swipe down on the right edge of the iPhone, is now more customizable. There are now tabs within the Control Center, and you can scroll through them with one continuous swipe on the home screen. These include your favorites—the most important things you want accessible in the Control Center—media playback and even smart home controls.
You can customize the size and layout of everything in Control Center, and this extends to the lock screen controls—you can switch out the two icons at the bottom of your iPhone's lock screen to something more helpful. Expect new controls from third-party apps.
You can finally hide apps to prevent anyone from snooping, or you can lock the app so that it asks for a passcode or biometric authentication every time it's launched. The information from this app will be hidden throughout the system, even in notifications and searches. Google debuted a similar new feature called Private Space in Android 15.
Apple's Photos app got a huge redesign in iOS 18. Now, you have a photo grid at the top, and below, you can swipe through different collections, such as Recent Days, Trips, and People & Pets. This upgrade is tied with several other improvements powered by Apple Intelligence, like Clean Up, which can erase unwanted objects in the background of your photos, and the ability to find any image easily via search.
Arguably one of the most anticipated announcements from Apple ended up as a tiny footnote amid the company's announcements. RCS is Rich Communication Services, the texting standard that followed SMS/MMS. Android phones have supported RCS for several years, allowing for an upgraded texting experience that pulls features from instant messaging apps, like typing indicators, read receipts, and improved photo and video quality. However, none of this works when an Android user texts an iPhone (or vice versa) because Apple didn't support RCS and used the older SMS standard.
That's changing now, “RCS messages bring richer media and deliver and read receipts for those who don't use iMessage," according to Apple's marketing materials. These texts will still appear green (instead of blue when you text fellow iPhone owners via iMessage), but it might finally spell the end of the broken texting experience that has caused so many people strife.
If you have an iPhone 14 or newer, you can take advantage of texting via satellite when you don't have Wi-Fi or a cellular connection (like when you're on a plane). Apple says all of these iMessages sent via satellite are end-to-end encrypted.
The Messages app itself is getting a few new perks too. You can add animated effects to any letter, word, or phrase—these are suggested as you type. And Apple's Tapback feature (emoji reactions) now works with any emoji or sticker. Most importantly, you can now schedule texts and send them at a specific time, a standard texting feature available in most messaging apps.
It might be time to say goodbye to your password manager—at least, Apple would be thrilled if you did. The company's new native Passwords app supports end-to-end encryption and is about to become the way to find your passwords and ID verification codes on Apple devices. This app will work across all of Apple's hardware and even Windows (via the iCloud for Windows app). If you enable AutoFill, Apple says your passwords will automatically populate in the app.
This is technically a feature in macOS Sequoia, but you can access your iPhone's screen via the iPhone Mirroring app in the macOS Dock. You can completely use your Mac keyboard and trackpad to interact with the iPhone, even have audio from it play onto your Mac's speakers. It even supports drag and drop, so you can pull files from your virtual iPhone screen into your Mac. If you have an iPhone-specific notification, click on it from your Mac and it will launch your mirrored iPhone, allowing you to act on it without having to pick up your device. During all of this, your iPhone stays locked.
Top iPadOS 18 Features
It's worth noting many of these iPad features are also available on iOS 18 and vice versa: Almost all the iOS 18 features above are also available on your iPad. Sadly, not much in iPadOS 18 makes the iPad more like a computer, but many of these additions are much appreciated.
Now you don't have to feel bad about your chicken-scratch handwriting. Apple's Smart Script “re-creates” your handwriting, so you can scribble down as fast as you can and the system will refine it to be more legible. It can do all of this while apparently still keeping your handwriting style intact. Also, if you paste typed text into a note that's been handwritten, it'll be converted to your handwriting. You can also scratch off text to erase it.
The Calculator app is now finally available on the iPad, though it's far from basic. Apple has injected a feature called Math Notes with Apple Pencil. This lets you write equations and the app will compute and solve it as soon as you draw an equals sign. It can solve all the same functions as a scientific calculator. You can tap the equals sign twice to repeat the most recent mathematical function.
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