With every new level launch of iOS 18 (like iOS 18.4), Apple sprinkles in a brand new hidden characteristic or two so that you can discover in your iPhone.
You know all about turning your sketches into extremely detailed drawings, customizing your iPhone’s residence display, creating your emoji, and all the brand new Apple Intelligence and Visual Intelligence options, however what’s subsequent to find in iOS 18.4 that nobody is speaking about?
Lucky for you, there’s a lot. Plenty of recent Apple settings aren’t publicized, so that they keep below the radar, however that does not imply they’re unimportant.
I’ve chosen a number of of my favourite hidden iOS 18.4 options it’s best to find out about.
For extra, listed here are eight iOS 18 settings you wish to change straight away, how you can again up your iPhone the right manner and how you can repair these three annoying iOS 18 settings.
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Restart your iPhone from the brand new management heart
You do not must press any bodily buttons to restart your iPhone when you’re working iOS 18. The redesigned management heart options all of the basic controls you are used to, like brightness, quantity, orientation, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, however there are a number of new controls, together with one to restart your iPhone.
All you must do is swipe down from the top-right of your iPhone and press and maintain down on the brand new energy button within the top-right of the management heart. You cannot simply faucet it; you must maintain it down for a second or so, after which the slider to energy off your iPhone will seem.
To flip your iPhone again on, you will nonetheless must press and maintain the bodily aspect button.
On iOS 17 and earlier, the one approach to restart your iPhone is to press and maintain both quantity button and the aspect button.
Use a QR code to share your Wi-Fi password
There are a number of methods you may share a Wi-Fi community and password with folks by way of your iPhone, and there is a new approach to do it on iOS 18. Using a QR code fills in a number of gaps for tactics to rapidly share your Wi-Fi data:
- Share with a number of folks without delay. Instead of individually sending out your Wi-Fi password, you may have everybody scan the QR code out of your cellphone.
- Share with somebody not saved as your contact. Nearby share for Wi-Fi does not work until that individual is in your contacts.
- Share with somebody who has Android. Nearby share and AirDrop do not work with Android units.
Watch this: 11 Hidden Features in iOS 18
So when you meet any of these eventualities and you do not wish to textual content the Wi-Fi password to them, you should use the QR code. Go to the brand new Passwords app, go to the Wi-Fi part, faucet on the community you wish to share after which hit Show Network QR Code. If the opposite individual scans the QR code with their digital camera, they’re going to be related to the Wi-Fi community.
This solely works for Wi-Fi passwords, not common passwords.
Adjust the beam width of your flashlight
The flashlight on the iPhone is getting a giant improve. You’ve lengthy been in a position to change the depth of the flashlight, however on iOS 18 now you can additionally modify the beam width of the sunshine, so long as you have got a appropriate mannequin. You can go vast, to cowl extra space with much less mild, or go slim, to make use of extra intense mild over much less space, and in all places in between. It’s a enjoyable characteristic to mess around with for lighting folks for photographs.
To use the brand new characteristic, flip in your flashlight (use the lock display or management heart), and a brand new person interface will seem on the dynamic island. You can change the sunshine depth by swiping up and down, however to vary the beam width, you will must swipe left and proper. If you faucet wherever within the dynamic island, you may flip the flashlight on and off.
A large flashlight beam (left) and a slim beam.
Note: This characteristic solely works on iPhone fashions with the dynamic island, together with the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 sequence and iPhone 16 sequence.
Quickly flip off AI notification summaries for sure apps out of your lock display
In iOS 18.1, Apple launched notification summaries — Apple Intelligence-powered notifications that summarize your notifications from a single app. If you have got a number of unread notifications from an app like Gmail or Amazon, you will see an italicized abstract seem in your lock display, condensing all of them into a number of sentences you may rapidly digest.
Unfortunately, notification summaries do not all the time work very effectively, particularly for textual content messages and information apps. In reality, as of iOS 18.3, notification summaries are disabled for all information apps throughout your system, just like the Apple News and CNET app. But if you wish to disable the characteristic for different apps, you may simply accomplish that with out even unlocking your cellphone.
From your lock display, discover a notification abstract for an app you need the characteristic disabled for and swipe left on the notification. Tap on Options after which hit “Turn Off “App Name” Summaries to cease notification summaries for that app. You’ll proceed to obtain notifications, they’re going to simply be particular person, such as you’re used to.
You can see that notification summaries are italicized on iOS 18.3
Share your AirTag with different folks
An AirTag means that you can simply monitor your baggage once you’re touring or your keys once they’re misplaced, however typically you may want different folks to additionally have the ability to monitor your AirTag, particularly when you’re on a household trip or weekend getaway together with your associate. With iOS 18, now you can share any AirTag you have got with as much as six folks.
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To do that, go into the Find My app and discover the AirTag you wish to share. Go into the AirTag, hit Add Person below Share AirTag and select a contact, or a number of. Finally faucet Share within the top-right and that individual will then have to simply accept your invitation. Once they do, they’re going to have the ability to monitor your AirTag from their Apple system.
Anyone that’s monitoring the AirTag will not be notified when it is close to them.
Customize your iPhone’s charging restrict to enhance the battery’s lifespan
Your iPhone already has a characteristic that is designed to enhance your battery’s lifespan. Optimized Battery Charging learns your every day charging routine to cut back the time your cellphone is totally charged, delaying charging previous 80% when you sleep after which charging to 100% solely once you want it.
However, if you wish to delay your iPhone’s battery lifespan much more, you may manually change your charging choice to wherever from 80% to 100%, in order that your iPhone by no means totally costs. Go to Settings > Battery > Charging and select an possibility.
Optimized Battery Charging disables everytime you select an possibility below 100%, which simply implies that your cellphone will not mechanically wait to complete charging to 100%, as a result of it might’t.
If you select something decrease than 100%, that is the best share your battery will cost to. The advantage of that’s that lithium-ion batteries, just like the one in your iPhone, degrade quicker when persistently charged to 100%, so holding the cost decrease reduces stress on the battery.
Transcribe Voice Memos and make them searchable
The Voice Memos app is extremely handy for capturing concepts or music snippets, however they’ve all the time been obfuscated. You can provide them a descriptive title, however that does not assist once you wish to discover that one memo you recorded that incorporates the phrase “porcupine.” In iOS 18, the app can create transcriptions of your voice memos and seek for phrases that had been beforehand accessible solely as audio waveforms.
In the Voice Memos app, faucet one among your memos to disclose its controls after which faucet the Edit Recording button, which seems like a waveform. Or, faucet the three-dots button to the proper of a memo and select Edit Recording.
Next, faucet the Transcribe button to create the transcription (or view the textual content if it is already been transcribed). Tap Done.
Take an current voice memo (left) and create a transcript of the recording (proper).
Now, once you use the Search subject, the app seems by the transcripts along with the titles for outcomes. The textual content can be accessible all through iOS. When you carry out a search from the house display, you will see Voice Memos as a class with the memos that embody the search time period (it’s possible you’ll must faucet Show More Results to disclose it).
With transcripts made, voice memos are extra simply searchable.
Hide app labels for a cleaner residence display
Is your house display feeling a little bit too cluttered? If so, this new characteristic may assist. Now with iOS 18, you may do away with app labels or the names of the apps that you just see beneath every app icon on your house display. If you may acknowledge an app from simply the icon, who wants the label?
On your house display, press and maintain down on any clean house, till you enter jiggle mode, after which hit Edit > Customize. A menu will seem on the backside of the display; select the Large possibility, which is able to make your app icons barely bigger and take away the app labels.
This will even take away the app labels from the folders within the App Library.
Use AI to get precedence notifications in your lock display
As lengthy as you have got an Apple Intelligence-supported cellphone, you may allow a brand new characteristic to get notifications that AI thinks could also be essential in a separate part in your lock display. The prioritized notifications seem on the prime of your notification stack, glowing in coloration.
To allow Priority Notifications, go to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications and toggle the characteristic on. Notifications like missed calls, textual content messages and essential emails will refill this part, in addition to notifications from third-party apps that you just use continuously.
You’ll see missed calls, textual content messages and notifications out of your most used apps on this new Priority Notifications part on the prime of your lock display.
Change an app to a widget with out leaving the house display
Not each iOS app has a widget to your residence display, but when it does, you need not dig by the widget edit web page to seek out it. If you are working iOS 18, and there is an app that you just wish to flip right into a widget, you are able to do so in a short time proper from your house display.
On a supported app, press and maintain down on the icon on your house display to deliver up the short actions menu. If the app has a widget, you will see an app icon subsequent to a wide range of widget icons (as much as three). Tap on any of the widget icons to vary the app to a widget. If you wish to return from the widget to the app, go to the short motion menu and hit the app icon on the left.
This solely works for apps which have widgets on iOS.
Secretly establish songs utilizing the Action Button
No lie, it is satisfying when somebody asks, “What music is that this?” to have the ability to activate Music Recognition on the iPhone and get a solution rapidly. To get the reply means very noticeably asking Siri to run Shazam or activate Music Recognition within the management heart. Wouldn’t or not it’s enjoyable to let your folks suppose you have been blessed with an encyclopedic data of pop music?
In iOS 18, you may come shut utilizing the Action Button. Go to Settings > Action Button and swipe by the choices till Recognize Music is chosen.
Assign the Recognize Music characteristic to the Action Button after which establish songs by simply holding the button.
To make it work, simply press and maintain the Action Button for a few seconds. Shazam seems on the dynamic island to hearken to what’s taking part in and establish the music. If you are sneaky about activating Shazam and peeking at your cellphone, nobody must know you bought some assist from a supercomputer within the cloud.
Find photographs with handwriting and illustrations within the Photos app
Quite a bit is altering within the Photos app in iOS 18, from the way in which issues are organized to the flexibility to make use of generative AI to take away objects in photographs. Apple has additionally tucked a number of surprises into the app that can assist you kind by your library.
Scroll down previous the primary library itself to view classes similar to People and Pets and Memories till you attain Utilities. Tap it to view the complete record — however observe {that a} new characteristic of this interface is the flexibility to swipe left to view further panels. Prior to iOS 18, Utilities included choices to view hidden, not too long ago deleted and duplicate photographs.
Now, it contains many extra choices. Tap Handwriting to view photographs with handwriting in them. Looking for photographs which can be illustrations and never pictures? Tap Illustrations (though in our testing this appears to seize plenty of screenshots too).
View photographs that comprise handwriting in your Photos library in iOS 18.
Share a selected part of a podcast
Did the hosts of your favourite podcast say one thing particularly humorous or considerate that you just wish to share with somebody? In the Podcasts app in iOS 18, you may ship an episode to a good friend with the playback superior to that second — however the functionality is not straightforward to seek out.
Tap the Now Playing bar within the app on the backside of the display to view the playback controls and pause the episode. Use the progress bar to return to the beginning of the part you wish to share.
Next, faucet the More (…) button and select Share Episode. In the sharing choices that seem, faucet From Start under the episode title, after which choose From [the current time]. Tap Done.
Start by sharing the episode itself.
Lastly, select the strategy of sharing, similar to by way of Messages or Mail. When the recipient receives the shared episode and opens it within the Podcasts app, they’re going to see the choice to Play from [the time].
Specify that the shared episode begins on the time you selected.
