iPhone users had to wait over 17 years for this home screen revolution!
After Apple announced in early June introduced the new version of its iPhone operating system iOSthe new Apple AI dominated the headlines. But in addition to this high-tech feature, the iPhone iOS 18 also brings a relatively simple innovation that could make many iPhone users even happier: finally more freedom in designing the home screen.
BILD has already downloaded an early beta version of iOS 18 and lists the most exciting new features apart from Apple AI, because it is not yet included in this test version of the operating system.
The homescreen revolution
Small change, big impact: It is finally possible to arrange the app icons freely on the home screen on the iPhone. You can arrange them freely on an invisible grid and thus make a background photo more visible, for example.
And: App icons can now be colored uniformly. You can choose one color per side of the home screen.
App icons can be colored as desired. In addition, you can choose between two icon sizes in iOS 18
The drilled out control center
The control center also has more freedom: it now consists of several pages that you can scroll through vertically. First you see your favorite control elements, then another page with settings. In third place is the media control, then the smart home control and finally everything to do with connectivity, i.e. WiFi, AirDrop, etc.
The individual control elements can not only be arranged freely, but also adjusted in size as required
This is significantly more space that can be filled as desired, because the control elements can now be freely arranged and resized. The order mentioned above is therefore only a suggestion from Applethat any user can change.
Practical: You can now also freely assign the two control elements on the lock screen
More overview in the Photos app
The new Photos app in iOS 18 is much tidier. The four tabs at the bottom of the app have disappeared. Instead, you are greeted directly by the most recently taken photos.
If you scroll down, you get to photo summaries from the last few days, recognized people and pets, and the automatically generated photo reviews. If you scroll up, you go through your photo library chronologically. The app is much more intuitive and more convenient. For example, the button for editing photos has moved down and is now much easier to reach.
A new look for the Photos app
Hide and lock apps
If you let go of your iPhone from time to time, you will be pleased with this feature: In iOS 18, it is possible to lock an app using Face ID or a code.
And if that's not enough, you can even hide it completely: It will then no longer appear in searches and notifications will no longer be delivered. You will then only find the app in the app library. There it is in a folder protected by Face ID.
Apps can be completely hidden in iOS18
One place for all passwords
In addition to passwords, the app can also manage Wi-Fi access or confirmation codes
The iPhone was already able to store its users' passwords, but these were cumbersomely managed in the keychain within the iPhone's settings.
There is now a dedicated password app that collects your login data and fills it in automatically when needed. This means it works in a similar way to popular password managers like 1Password or Dashlane.