Long-awaited iOS 18 finally coming to millions of iPhones TODAY – with 5 new features including ‘biggest redesign ever’
APPLE is finally releasing its free iOS 18 upgrade to millions of iPhones today.
The mega update introduces a wave of new features, including the ability to customise your iPhone like never before, new apps – and a way to hide embarrassing apps you don’t want people to know about.
Apple has traditionally released new versions of iOS at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET so fans have their calendars marked at these times.
Before you can install iOS 18, make sure your iPhone is ready by following our important tips here.
iOS 18 is one of the most radical overhauls Apple has made to the iPhone operating system.
The firm’s Apple Intelligence AI tools won’t quite be ready today but there will be plenty to sink your teeth into below before that.
Personalise your iPhone
Apple is giving users a lot more freedom to decide how their iPhone looks, in a similar way to Android.
You can finally place app icons anywhere, not just a row starting from the top or stuck to the usual rigid grid system.
And if you want a nice consistent theme, you can add colour hints for app icons and folders too.
Apple is making the Control Centre more customisable, with the ability to add groups and change how they look.
Users can add controls to their lock screen as well.
Revamped Photos app
The Photos app on your iPhone will look quite different once iOS 18 is installed, which Apple has called the “biggest redesign ever”.
Snaps will be organised better than before, with topics like Recent Days, Trips and People & Pets in the Collections section.
You can pin collections that are more important to you as well so you have faster access to them.
Messaging improvements
Apple has done some work on the messaging app.
There are more reactions beyond the limited six that were available before.
You can also add animated effects to any letter, word, phrase or emoji in the Messages app.
Elsewhere, you can even schedule messages to be sent at a certain time of your choosing.
Apple has finally added support for RCS (Rich Communication Services) which means you can send or receive photos, videos and see read receipts from friends with an Android device.
Passwords app
Apple is releasing a brand new app for passwords on iPhone.
This will keep all your passwords securely in one place, as well as important security alerts.
Better still, the passwords app can be used across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision Pro, and Windows, so you can access them easily on plenty of devices.
Hide embarrassing apps
Don’t want people to see you’re using a dating app or got a niche interest you don’t want family to know about?
iOS 18 will finally allow users to hide apps in a private folder.
The only way to unlock this folder is using Face ID or a passcode.
Will my iPhone receive iOS 18?
Analysis by Jamie Harris, Assistant Technology and Science Editor
Apple is pretty good at making sure previous iPhones receive iOS updates and as many new features as possible.
Here is the full list of iPhones that are eligible for iOS 18:
- iPhone SE (2nd generation)
- iPhone SE (3rd generation)
- iPhone XR
- iPhone XS
- iPhone XS Max
- iPhone 11
- iPhone 11 Pro
- iPhone 11 Pro Max
- iPhone 12
- iPhone 12 mini
- iPhone 12 Pro
- iPhone 12 Pro Max
- iPhone 13
- iPhone 13 mini
- iPhone 13 Pro
- iPhone 13 Pro Max
- iPhone 14
- iPhone 14 Plus
- iPhone 14 Pro
- iPhone 14 Pro Max
- iPhone 15
- iPhone 15 Plus
- iPhone 15 Pro
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
If your model isn’t on the list, sadly you can’t access the new features listed above.
But Apple will continue to roll out fixes for iOS 17 for a while yet.