Customize Your Home Screen
Today, technological devices adorn all aspects of our everyday lives. The iOS mobile operating system not only powers Apple’s iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches, but has also become a platform for innovations themselves. The most recent version, iOS 18, was previewed in June 2023 and released in September. Its new features trend heavily toward personalization, with a number of new tools that, if you so choose, can help you make your iPhone more your own and less like anyone else’s.
A host of new features fill the iOS 18 release—capabilities that will surely invigorate Apple’s mobile operating system. For one, users can now completely rearrange their home screen icons, an addition that’s already generating a lot of buzz. Apple’s new iOS 18 software gives users even more opportunities to make their iPhones a better “them.” Several previously hidden methods of personalization are now the likes of what we’ve never seen before, even from iOS.
Enhance Your Lock Screen Functionality
Several previously hidden methods of personalization are now the likes of what we’ve never seen before, even from iOS. This includes radically changed app icons and a level of customization to the new lock screen shortcuts that feels not merely derivative of Google’s offerings but superior to them.
With iOS 18, the lock screen is not just a static display; it becomes a dynamic part of your user experience, allowing for a more tailored interaction with your device.
Express Yourself with New Messaging Features
Another major change is in the Messages app, which has always been a bit of a “boring” app. It is now RCS-compatible for blue and green bubble users. This means read receipts and typing indicators for users on both platforms—like we’re moving toward a more unified messaging experience.
The iMessage upgrade boldly declares support for RCS messaging, a long-awaited feature aimed at better Android integration. With such an upgrade also comes the requisite security that has, fortunately, become a staple of the mobile OS landscape: app lockers, smart home limited to certain devices, and more Wi-Fi QR codes than before.
Unlock New Calculator Capabilities
App security is paramount to user privacy, and this is evident in the way Apple has implemented it in their ecosystem. At its core, a mobile device is just a pocket-sized computer. Inside this computer lies a hard drive where all your personal stuff is stored and a processor that’s always working — even when the device itself appears to be “asleep.”
When it comes to including mechanisms that secure sensitive apps, Apple is obviously 100% on board with doing whatever it takes to have a locked-down platform. In a world where breaches of this data are the rule rather than the exception, Apple is making a point to its users, and to everyone else, of just how solid this platform is.
To conclude, iOS 18 is not merely an update; it is an important change in the ways we use technology to interact with the world. This change has four main pillars: customization, communication, security, and accessibility. Each pillar helps move Apple forward in what it wants to redefine: the smartphone experience.
Think about these changes not just in the context of iOS and iPhones but in the context of everything Apple does and how that shapes the nature of the digital world we live in. Can Apple help us rethink this world? Can it help us rethink this world in a way that does not just work for the company but also works for us as users and citizens? Knowing all the ways that we can use this increasingly powerful device we’ve got, is carving out a smartphone identity for ourselves something we can aspire to?