Apple Intelligence is certainly the headliner with regards to iOS 18.2, the newest replace to Apple’s iPhone software program. But the record of latest options would not finish with Image Playground, Genmoji and any of the opposite AI-powered instruments that iOS 18.2 brings to the desk.
And that is excellent news for many iPhone house owners who both have not upgraded to the most recent iPhone 16 fashions or personal an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max. Those are the one iPhones that may run Apple Intelligence, making further AI capabilities irrelevant to different iPhone house owners. In distinction, practically the entire remaining iOS 18.2 enhancements profit any iPhone that helps the iOS 18 replace — which incorporates units courting again to the iPhone XR and XS fashions launched in 2018. (For the file, there are just a few iPhone 16-specific options in iOS 18.2, which we speak about later.)
We’ve detailed all of the at the moment out there Apple Intelligence options introduced in regards to the iOS 18.2 replace this month in addition to the iOS 18.1 launch on the finish of October. Here’s a take a look at the remainder of the iOS 18.2 enhancements and additions geared toward your iPhone.
iOS 18.2 Photos
Outside of Apple Intelligence, Photos most likely sees the largest batch of adjustments in iOS 18.2, with probably the most important ones supplying you with expanded management over the right way to customise the redesigned pictures app. I’ve proven you the right way to use lots of the new iOS 18.2 options in Photos, together with deleting pictures from the Recently Viewed and Recently Shared folders, turning off auto-looping on video playback and re-ordering your albums so that they are listed in alphabetical order.
But there are another adjustments to concentrate on, too, beginning with video playback. It’s now full-screen in iOS 18.2 — beforehand, you needed to faucet on the video because it performed to change to full display screen mode. You may now scrub frame-by-frame when watching movies by urgent and holding on the slider, earlier than dragging it forwards and backwards.
There are just a few different beauty adjustments to Photos in iOS 18.2. An album of Favorites now seems within the Utilities part. When taking a look at Collections, swiping proper now takes you again to the earlier view.
iOS 18.2 Mail
We’ve coated the adjustments to Mail in iOS 18.2, however simply to be thorough, iOS 18.2 introduces a brand new organizational structure, the place your inbox is break up into completely different classes. Besides Primary, you get a Transactions inbox that homes receipts; Updates, which options newsletters and different notifications; and Promotions, which is the place varied e-commerce and gross sales promos will seem.
I’m not essentially a fan of the brand new look in iOS 18.2 Mail, primarily as a result of it is onerous to inform when new mail has arrived within the completely different folders. Managing older emails from the identical sender can also be harder than it must be. If you’re feeling the identical method — or if you happen to do not just like the look of iOS 18.2 Mail for every other motive, simply faucet the More button within the higher proper nook. (It’s the one with three dots.) That summons up the choice of reverting to the acquainted record view that includes a single inbox.
Here’s one more reason to discover the More pop-up menu: within the transport model of iOS 18.2, it is added an choice to disable Group by Sender. Tap that possibility and emails from the identical supply are now not bunched collectively, addressing my criticism that it is too troublesome to delete particular person messages whereas protecting those which are nonetheless related to you.
iOS 18.2 Safari
Besides some safety enhancements — URLs at the moment are upgraded to HTTPS wherever attainable, and Apple’s browser now warns you when a web site would not have a sound SSL certificates for an encrypted connection — Safari makes just a few house-cleaning adjustments. You’ll see new choices on your begin web page background pictures. (Hit Edit on the backside of the beginning web page to search out them.) Import and Export controls allow you to transfer searching information between Safari and different browsers.
Download a file in Safari, and now you can chart the progress of the obtain within the Dynamic Island space of your iPhone in case your handset presents that characteristic. The characteristic seems as a circle that fills in, very similar to an AirDrop switch, but when your Safari downloads are as speedy as mine, the obtain indicator will probably seem and disappear earlier than you even discover it.
iOS 18.2 Apple Music, TV and Podcasts
As a part of Apple Intelligence, the Photos app helps pure language searches — a functionality that is even supported by older iPhones primarily based on my iOS 18 testing. The similar factor now goes for searches within the Music and TV apps. You can kind issues like “Coen Brothers motion pictures from the Nineteen Nineties” and the TV app will carry “Fargo” and “Barton Fink” to the highest of your outcomes record.
As for Apple’s Podcasts app, it now invitations you to designate your favourite genres — doing so will apparently affect suggestions the app makes on podcasts you need to take heed to. I’m guessing it additionally has an affect on one other change from iOS 18.2 that guarantees a “personalised serach web page,” the place Podcasts will spotlight probably the most related classes and collections primarily based in your pursuits.
iOS 18.2 Voice Memos
I’m instructed musicians like to make use of the Voice Memos apps as strategy to check out music and lyrics they is likely to be engaged on, and it appears like there is a change within the Voice Memos app that can attraction on to that use case. As of iOS 18.2, the app helps layered recordings, the place you may add a vocal monitor over an present tune. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max customers may import any two-track initiatives into Logic Pro.
iOS 18.2 Apple News Plus
The array of puzzles out there to Apple News Plus subscribers continues to develop. After iOS 17.5 introduced the Quartiles phrase puzzle to the subscription information service earlier this 12 months, Sudoku now joins the ranks of video games.
You can check out a pattern Sudoku sport within the Puzzles part of the News app. But if you end up hooked, you will must pay $12.99/month for an Apple News Plus subscription.
iOS 18.2 Find My
You have a brand new possibility geared toward giving strangers a greater alternative of discovering any misplaced objects you have geared up with an AirTag. Enabled the brand new Share Item Location characteristic, and you may get a hyperlink exhibiting the final identified location of the merchandise, that you could then deal with over to a trusted third social gathering — Apple particularly mentions airways in its iOS 18.2 documentation.
The hyperlink is stay for a restricted time and would not recall an Apple machine, widening the pool of people that can monitor down something you have left behind.
iOS 18.2 Camera Control
Here’s an iPhone 16-specific addition to iOS 18.2 that brings three new management choices to the button Apple added to this 12 months’s fashions. You now have the choice to lock the autofocus and auto publicity settings while you apply mild stress to the Camera Control button, releasing that lock while you raise your finger. That possibility could be setting within the Camera part of the Settings app: simply choose Camera Control and toggle on the AE/AF Lock possibility.
Additionally, heading to the Accessibility part in Settings will allow you to alter the double-click velocity of the Camera Control button. Besides the default velocity, your choices are Slow and Slower.
In a settings change that is certain to ease the troubles of anybody who frets about inadvertently urgent the Camera Control button when reaching for his or her telephone, now you can set the button to solely work when your iPhone’s display screen is energetic. Go to the Display & Brightness part of Settings and choose Require Screen On for the Camera Control.
iOS 18.2 Audio controls
If you would like the flexibility to regulate playback quantity out of your lock display screen, you may add a quantity slider in iOS 18.2. In the Settings app, choose Accessibility, adopted by Audio & Visual. On the following display screen, there is a Always Show Volume Control button that restores a slider to the lock display screen just below the playback controls. This setting works whether or not you are listening through headphones or the built-in speaker in your iPhone.
Another new audio setting permits you to alter the restrict of the iPhone speaker quantity — useful if you happen to do not wish to injury the built-in speaker or annoy different individuals with the audio from no matter you are listening to. That setting could be discovered within the Sound & Haptics part of Settings, the place you faucet Volume Limit to toggle on the management and alter the amount with a slider. Note that adjustments you make solely appear to have an effect on playback and never issues like telephone name and FaceTime quantity, alerts, alarms, ringtones or system sounds.
Change the default apps
iOS 18.2 expands the variety of default apps you may change to incorporate apps for telephone calls and messaging — see my information on the right way to change default apps within the up to date software program. Oh, and if you happen to use the Stocks app to observe the market, iOS 18.2 provides premarket quotes for each the Nasdaq and NYSE exchanges.
