The revamp adds RCS texting, a redesigned Photos app, new emoji text reactions, and more. Here’s how to get access.
iOS 18 rolls out a range of new features, including the ability to leave space between apps on the Home Screen (shown, above left).
By Courtney Lindwall
Apple’s latest iOS 18 is now available for all iPhone users to download, after spending the summer in beta testing. The new operating system brings the “biggest-ever redesign” of the Photos app, much-requested RCS texting, and new ways to make your phone work better for you, like customization options for the Home Screen and Control Center.
iOS 18 is also built with the new Apple Intelligence system in mind, though most of the buzzed-about AI features, like the smarter Siri or emoji generation, won’t begin rolling out until future iOS updates in the fall and only for specific newer iPhone models.
We gave iOS 18 a brief spin while it was still in beta testing. While we didn’t find the changes to be revolutionary, we do think they offer the kind of subtle-but-smart improvements that actually make your day-to-day digital life run a bit more smoothly. And given our substantial daily screen time, every tweak counts.
Below, we’ve outlined how to install the iOS 18 upgrade and, onto the fun part, how to make use of the new features.
How to Install iOS 18
You can upgrade by going to Settings > General > Software Update and selecting the iOS 18 update, just like usual. As always, it’s free to install. Before beginning, make sure your phone is plugged in, connected to Wi-Fi, and recently backed up. iOS 18 is not available for some older devices. For the full list of compatible iPhone models, check with Apple here.
Why You Should Upgrade to iOS 18
Upgrading to the latest iPhone OS tends to improve the performance, security, and privacy of your device. However, some people choose to hold off in order to give Apple more time to sort out potential bugs. If you’d prefer to wait, Apple also released iOS 17.7, a way to stick with iOS 17 while still getting crucial security patches and bug fixes.
Our Favorite iOS 18 Features and How to Use Them
Improved Apple-to-Android Messaging With RCS
This one’s a biggie: iPhones now support RCS texting, which means a long-awaited improvement for Apple-to-Android texting. Yes, the green bubbles are sticking around, but the upgrade does fix a few pain points.
iPhone users can now see when Android users are typing, with the familiar ellipses icon. You can “like” or “heart” RCS messages, the same as in iMessage, and get “read” and “delivered” receipts. And photos and videos that often appeared grainy or teensy-tiny when sent between Apple and Android devices are now likely to show up as high-quality attachments. Group chats rejoice.
With iOS 18, iPhone users can now TapBack to texts using any emoji (shown, above middle).
Graphic: Consumer Reports, Apple
New Emoji Reactions to Texts
Bored with the standard thumbs-up and heart reactions to texts? In iOS 18, you can react to messages with any emoji or Sticker you want—from a birthday cake to that one cute monkey covering its ears. Simply hold down the message you want to react to—same as before—and choose from the emoji menu. Keep in mind that if you TapBack using a newly available emoji or Sticker to an iPhone user running iOS 17 or earlier, the other phone will receive it as a separate message stating that you “reacted to” a message, with the emoji or Sticker shown.
Formatting and Effects for Texts
You can bold, italicize, underline, or strikethrough specific words and phrases in your texts on iOS 18. This feature would be useful if you wanted to, say, make specific details within a long message more visible. You can also apply effects—like ripple, shake, or explode—to words and phrases, rather than the whole message, as was previously available. Both the formatting and text effects are accessible by double-tapping a word to bring up a menu of options. (You can adjust the highlighted portion to include a longer segment.) Within the menu, tap on the arrow to the right and then choose Text Effects to select your formatting and effects options.
Schedule a Text for Later
And even more texting upgrades: You can now draft and schedule a message in advance. To use the Send Later feature, open up the relevant text thread, draft your message, and then tap on the plus icon to the left of the text field. Click “More” and select “Send Later.” From there, you’ll be able to set the exact date and time for your text to go out. Need to tweak it? The pending message will stay at the bottom of your conversation in a different color. You can hold down the text and edit it—or delete it entirely, same as you would for an already-sent message. This feature is only available when sending iMessages.
A Colorful, Customizable Home Screen
With iOS 18, you can design your Home Screen to be more to your exact liking. When rearranging apps, you can leave space between the icons, which means you can better showcase your wallpaper photo. There are some new color and design options, too. Hold your finger down on the Home Screen until the apps shake. Then, tap Edit in the top left corner, and choose Customize. From there, you can change the app size for increased readability, as well as choose between Light, Dark, Automatic, and Tinted modes, which change the shading of your wallpaper and the app icons themselves. Tinted mode paints all your app icons whatever color you select. It definitely looks cool, but makes it harder to find apps at a glance, in our experience.
A More Customizable Control Center, Too
You can now personalize your iPhone’s Control Center—the menu of frequently taken actions, accessed by swiping down from the top right of your screen—to better fit your specific needs. With the Control Center open, just tap the plus icon in the top left to enter editing mode. You can resize and move around the control icons, just like you would app icons.
For the first time, the Control Center now features multiple pages, which you can quickly navigate between by sliding your finger down the navigation bar at the right. It comes with three preset options—a favorites, media playback, and connectivity page—but you can add more pages, resize and rearrange the controls, and add more controls from the large menu of options, which includes everything from Smart Home controls to the QR code scanner.
A Redesigned Photos App
For most of us, storing and organizing our thousands of cherished photos is one of our phone’s most critical tasks. To help, Apple launched a significant Photos redesign. Now, the Photos app, which used to be across multiple tabs, is condensed into a single page. Your main library sits at the top. Scroll down and you’ll find different kinds of generated and curated collections and albums, like those featuring specific trips, memories, or people and pets. Apple even identifies a collection of photos that would work well as your wallpaper.
All those albums may be a bit overwhelming, but you can select Customize & Reorder at the very bottom to remove things you don’t want to see. You can also search in your Photos library using more natural and personalized language, as well as tags—like a person’s name and location—to find buried photos faster.
Faster Calculations in the Notes App
It’s not the splashiest feature in iOS 18, but it gets a shout-out for being so neat. Typing out your monthly expenses or tallying up a project budget? The Notes app can now handle some of the math for you, without requiring that you toggle between Notes and Calculator. Simply type the equation you’d like to solve directly into a Note, adding an equals sign afterward. Write out, say, “1,459+3,595=” and the solution of 5,054 will pop up after the equals sign. The Calculator app itself also has a new handy Convert feature that allows you to easily look at the exchange rates between currencies or the conversion rates between different units of measurement. Within the Calculator app, tap the calculator icon on the bottom left and then toggle on Convert.
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