It is the proper time to present your iPhone a spring makeover. Whether or not you’ve got simply unboxed a brand new iPhone 16E or need to get extra out of your present system, you will discover loads of options in iOS 18.3 to personalize your expertise. We’ll present you tips on how to customise your house display screen, make your Management Heart extra helpful and even (lastly) select which buttons seem on the lock display screen.
CNET
Remember that iOS 18 consists of the primary Apple Intelligence options, so you’ll want to take a look at the ones you will use most. Or if in case you have little interest in the AI options — which at the moment are enabled mechanically — discover ways to turn off Apple Intelligence.
For extra on what’s new in iOS 18, study enhancements to the overhauled Calculator app and the Mail app. And remember to seek the advice of our iOS 18 upgrade checklist, which incorporates ensuring you’ve a correct backup earlier than upgrading.
Keep protected: Be sure you set up the most recent iOS 18.3.1 update that fixes bugs associated to an “extraordinarily refined assault.”
Change the default buttons on the lock display screen
In actual property, location is all the pieces, and the underside corners of the iPhone lock display screen are the prime spots, every a simple thumb press away when your system continues to be locked. Earlier than iOS 18, these posts have been held by the flashlight and digicam buttons, with no technique to change them.
In iOS 18, you may lastly substitute them with different buttons — or take away them completely, a balm for people who unknowingly activate the flashlight (imagine me, there is a better way to turn it on). You may add buttons to acknowledge music by way of Shazam, allow Darkish Mode, set an alarm/timer, allow Airplane Mode, open your Pockets, ship cash by way of Faucet to Money and extra.
This is how:
1. On the iPhone’s lock display screen, contact and maintain wherever on the show till you see the Customise button. You may must unlock the cellphone utilizing Face ID, Contact ID or your passcode. If it opens the house display screen, swipe down from the center-top of the display screen (not the correct edge, which brings up Management Heart.
2. Faucet Customise after which select Lock Display screen.
3. Take away one of many buttons by tapping the – (minus) button on the icon.
4. To switch the button with one other perform, faucet its area (now with a + icon) after which select the one you need on the subsequent display screen. (You can even choose to go away that area empty with no button.)
5. Repeat these steps for the opposite button if you wish to change it.
6. Faucet Completed whenever you’re completed.
7. Faucet the lock display screen once more to exit the customise mode.
Take away a lock display screen button by tapping the – (minus) button, after which select a brand new management to switch it.
Arrange among the new duties obtainable on the Motion button
The Motion button on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16E and iPhone 16 Pro changed the devoted mute swap discovered on each earlier iPhone mannequin with a configurable management. By default it serves the identical function — maintain it to show Silent Mode on or off — however you may configure it for different actions like opening the Digicam app, performing multiple actions at once and even ordering coffee. (And when you’re prepared to dwell on the sting, the iOS 18.4 beta provides Visible Intelligence as an possibility for the Motion button.)
In iOS 18, the Motion button will get new capabilities. You may bypass Management Heart and select a management of your selection, comparable to opening the Distant interface for navigating Apple TV or utilizing Shazam to establish a tune.
To decide on a unique motion for the Motion button, go to Settings > Motion Button. Swipe sideways to pick out and activate one of many obtainable actions. For the Controls, Shortcut and Accessibility choices, faucet the Select button to select which particular motion to run.
iOS 18 now allows you to program the Motion Button along with your favourite Management Heart management.
Give your house display screen a radical new look
You would not suppose that placing icons the place you need is a radical new characteristic, however that is as a result of iOS has at all times had a locked association. Apps get added from high to backside, left to proper. You can rearrange the order by which icons seem and transfer them to different screens, however that was about it.
In iOS 18, apps may be positioned almost wherever. You now not must take care of a wallpaper picture of your youngsters or pets being obscured by icons. They nonetheless adhere to a grid — Apple is not about to sanction anarchy — however may be positioned freely.
Additionally, Darkish mode lastly applies to the entire iPhone’s residence display screen, with choices for coloring icons and affecting the brightness of the wallpaper picture. This is tips on how to customise the appears to be like.
Organize apps: Contact and maintain the house display screen to enter “jiggle mode,” after which drag the icons to new positions. It should nonetheless slide them round to fill areas, however with endurance, you may transfer them into the spots you need.
Place app icons the place you need so this excellent woman is not coated.
You can even shortly flip suitable apps into widgets that show extra data. Maps, as an illustration, could be a map of your present location with shortcut buttons to seek for locations or deliver up an inventory of close by locations (comparable to dinner spots). Contact and maintain the app icon and search for a row of resize buttons within the menu that seems. As soon as expanded past the usual icon dimension, you may drag the deal with within the bottom-right nook of the brand new icon. To get it again to its single icon dimension you might want to contact and maintain once more and select the single-icon button
Some apps may be expanded into bigger icons that act like widgets.
Set Darkish mode: In the event you’ve ever subjected your self to the retina blast of black textual content on a white background late at night time in a darkened room, you’ll respect the brand new Darkish mode possibility for the house and lock screens. iOS has beforehand included a Darkish mode, the place mild backgrounds swap to black or darkish grey, textual content switches to white or mild grey and different interface parts are dimmed to coexist in a darkish surroundings. That is by no means been utilized to the house and lock screens in any important method — solely the dock and a few widgets — till iOS 18.
First, contact and maintain the house display screen to enter jiggle mode. Faucet the Edit button within the top-left nook and select Customise from the menu. On the backside of the display screen, select a mode for the icons and background: Automated, Darkish or Gentle (I will get to Tinted in a second). In Darkish mode, the icons achieve black backgrounds, and folders and the Dock grow to be darkish grey. (Builders have the choice of constructing Darkish mode icons for his or her apps. Within the meantime, apps not but optimized get a typically darker look.)
Within the residence display screen’s Darkish mode, icons and the background are given a darker therapy.
In Darkish mode, the background picture additionally adjustments. Apple’s default iOS 18 wallpaper dynamically adjustments from mild to darkish because the day progresses, or you may select colours that supply each a lightweight and darkish possibility. In the event you use a photograph, its total publicity is lowered to dim the sunshine output.
In order for you darkish icons however aren’t a fan of the dimmed photograph therapy, faucet the solar icon within the nook of the choices sheet on the backside of the display screen to toggle again to Gentle mode only for the background.
Tinted icons: A brand new and totally different possibility is to tint the entire app icons in order that they share the identical shade. Within the Customise choices on the backside of the display screen, select Tinted because the icon model. You may then modify the Hue (the slider with the colour spectrum) and Luminosity (the slider with the darkish to mild vary) to decide on the colour tint you favor.
Apply a common tint to all app icons, with controls for adjusting the hue and luminosity.
What if you wish to match a shade from a background picture? Faucet the eyedropper button after which drag the reticle to pinpoint the colour you need — the border signifies the chosen shade.
The tint is utilized not solely to icons however to widgets as properly. For a widget comparable to Images, the pictures it shows present up as duotones to match the theme.
Giant icons: Do the labels beneath every app icon appear redundant to you? Now you may take away the labels and enhance the dimensions of the icons with one setting. Open the Customise choices as described above and faucet the Giant button.
Make the house display screen icons bigger and conceal the app labels.
After making any of those adjustments, faucet wherever on the display screen to use them and exit the Customise interface.
Change up how the Management Heart appears to be like
Control Center was as soon as a handy place to shortly entry controls comparable to playback quantity and Airplane mode, however below iOS 18 it is a configurable playground. You may place controls the place you need, resize many to disclose extra data and add new controls on a number of screens.
Swipe down from the top-right nook to disclose the Management Heart (or swipe up from the underside on the iPhone SE). To enter edit mode, contact and maintain or press the + button on the top-left nook.
Simply as with transferring apps, drag a management to a different slot on the display screen to reposition it. Lots of the controls additionally embrace a bottom-right deal with that may resize the management — normally, it reveals the identify of the management and its present standing (comparable to Flashlight Off).
Rearrange the controls in Management Heart and, for some, develop them to disclose extra data (or simply make the button a bigger goal for urgent).
Management Heart additionally now spans a number of screens. Swipe as much as view controls for media presently enjoying, House controls for good lights and home equipment and a web page devoted to the communication choices that seem whenever you long-press the Connectivity block containing Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Mobile and others. Look intently and you may see that these screens are literally particular person controls expanded to occupy your complete Management Heart space.
You may rearrange the order of these screens by transferring their controls. Suppose you need House controls to be the primary swipe as a substitute of Now Enjoying: Within the enhancing mode, drag the big House management as much as the earlier display screen (Now Enjoying will shift to the correct to make room).
Some controls get their very own screens, comparable to House. Usually it is on the third display screen, however right here it has been moved to the second display screen.
To take away controls, faucet the – (minus) button that seems. You can even add different controls: Faucet Add a Management and scroll via the obtainable choices starting from beginning a Display screen Recording to a number of accessibility choices.
Learn extra: Best iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro cases
Lock or conceal any of your delicate apps
Our telephones carry a few of our most delicate information, and but it is not unusual handy a cellphone to a good friend to view photographs or search for one thing on-line. That does not imply they are going to snoop, but it surely does not not imply they may be extra curious than you are snug with. For information you need to guarantee stays out of sight or so as to add a layer of safety in entrance of delicate data, iOS 18 provides the flexibility to lock and conceal apps.
For instance, for example you retain an ongoing set of lists of reward concepts for members of the family within the Notes app. You may lock particular person notes, however that requires a separate step. Possibly a couple of concepts have been made as particular person fast notes or drawings. As an alternative of micromanaging entry, you may lock your complete Notes app by doing the next:
Contact and maintain the app icon you need to lock and select Require Face ID or Require Contact ID (or Require Passcode if Face ID or Contact ID should not enabled) from the menu that seems. Verify your selection by tapping Require Face ID (or comparable) within the subsequent dialog.
To take away the authentication step, contact and maintain the app and select Do not Require Face ID (or comparable).
Nothing outwardly signifies that an app is locked — you will discover out whenever you attempt to open it. There’s yet one more degree of app safety obtainable, which is to cover apps in a particular locked folder. Contact and maintain the app and select Require Face ID after which faucet Cover and Require Face ID within the dialog. Verify the motion by tapping Cover App on the subsequent display screen.
The app disappears from the house display screen and will get slotted right into a Hidden folder on the backside of the App Library (swipe left past your final residence display screen to view the App Library). To entry apps there, faucet the Hidden folder and authenticate with Face ID.
Once you select Cover and Require Face ID to guard an app, it will get put into the Hidden folder in App Library (high). Faucet the folder and authenticate to entry the app (backside).
iOS 18 imposes some limitations on hidden apps. Some, comparable to most of the built-in ones like Notes or Reminders, can solely be locked and can’t be hidden in any respect. Additionally, the Hidden folder locks itself whenever you launch an app or swipe away from the App Library.
Flip off Loop Movies within the Images app
Many apps have applied a small however annoying (to me) characteristic, and now Images below iOS 18.2 has it too: Movies mechanically replay whenever you watch them till you faucet the Pause button. That may be enjoyable a few times, or when viewing quick clips. I am not a fan of getting to take motion to make them cease every time.
Now I can take motion as soon as. Go to Settings > Images, scroll down till you see Loop Movies and switch the choice off. A video will play by itself however then cease on the finish because it ought to.
Flip off Loop Movies to cease each video from replaying mechanically.
In the event you’d relatively the video did not play in any respect till you faucet the Play button, additionally flip off Auto-Play Movement in the identical Settings display screen.
Alter the view of your calendar
Large new options like locking and hiding apps are nice additions however so are the tiny adjustments that you simply encounter day by day. The Calendar app consists of two new methods to view your schedule.
In iOS 18, whenever you’re within the Month view in portrait orientation, pinch with two fingers to view extra or fewer particulars. As you “zoom in,” particular person occasions seem as coloured bars after which as labeled occasions with instances, all whereas preserving the month-to-month grid of days and weeks.
Within the Calendar app’s Month view, pinch to zoom in and see extra particulars.
The Day view, which breaks down your day hour by hour, now has a brand new Multi Day view that exhibits two consecutive days to present you context for what’s coming with out turning the cellphone into panorama orientation and viewing the Week view. Faucet the View button on the high of the Single Day view and select Multi Day from the popup menu.
The brand new Multi Day view within the Calendar exhibits two days directly (proper).
Enhance film and TV present dialogue within the TV app
Hassle listening to dialogue in films and tv exhibits is not a brand new drawback — for instance, the Apple TV has had a characteristic for some time the place you may ask Siri, “What did she say?” and it’ll mechanically again up a couple of seconds, activate subtitles and replay that part of the video. You may even purchase soundbars that can overcome muffled TV speech. There are a lot of reasons it is tougher to listen to dialogue, however the TV app in iOS 18 features a high-tech workaround to make dialog simpler to discern.
Whilst you’re watching a video within the TV app, faucet the Extra (…) button after which develop the Audio heading within the menu that seems; if the cellphone is in horizontal orientation, faucet the Audio Changes button. Faucet Improve Dialogue and select Improve or Enhance. They every dampen background noise and lift the dialogue’s audio.
Activate Improve Dialogue within the TV app to discern characters’ speech higher in noisy scenes.
These are only a few new options and adjustments in iOS 18. Take a look at our broader protection of Apple Intelligence, extra impressions of the system after utilizing it for months and the way these all work along with the iPhone 16 models.
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