Apple announced its latest operating system updates as part of its Worldwide Developer Conference earlier this week. Pivotal updates include the all-new iOS 18 with a focus on customizability, macOS Sequoia with iPhone mirroring, iPadOS 18, which finally brings the Calculator app to iPads, tvOS 18 with its new InSight feature, watchOS 11, which brings a new ‘Vitals’ app for sleep health metrics, and visionOS 2 with its new control gestures.
Elsewhere, a range of new AI (read: Apple Intelligence, not Artificial Intelligence) features made their way across the board, with improvements to Siri, image generation, the ability to take action according to user commands, and a lot more.
Out of the large range of features that made their way to iOS 17’s successor, one stood out like a sore thumb, primarily because it’s something that should have been introduced years ago. Yes, you have more app icon arrangement freedom now with iOS 18, a functionality that has been available on Android since the earliest versions. There are a lot of other ‘new‘ iOS 18 features that were made official at WWDC 2024 that have clearly been borrowed from Android. Here are a few of them:
Home and lock screen customization
Apple has done a good job over the past two years in bringing more customization to the lock and home screen with additions like customizable fonts and font colours, lock screen widgets with different sizes, wallpaper effects and more. However, leaving blank spaces between app icons was something Apple was never onboard with. That changes with iOS 18. Users now have the option to freely arrange apps and widgets on their home screen, even off to the side.
Further, borrowing directly from Android’s Material You theme, iOS users will now be able to use app icon tints, which, as the name suggests, can tint your app icons to compliment the colour scheme of your wallpaper.
Native call recording
Third-party call recording applications have been prevalent for a while now, though some phone manufacturers have previously offered the functionality natively. Google started rolling out the functionality natively within its Google Phone app back in 2021, and the feature is finally landing on iPhones with iOS 18.
According to Apple, users would not just be able to record calls, but also transcribe them in real-time from the Phone app in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, and Portuguese.
Image credit: Apple
It’s worth noting that Google has had problems, likely related to local laws about call recording, and hence native support hasn’t made its way to Canada, the U.S., and several other European countries. It is currently unclear if Apple will be able to avoid the regulatory hurdle. During WWDC, Apple said that your iPhone will automatically tell all call participants if and when they are being recorded, which might help it wiggle through regulatory scrutiny.
App locking
Android devices from the likes of Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, Redmi, Asus, and more, allow users to lock their applications outright, or within a secure folder that can’t be accessed without a form of authentication. Samsung, for example, allows you to create a secure folder that can lock your apps behind a biometric shield. OnePlus, on the other hand, allows you to lock apps without having to put them in a separate folder.
With iOS 18, users will be able to get the best of both Samsung and OnePlus. Long-pressing an app on iOS 18 now allows you to lock it behind authentication, so the next time someone tries to open it, they’ll need to authenticate using FaceID, TouchID or a passcode. In addition to that, if you don’t want a specific app/apps to be visible on your iPhone at all, it can be placed in an obscured ‘hidden apps folder,’ which would also be locked behind authentication.
A dedicated Game Mode
Game Mode, too, is a new feature coming to iOS 18 which aims to minimize background activity on your iPhone to achieve the best possible game performance with “consistently high frame rates,” according to Apple. The mode will also reduce latency when playing games with the second-gen AirPods Pro on, alongside improving controller responsiveness “by doubling the Bluetooth polling rate with wireless controllers.”
A native OS-based Game Mode first made its way to Android devices with Android 12, and offers features like screen recording, a do-not-disturb mode and a frames-per-second (fps) counter. The mode, similar to Apple’s Game Mode, optimizes your device to run games with the best possible performance while offering an option to stream to YouTube.
It’s worth noting that Apple introduced a Game Mode for macOS Sonoma in September last year.
Clean Up rips off Magic Eraser
Google launched the Magic Eraser tool with the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro back in 2021. The tool, which essentially allows users to remove unwanted people and objects from their photos, was a pivotal update for Google device, and was heavily marketed. It has since made its way to all future released Pixel devices, and is now bundled under Magic Editor, available to all Google Photos users, with no Google One subscription required. This includes iPhone users too.
Those who prefer Google’s tool can continue using it on their iPhones. However, a similar, native iOS feature called Clean Up will also make its way to iOS 18, likely this fall. First looks at the Clean Up feature indicates that it will function just like Magic Eraser, allowing users to remove distracting objects in the background of a photo, “without accidentally altering the subject.”
This list will be updated as more iOS 18 features are discovered.
iOS 18 Developer Beta will be available to install starting today. Public Beta goes live next month, while the official release will take place later this year, likely in September. Check out how you can get your hands on the Developer Beta today below:
Image credit: Shutterstock
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