iOS 18: Three new features coming to your iPhone next week

September 14, 2024

3 min read

iOS 18 is coming to all iPhone users on Monday, and it’s full of new features. As the excitement builds for the release of iOS 18, here’s a recap of three of my favorite changes coming to your iPhone this fall.

More Home Screen customization options

Since the advent of Home Screen widgets with iOS 14 in 2020, iPhone users have made it clear they want as many ways as possible to customize their devices. This year, iOS 18 gives users multiple new ways to customize their iPhone Home Screen.

iOS 18 lets you place icons and widgets anywhere on your iPhone’s Home Screen grid to create the perfect layout. You no longer have to place icons and widgets by each other.
You can choose to show your Home Screen icons in light mode, dark mode, or with a custom tint of your choosing.
You can now opt to make your Home Screen icons larger, which also hides the app name.

New features in Messages

Messages is one of the most-used apps for iPhone users, and iOS 18 makes some long-awaited changes.

There are all-new text effects that you can apply to individual words inside messages.
iOS 18 lets you schedule messages to be sent at a later date and time.
You can now react to messages with any emoji or sticker through the new Tapbacks menu.
iOS 18 includes support for RCS messaging for the first time. RCS unlocks better cross-platform communication between iPhone and Android devices. This includes things like read receipts, typing indicators, better group chat support, high quality photos and videos, and more.

iPhone Mirroring

Have you ever wished you could control your iPhone from your Mac? Well, iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia allows you to do exactly that. A new iPhone Mirroring feature lets you connect to your iPhone from your Mac in a single click, then have full control over it.

Once you set up iPhone Mirroring, you can also choose to receive iPhone notifications on your Mac. Then, when you click one of those notifications, it will automatically open iPhone Mirroring.

Here’s an in-depth look at how iPhone Mirroring works with iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia:

iOS 18 release date

iOS 18 includes dozens of new features besides the ones we’ve highlighted here. We’ll have much more coverage of what’s new in 18 over the coming days.

Apple has confirmed that iOS 18 will be released on Monday, September 16. Here is the full list of software updates coming from Apple on Monday: