iOS 18

iOS 18 beta 2 has officially been released for developers. The update, which comes two weeks after the first beta, includes some big new features. Head below as we round up everything new in iOS 18 beta 2.

As expected, iOS 18 beta 2 is now available for developers. The update comes two weeks after iOS 18 was announced at WWDC. iOS 18 includes new features like upgraded home screen customization, a revamped Control Center, and much more.

Hidden in iOS 18 is much-needed, long-requested update to Apple Maps. There’s finally a “Search here” button that makes it far easier to find what you’re looking for in places that aren’t your current location.

Apple and Meta (nee Facebook) have never been the best of friends, and that relationship has only soured in recent years as the tech giants clash on issues of privacy, app store policy, and much more. Respective CEOs Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg have similarly never talked too kindly about each other, in interviews over the years.

But the AI boom has meant some unlikely partnerships have bloomed. And it seems that Apple and Meta may be able to come to terms on this one specific thing …

Apple has confirmed that iOS 18 beta 2 will be available next Monday. That’s exactly two weeks after iOS 18 was announced at WWDC 2024. Notably, Apple has confirmed that there are two new features that will be available in iOS 18 beta 2: iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay screen sharing.

Apple announced Friday that three major features for its upcoming operating systems will not be available in the European Union, when iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia ship later this year in the fall.

Apple Intelligence, iPhone Mirroring to macOS Sequoia, and SharePlay Screen Sharing, are impacted and won’t be available, via Bloomberg. In fact, due to regulatory concerns relating to compliance with the Digital Markets Act, Apple signaled that these features won’t be available to European Union customers at all this year.

Apple released the first developer beta of iOS 18 on June 10, the same day it kicked off WWDC and unveiled all the new OS features coming later this year.

It’s been nearly two weeks since that last beta, so when will iOS 18 beta 2 be released? Here’s what we know.

When Apple first launched AirPods back in 2016, it also introduced a whole new accessory setup process, designed to avoid the usual pain point of Bluetooth pairing.

For almost eight years, it seemed like the company wanted to keep this exclusive to its own headphones, with competitors unable to take advantage of it. But all that changes in iOS 18 …

When Apple introduced AirPods in 2016, the company also unveiled a new, easy and intuitive way to pair wireless accessories to iPhone and iPad. Rather than having to go to Bluetooth settings and press buttons, the system identifies the accessory nearby and prompts the user to pair it. With iOS 18, this quick pairing process will be available for the first time to accessory makers.

iOS 18 provides far more customization tools than ever before. Among them, you can swap out the Lock Screen’s flashlight and camera buttons for any other controls of your choice.

But as nice as this new Lock Screen freedom may be, lots of users may face a dilemma: they want custom controls, but don’t want to sacrifice quick access to the Camera app.

Good news: you can still quickly open Camera, even after removing the Lock Screen button. Here’s how.

As we covered last week, iOS 18 includes a few notable changes for the Home app and HomeKit in general. One of those changes is hands-free support for unlocking smart locks thanks to Ultra Wideband technology. Unfortunately, and perhaps unsurprisingly, there are no locks on the market that actually offer UWB support.

Update: Find a statement from Schalage on their plans for a new HomeKit lock below.

Apple has a brand new Passwords app coming in iOS 18. Once users upgrade this fall to the latest OS versions across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and even Vision Pro, they’ll find the new Passwords app installed.

But while Passwords will offer lots of the functionality found in third-party options like 1Password (at least for personal use), there are two specific 1Password features you won’t find in Apple’s Passwords app.

We learned that Apple Intelligence will require an A17 Pro chip or later at WWDC last week. And now that the iOS 18 beta is out in the wild, we’re seeing the first benchmarks for performance on the iPhone 15 Pro/Max. The new software significantly boosts Neural Engine performance with the iPhone 15 Pro Max being up to 25% faster for machine learning tasks.

An interesting piece suggests that Apple’s AI logo* – along with the new Siri icon – is intended to look friendly, unthreatening, and is deliberately non-anthropomorphic.

*Yeah, that could be Apple Artificial Intelligence, or Apple Apple Intelligence. Thanks, Tim.

Other companies appear to have set themselves the same goals with their AI offerings, hence all the simple, colorful graphics …

The iOS 18 beta 1 has brought some of the promised new changes, but it doesn’t include Siri improvements, ChatGPT access, or many of the Apple Intelligence features (though there are a few exceptions).

Apple hasn’t revealed a precise timeline for each of the new features, likely wanting to avoid making promises it can’t keep, but there are some indications of what we can expect when …

In this initial hands-on walkthrough, I discuss 18 of my favorite new changes and features from the first iOS 18 beta for iPhone. I explain why you should be excited about new long-awaited updates to the iOS Calendar app, Reminders, Notes, Messages, and more. Watch our hands-on video, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more hands-on iOS 18 coverage.

One of the new features of iOS 18 is an app called Image Playground, which is part of the “Apple Intelligence” suite of AI tools coming later this year. With Image Playground, users will be able to generate images from text commands or even based on a photo of someone. We don’t yet have many details about the app since it’s not available in iOS 18 beta 1, but we do know that Apple is planning to label AI-generated images.

Apple has a big focus on new math features with this year’s software updates, such as Math Notes in iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. As it turns out, Apple has also expanded calculator-like functionality in iOS 18, allowing you to do basic math and conversions in any text field, straight from the keyboard.

One major component of Apple Intelligence is a feature called Genmoji, which lets you create an infinite number of emoji-like images using generative AI. While Genmoji isn’t available in the first beta of iOS 18, Apple elaborated on the feature with more details in a WWDC session this week.

We’re still digging into all the new features coming with iOS 18, which was announced earlier this week at WWDC 2024. We’ve just reported on the update letting users choose their preferred Home Hub, but now there’s another significant change coming, especially for HomePod owners. With iOS 18, users can finally stream Spatial Audio over AirPlay.

Apple TV and HomePod owners have the option of setting up these devices as a Home Hub to control HomeKit and Matter accessories remotely. However, while you can set up multiple devices as Home Hubs, there’s no option to choose a specific hub as the main one. But that’s changing with iOS 18 and tvOS 18, which finally give users this option.