Auto-generated description: A smartphone displaying promotional content for iOS 18 is shown, highlighting various screen features and the text Yours. Truly.

I haven’t been willing to partake in the public betas of iOS 18 over this year, so today’s public release is the first time I’ve had a chance to play with the updated OS and some of its changes.

As I use my phone in a minimalist way, some of the changes such as Home Screen customisation isn’t as relevant to me personally; however here are a few key takeaways of what I have encountered to far:

Control Centre upgrades make it useful (and the iPhone mini harder to leave)

As my home screen isn’t yet impacted by the new features, the biggest changes for my usage so far has been the improvements in how Control Centre works and its customisation.

Control Centre is something that always seemed like it could be better utilised, and I think iOS 18 gets most of the way there. Easier, more comprehensive customisation, multiple pages of controls available, adjustable widget sizes (with labels) and more options for third-party applications to take advantage.

Screenshot of iOS Control Center showing various toggles and settings. The top section shows cellular signal and Wi-Fi status with the 57% battery remaining icon. A song by a named artist is playing with a colorful album cover visible. Other options include Ping My Watch, Personal Hotspot (Off), and controls for airplane mode, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Brightness slider and play/pause controls for music are also visible. Below, there are toggles for Torch, Background Sounds, and Orientation (unlocked). A smartphone control center interface showing various settings. The top row displays Wi-Fi, mobile network labeled as ALDImobile, location services, and battery percentage at 57%. Below, options are displayed for Screen Mirroring (Off), Screen Recording, Low Power Mode (Off), Dark Mode (On), and Voice Memo. The background is dark, indicating the dark mode is active.

I have created two pages in my setup so far. The first one is a revamped version of the iOS 17 layout, with expanded widgets for items such as the torch, Ping My Watch and Orientation (because I found it difficult when there are multiple icons only to represent these). While I’ve retained the network and now playing widgets, I’ve also added a dedicated Personal Hotspot button (I use this often) and a Background Sounds widget to easily turn on the white noise background sounds built into iOS when I need to concentrate or relax.

The second page currently contains 5 other widgets, all expanded to show labels, that I like to have access to but don’t use so often.

Auto-generated description: A person is holding a smartphone displaying the control center interface with various icons and settings.

One side effect of a more useful Control Centre for me is making more of a case for me to stick to my iPhone 13 Mini over the newer models. I already was set to keep my phone another year as the 16 series isn’t grabbing me with upgrades just yet, but having to access Control Centre from the top right is going to be so much easier to manage on my 13 Mini than any iPhone since.

The new Photos app is divisive

From what I’ve read online, there are quite a few people annoyed with the changes in the Photos app; and initially I can see their point. Compared to the tabbed interface of the previous version, the single page scroll of options can seem a bit more cluttered than before.

I’m giving it time to see if it’s bad, or I just need time to adjust to the new layout. Thanks to Lee Peterson for pointing me to his post around options he’s chosen within the app to make the new version work for him.

Voice Memos just Sherlocked AI voice to transcription apps

{A screenshot of an iOS voice memo app screen with a transcription feature. The title is 'iOS 18 transcription' with a timestamp of '2:27 pm' and duration '0:06'. The transcription reads 'Voice memos is really good at transcription as long as you got a network connection.' The play timer shows '00:03.71'. There are options for playing or replacing at the bottom and a 'Done' button on the lower right corner.}

One of the app updates that I think is flying under the radar is Voice Memos and its ability to transcribe audio.

I’ve been playing around with a handful of AI startups doing this previously and they have all been very good; but the power of the default without needing yet another subscription means they have effectively been Sherlocked.

The results are very good, and you can follow along with the text as you play back the audio; a nice touch probably (I’m guessing here) utilising similar tech done for Apple Music Lyrics.

Note however that this is one of those features that uses Apple Intelligence servers in the cloud to do the transcription, and as such it won’t transcribe audio without a network connection. If you have a iPhone 15 Pro or newer, I’d be curious to know if they have the models to do this on device instead.

Items I’m not (yet) using

While my home screen isn’t impacted by the changes yet, it was done using a (fairly) expensive widget and some workarounds to get selected apps to load from the home screen. I’ll be interested in looking at other options that should be available with the new functionality in iOS 18 at some stage.

The other upgrade I’m curious about but won’t use are the improvements to the Journal app. I don’t want to keep my journal in a closed ecosystem so I won’t be using it, but I have heard of some useful improvements for those that are or want to start using the app.

Also for those in the Apple ecosystem, the Passwords app seems like a way better method of managing or your passwords compared to trying to find it in the settings.