Apple

Your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, AirPods, Mac, Apple TV are getting new features today - here are my favorites

Jonathan Gulbrandsen

Sep 16, 2024 — 12 min read

A few hours ago, Apple released their major software updates to the public. I have been running all these major updates as developer betas since back in June, so I want to share my favorite features for each of the new operating systems in order to recommend you all to what to try out, and also encourage you to update as soon as possible!

Here's what Apple has released today:

iOS 18 for iPhone
- "Customize your iPhone in more ways than ever, stay connected with friends and family, and relive your favorite moments. And with Apple Intelligence, the things you do every day become even more magical"
iPadOS 18 for iPad
- "Explore new ways to work with Apple Pencil, discover new experiences in apps, and customize iPad even further. And bring your ideas to life like never before with Apple Intelligence"
watchOS 11 for Apple Watch
- "Better understand your daily health status using your overnight vitals. See how workouts may impact your body over time. And discover new features that make Apple Watch undeniably yours."
macOS Sequoia for Macs
- "Lay out your workspace on the fly, browse the web with focus, and even mirror your iPhone wirelessly. And Apple Intelligence helps you simplify and accelerate tasks big and small."
tvOS 18 for Apple TV
- "Introduces new cinematic experiences with InSight, Enhance Dialogue, and subtitles"
visionOS 2 for Apple Vision Pro
- "The groundbreaking spatial computing experiences of Apple Vision Pro go even further with visionOS 2. Relive and share memories in magical new ways. Immerse yourself in entertainment and work like never before. And navigate more easily with new gestures."
HomePodOS 18 for HomePods
AirPods firmware updates

Here are my favorite new features per product (my comments on macOS and Vision Pro coming tomorrow):

iPhone

The headlining iOS 18 features are all about customization and personalization, focused on Home Screen, Lock Screen, Control Center and icons. I like all those features, especially the Control Center improvements - but you can easily find info about that elsewhere. Here I will talk about smaller less easily discovered features that I have really enjoyed.

Photos

There are a literal ton of news in the Photos app - for one it is completely redesigned. Take some time to explore. And make sure you scroll down and check out the Utilities section. Here you get automatic organization by categories such as Receipts, QR Codes, Documents, photos with handwriting, photos with illustrations/drawings, and so on.

Also keep scrolling to the very bottom and select Customize & Reorder.

Messages

Send Later Compose a message now and schedule it to send later for the times hen it’s late and you don’t want a message to send until the morning, or when you don’t want to forget to celebrate an important birthday or other milestone.
Bilingual keyboards (this obviously goes for all apps that use the keyboard, nto just Messages)
- "You can now set up one software keyboard in Settings that contains multiple languages. The system doesn’t have to remember languages per-contact or per-app. It just lets you switch between words of different languages as type, mid-sentence, without correcting you for using words that don’t belong to one of the two languages.
- I can’t even begin to describe how much of a positive impact this small addition to the iOS typing experience has had on my life lately. Bilingual users will relate. I text my partner dozens of times each day using a weird – but familiar to us – combination of Italian and English, because that’s just the person I’ve become negli ultimi anni. With iOS 18, the system is much more flessibile about accepting mixed sentences with words from two linguaggi; it can even dynamically switch between two languages in the same sentence, without underlining parts of it as errori grammaticali. It’s remarkable.
Text effects - Add dynamic, animated effects like Explode or Ripple to any letter, word, or phrase in iMessage to bring your conversations to life.

Passwords

Brand new Passwords app, bringing great features out from deep into Settings
- See all your passwords, passkeys,verification codes, Wi-Fi passwords,and Sign in with Apple credentials for websites and apps in one place.
- See what apps and websites you’ve used Sign in with Apple or Hide My Email to sign in. You can also now add Sign in with Apple credentials to shared password groups.
- Set up two-factor verification codes right in Passwords and easily copy them or autofill into Safari without even opening the app.
- Easily save your passwords and passkeys and autofill them into websites and apps, either by saving them during account creation or manually adding them later.
- Access Wi-Fi passwords you’ve saved so you can easily refer to them or share with others

Your accounts saved in Passwords sync seamlessly with iCloud
End-to-end encryption iCloud syncing is backed by incredibly secure end-to-end encryption.

Other

Home - Guest access - Provide time-based access to locks, garage doors, and alarm systems for up to 29 guests in the Home app.
Ability to change Home Screen buttons on bottom left and right - you can now replace the Flashlight and Camera shortcuts with something else entirely
"Keep downloaded" option in Files app (long press any file)
Pinch to zoom in and out in Calendar to see more or less of each day
Vehicle motion cues - New experience for iPhone that can help reduce motion sickness for passengers in moving vehicles. Dots appear on your iPhone screen and use built-in sensors to move with the vehicle to reduce sensory conflict, without interfering with your content. Needs to be turned on under Accessibility settings, once turned on it will automatically show these cues when in a moving car.
Ask someone to share their screen with you right from Messages or while in a FaceTime call, making it easier to provide help when needed. Ask for permission to remotely control their device and take the actions yourself if you need to assist someone more directly. Draw to highlight Tap and draw directly on the screen being shared with you, helping your friends and family take the right actions on their own screen.

iPad

iPadOS 18 gets all the same features as iOS 18, so there isn't really any special hidden features to call out.

You can check out a PDF of all 250+ new features here. Or see Apple's detailed Newsroom article about the update.

AirPods

Siri Interactions - Respond to Siri announcements with AirPods by simply nodding your head yes or shaking your head no.
Voice Isolation - For the best call quality with AirPods, Voice Isolation enables you to take calls even in windy conditions or places with loud background noise.

Apple Watch (watchOS 11)

This is arguably the biggest update of all of the ones coming today, so if you have an Apple Watch - really make sure you read up on all the news. These are my favorite updates, but again there's a lot more to this one:

The new Smart Stack (just scroll down with the Digital Crown) with automatic visibility of Live Activities from iPhone, plus widgets are now interactive and much smarter - like weather showing up at the top when it's about to start to rain. And if you have a timer running, that will be at the very top for easy access.
Translate app - speech recognition and rapid translation directly on the wrist. Translate widget automatically surfaced in Smart Stack when in a different language location
Double Tap can now be used to scroll in any app, so easier to use the watch in one hand
Activity Rings updates - now possible to change goals for the Activity rings per day of week, plus its possible to now pause the rings for a day, week, month or even more, allowing you to maintain streaks even if you get sick or something like that. The Fitness app on iPhone now also has a customizable Summary tab which is great.
The new Vitals app - see if your overnight health metrics are within typical or outlier range and get relevant notifications

Apple TV (tvOS 18)

New options for screen savers: Photo memories as well as photo highlights
Automatic subtitles: Subtitles can automatically appear when the video is muted, on skip back, and when the language is different from your preferred language on Apple TV
Improved Enhance Dialogue with 'Boost', 'Enhance', and 'Isolate'

Here are more detailed overviews of what is new in each of these operating systems. These links are a lot more informative in terms of photos, videos and engaging text, and covers much more of the actual headlining news.