January 3, 2025

iOS 18.2 Features: What’s New?

Apple has officially released iOS 18.2, and it’s packed with exciting new features, especially for those with Apple Intelligence-enabled devices. Let’s dive into what’s new in this update.

Apple Intelligence Enhancements

Image Playground

Image Playground is a new app designed to help you create images based on your ideas. Similar to ChatGPT, you can generate images by providing a prompt. Apple offers suggested categories like themes, locations, and costumes to inspire your creativity. You can also include likenesses of friends and family by pulling images directly from your Photos app.

Gen Emoji

Gen Emoji allows you to create virtually any emoji you want, freeing you from the limitations of the standard emoji set. You can generate a Gen Emoji by providing a description of your desired design, and you even have the option to create Gen Emoji that resemble individuals from your Photos Library.

ChatGPT Integration with Siri

iOS 18.2 brings ChatGPT integration with Siri to your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This partnership allows Siri to handle complex requests by referring them to ChatGPT, such as generating images or creating text from scratch. You need to opt into this feature and grant permission for each request.

New Writing Tools Features

Apple is upgrading the writing tools feature to include more options for open-ended modifications. Users can specify the desired tone or content changes, such as incorporating more action words or transforming an email into a poem.

Visual Intelligence (iPhone 16 Only)

For those with an iPhone 16 device, Visual Intelligence offers insights about your surroundings. When you open the camera and aim it at a restaurant, you’ll receive details such as opening hours and reviews. Other capabilities include reading text out loud, identifying phone numbers and addresses, copying text, and summarizing information.

More Camera Control Changes

iOS 18.2 introduces new camera control settings, such as a double-click speed setting and a new setting that requires your iPhone screen to be on before you press the camera control button to launch the camera. These changes help prevent accidental camera activations.

New Mail Categorizations

The Mail app now includes built-in categorization features that organize your incoming emails into distinct sections like primary, transactions, updates, and promotions. You can recategorize emails or disable the categorization entirely if you prefer the standard list view.

Find My now allows you to share the location of a lost item with an airline or trusted person. This feature generates a link that lets someone view the location of a lost item, even on non-Apple devices.

iPhone Mirroring with Hotspot

With iOS 18.2, you can now use iPhone mirroring even while your iPhone’s hotspot connection is shared with your Mac.

Safari Download Progress on Lock Screen & Dynamic Island

You can easily track your download progress from the lock screen, and on iPhones with a Dynamic Island, you can see the progress of those downloads there as well.

Media Volume Slider on Lock Screen

Apple has reintroduced the volume control slider on the lock screen whenever you have media playing. You can enable this feature in Settings under Accessibility > Audio/Visual.

Default Apps

iOS 18.2 makes it easier to manage default apps with a new Default Apps section in the Settings app. EU users will have more options for choosing non-Apple apps as their default and can delete core apps like Messages, App Store, Safari, Camera, and Photos.

Apple News+ Sudoku

For Apple News+ subscribers and gaming enthusiasts, you now have access to new Sudoku puzzles.

Conclusion

iOS 18.2 brings a host of new features and improvements, making it a significant update for iPhone users. Whether you’re excited about the new Apple Intelligence features, enhanced camera controls, or improved mail categorization, there’s something for everyone in this update. Let us know what your favorite new feature is in the comments below!