Still holding out on the inevitable replace to iOS 26? You’re not the one one; you’ve got possible seen chatter about reviews of extreme battery drain and the general disappointment with the new Liquid Glass design. Apple is clearly conscious of the friction, as proven by its ongoing improvement of the iOS 26.2 beta. For these of us dedicated to the soundness and efficiency of iOS 18, there is not any motive to hurry to put in an OS that is unfamiliar. Zooey Liao/CNETIf your iPhone continues to be working on iOS 18 and also you’re decided to take care of peak efficiency with out touching the newer OS, you are in the correct place. I’ve compiled 10 iOS 18 tweaks that may improve your machine’s efficiency. Implementing these changes is remarkably easy, requiring as little as one minute per change.
This story is a part of 12 Days of Tips, serving to you take advantage of your tech, house and well being through the vacation season.
Before you think about an improve that would introduce lag or instability, optimizing your present OS is one of the best technique. By utilizing and modifying these lesser-known settings, you may guarantee your iPhone runs easily and effectively, getting the utmost efficiency from an OS you are aware of. Watch this: iOS 26.1 Update Fixes Alarm, Lets You Change Liquid Glass
06:07 Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content material and lab-based evaluations. Add CNET as a most well-liked Google supply. Turn off classes within the Mail app With e mail, everybody has their very own method of coping with the inflow of messages. Traditionally, the Mail app has saved a chronological checklist, however that may get unwieldy should you additionally get scores of promotions, receipts and different kinds of e mail. The new classes function creates digital buckets for Primary, Transactions, Updates and Promotions, and guesses how your messages needs to be sorted. If that strategy would not give you the results you want, listed here are two issues to attempt. • In the occasion that classes are considerably helpful, however you continue to desire a chronological view of your Inbox, swipe all the best way to the correct of the classes and faucet All Mail. • To flip off classes altogether, faucet the three-dot menu (…) within the top-right nook, after which faucet List View. Turn off Mail Categories from inside the Inbox. (iOS 18.5 beta proven right here.) Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET Change the default buttons on the lock display screen In actual property, location is every little thing, and the underside corners of the iPhone lock display screen are the prime spots. Each is a simple thumb press away when your machine continues to be locked. Before iOS 18, these posts had been held by the flashlight and digicam buttons, and there was no strategy to change them. In iOS 18, you may lastly exchange them with different buttons — or take away them totally, a balm for people who unknowingly activate the flashlight (consider me, there is a higher strategy to flip it on). You can add buttons to acknowledge music through Shazam, allow Dark Mode, set an alarm/timer, allow Airplane Mode, open your Wallet, ship cash through Tap to Cash and extra. Here’s how: 1. On the iPhone’s lock display screen, contact and maintain anyplace on the show till you see the Customize button. You’ll have to unlock the cellphone utilizing Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. If it opens the house display screen, swipe down from the middle prime of the display screen (not the correct edge, which brings up Control Center). 2. Tap Customize after which select Lock Screen. 3. Remove one of many buttons by tapping the – (minus) button on the icon. 4. To exchange the button with one other perform, faucet its house (now with a + icon) after which select the one you need on the subsequent display screen. (You may decide to depart that house empty with no button.) 5. Repeat these steps for the opposite button if you wish to change it. 6. Tap Done if you’re completed. 7. Tap the lock display screen once more to exit the customise mode. Remove a lock display screen button by tapping the – (minus) button, after which select a brand new management to switch it. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET Get necessary alerts utilizing Prioritize Notifications For iPhone fashions that may run Apple Intelligence, a brand new choice launched in iOS 18.4 is quick turning into one in all my favourite AI options. Go to Settings > Notifications, and beneath Apple Intelligence, faucet Prioritize Notifications. As new alerts are available — and a few days really feel like they arrive in floods — Apple Intelligence determines which of them usually tend to be necessary to you. For instance, texts from individuals in your contacts might be flagged in favor of random rip-off messages. On that settings display screen, you may allow or disable precedence notifications for particular person apps. Apple Intelligence can prioritize notifications to seize your consideration. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET Set up among the new duties obtainable on the Action button The Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16E, iPhone 16 Pro and the iPhone 17 line changed the devoted mute change discovered on each earlier iPhone mannequin with a configurable management. By default, it serves the identical goal — maintain it to show Silent Mode on or off — however you may configure it for different actions like opening the Camera app, performing a number of actions directly and even ordering espresso. The iOS 18.4 replace added Visual Intelligence as an choice for the Action button. That makes the AI expertise obtainable on the iPhone 16E, which doesn’t embrace the novel new Camera Control however is now an choice for any iPhone with an Action button. In iOS 18, the Action button will get new capabilities. You can bypass Control Center and select a management, corresponding to opening the Remote interface for navigating Apple TV or utilizing Shazam to determine a track. To select a unique motion for the Action button, go to Settings > Action Button. Swipe sideways to pick out and activate one of many obtainable actions. For the Controls, Shortcut and Accessibility choices, faucet the Choose button to select which particular motion to run. iOS 18 now helps you to program the Action Button together with your favourite Control Center management. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET Give your property display screen a radical new look You would not assume that placing icons the place you need is a radical new function, however that is as a result of iOS has all the time had a locked association. Apps get added from prime to backside, left to proper. You may rearrange the order by which icons seem and transfer them to different screens, however that was about it. In iOS 18, apps might be positioned practically anyplace. You now not have to cope with a wallpaper picture of your youngsters or pets being obscured by icons. They nonetheless adhere to a grid — Apple is not about to sanction anarchy — however might be positioned freely. Also, Dark mode lastly applies to the entire iPhone’s house display screen, with choices for coloring icons and affecting the brightness of the wallpaper picture. Here’s the right way to customise the appears to be like. Arrange apps: Touch and maintain the house display screen to enter “jiggle mode,” after which drag the icons to new positions. It will nonetheless slide them round to fill areas, however with persistence, you may transfer them into the spots you need. Position app icons the place you need so this superb lady is not lined. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETYou may shortly flip appropriate apps into widgets that show extra data. Maps, for example, is usually a map of your present location with shortcut buttons to seek for locations or convey up an inventory of close by locations (corresponding to dinner spots). Touch and maintain the app icon and search for a row of resize buttons within the menu that seems. Once expanded past the usual icon dimension, you may drag the deal with within the bottom-right nook of the brand new icon. To get it again to its single icon dimension, that you must contact and maintain once more and select the single-icon button Some apps might be expanded into bigger icons that act like widgets. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETSet Dark mode: If you’ve got ever subjected your self to the retina blast of black textual content on a white background late at night time in a darkened room, you’ll admire the brand new Dark mode choice for the house and lock screens. iOS has beforehand included a Dark mode, the place mild backgrounds change to black or darkish grey, textual content switches to white or mild grey and different interface parts are dimmed to coexist in a darkish setting. That’s by no means been utilized to the house and lock screens in any important method — solely the dock and a few widgets — till iOS 18. First, contact and maintain the house display screen to enter jiggle mode. Tap the Edit button within the top-left nook and select Customize from the menu. At the underside of the display screen, select a mode for the icons and background: Automatic, Dark or Light (I’ll get to Tinted in a second). In Dark mode, the icons achieve black backgrounds, and folders and the Dock turn out to be darkish grey. (Developers have the choice of creating Dark mode icons for his or her apps. In the meantime, apps not but optimized get a usually darker look.) In the house display screen’s Dark mode, icons and the background are given a darker therapy. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETIn Dark mode, the background picture additionally modifications. Apple’s default iOS 18 wallpaper dynamically modifications from mild to darkish because the day progresses, or you may select colours that provide a lightweight and darkish choice. If you employ a photograph, its general publicity is lowered to dim the sunshine output. If you need darkish icons however aren’t a fan of the dimmed picture therapy, faucet the solar icon within the nook of the choices sheet on the backside of the display screen to toggle again to Light mode only for the background. Tinted icons: A brand new and totally different choice is to tint the entire app icons so that they share the identical shade. In the Customize choices on the backside of the display screen, select Tinted because the icon model. You can then modify the Hue (the slider with the colour spectrum) and Luminosity (the slider with the darkish to mild vary) to decide on the colour tint you like. Apply a common tint to all app icons, with controls for adjusting the hue and luminosity. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETWhat if you wish to match a shade from a background picture? Tap the eyedropper button after which drag the reticle to pinpoint the colour you need — the border signifies the chosen shade. The tint is utilized not solely to icons but additionally to widgets. For a widget corresponding to Photos, the photographs it shows present up as duotones to match the theme. Large icons: Do the labels under every app icon appear redundant? Now, you may take away them and improve the scale of the icons with one setting. Open the Customize choices as described above and faucet the Large button. Make the house display screen icons bigger and conceal the app labels. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETAfter making any of those modifications, faucet anyplace on the display screen to use them and exit the Customize interface. Change up how the Control Center appears to be like Control Center was as soon as a handy place to shortly entry controls corresponding to playback quantity and Airplane mode, however beneath iOS 18, it is a configurable playground. You can place controls the place you need, resize many to disclose extra data and add new controls on a number of screens. Swipe down from the top-right nook to disclose the Control Center (or swipe up from the underside on the iPhone SE). To enter edit mode, contact and maintain or press the + button on the top-left nook. Just as with shifting apps, drag a management to a different slot on the display screen to reposition it. Many of the controls additionally embrace a bottom-right deal with that may resize the management — usually, it reveals the title of the management and its present standing (corresponding to Flashlight Off). Rearrange the controls in Control Center and, for some, develop them to disclose extra data (or simply make the button a bigger goal for urgent). Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETThe Control Center additionally now spans a number of screens. Swipe as much as view controls for at the moment enjoying media, Home controls for sensible lights and home equipment and a web page devoted to the communication choices that seem if you long-press the Connectivity block containing Airplane Mode, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Cellular and others. Look carefully, and you will see that these screens are literally particular person controls expanded to occupy the complete Control Center space. You can rearrange the order of these screens by shifting their controls. Suppose you need Home controls to be the primary swipe as a substitute of Now Playing: In the modifying mode, drag the massive Home management as much as the earlier display screen (Now Playing will shift to the correct to make room). Some controls get their very own screens, corresponding to Home. Normally it is on the third display screen, however right here it has been moved to the second display screen. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETTo take away controls, faucet the – (minus) button that seems. You may add different controls: Tap Add a Control and scroll by the obtainable choices, starting from beginning a Screen Recording to a number of accessibility choices. Read extra: All the brand new controls you may add to Control Center Lock or conceal any of your delicate apps Our telephones carry a few of our most delicate information, and but it is not unusual handy a cellphone to a buddy to view photographs or search for one thing on-line. That doesn’t suggest they will snoop but it surely would not not imply they may be extra curious than you are comfy with. For information you need to guarantee stays out of sight or so as to add a layer of safety in entrance of delicate data, iOS 18 provides the flexibility to lock and conceal apps. For instance, for example you retain an ongoing set of lists of reward concepts for members of the family within the Notes app. You can lock particular person notes, however that requires a separate step. Maybe just a few concepts had been made as particular person fast notes or drawings. Instead of micromanaging entry, you may lock the complete Notes app by doing the next: Touch and maintain the app icon you need to lock and select Require Face ID or Require Touch ID (or Require Passcode if Face ID or Touch ID aren’t enabled) from the menu that seems. Confirm your alternative by tapping Require Face ID (or related) within the subsequent dialog. Lock particular person apps. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETTo take away the authentication step, contact and maintain the app and select Don’t Require Face ID (or related). Nothing outwardly signifies that an app is locked — you may discover out if you attempt to open it. There’s yet another stage of app safety obtainable, which is to cover apps in a particular locked folder. Touch and maintain the app and select Require Face ID after which faucet Hide and Require Face ID within the dialog. Confirm the motion by tapping Hide App on the subsequent display screen. The app disappears from the house display screen and will get slotted right into a Hidden folder on the backside of the App Library (swipe left past your final house display screen to view the App Library). To entry apps there, faucet the Hidden folder and authenticate with Face ID. When you select Hide and Require Face ID to guard an app, it will get put into the Hidden folder in App Library (prime). Tap the folder and authenticate to entry the app (backside). Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETiOS 18 imposes some limitations on hidden apps. Some, corresponding to lots of the built-in ones like Notes or Reminders, can solely be locked and can’t be hidden in any respect. Also, the Hidden folder locks itself if you launch an app or swipe away from the App Library. Turn off Loop Videos within the Photos app Many apps have carried out a small however annoying (to me) function, and now Photos beneath iOS 18 has it too: Videos robotically replay if you watch them till you faucet the Pause button. That might be enjoyable a few times, or when viewing quick clips. I’m not a fan of getting to take motion to make them cease every time. Now I can take motion as soon as. Go to Settings > Photos, scroll down till you see Loop Videos and switch the choice off. A video will play by itself however then cease on the finish because it ought to. Turn off Loop Videos to cease each video from replaying robotically. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETIf you’d fairly the video did not play in any respect till you faucet the Play button, additionally flip off Auto-Play Motion in the identical Settings display screen. Adjust the view of your calendar Big new options like locking and hiding apps are nice additions however so are the tiny modifications that you just encounter day by day. The Calendar app contains two new methods to view your schedule. In iOS 18, if you’re within the Month view in portrait orientation, pinch with two fingers to view extra or fewer particulars. As you “zoom in,” particular person occasions seem as coloured bars after which as labeled occasions with occasions, all whereas preserving the month-to-month grid of days and weeks. In the Calendar app’s Month view, pinch to zoom in and see extra particulars. Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNETThe Day view, which breaks down your day hour by hour, now has a brand new Multi Day view that reveals two consecutive days to offer you context for what’s coming with out turning the cellphone into panorama orientation and viewing the Week view. Tap the View button on the prime of the Single Day view and select Multi Day from the pop-up menu. The new Multi Day view within the Calendar reveals two days directly (proper). Screenshots by Jeff Carlson/CNET Improve film and TV present dialogue within the TV app Trouble listening to dialogue in motion pictures and tv reveals is not a brand new drawback — for instance, Apple TV has had a function for some time the place you may ask Siri, “What did she say?” and it’ll robotically again up just a few seconds, activate subtitles and replay that part of the video. You may even purchase soundbars that may overcome muffled TV speech. There are numerous causes it is tougher to listen to dialogue however the TV app in iOS 18 features a high-tech workaround to make dialog simpler to discern. While you are watching a video within the TV app, faucet the More (…) button after which develop the Audio heading within the menu that seems; if the cellphone is in horizontal orientation, faucet the Audio Adjustments button. Tap Enhance Dialogue and select Enhance or Boost. They every dampen background noise and lift the dialogue’s audio. Turn on Enhance Dialogue within the TV app to discern characters’ speech higher in noisy scenes. Screenshot by Jeff Carlson/CNETThese are just some chosen options and modifications in iOS 18. Check out our broader protection of AI, together with Apple Intelligence.
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