5 Cool Features Coming to Your iPhone This Week

The next big software update coming to your iPhone, iOS 18, is almost here. Apple will roll it out to all compatible iPhones (XR or later) on September 16 — that’s this upcoming Monday.

If you’ve been paying attention to the hype, the headline new feature of iOS 18 is Apple Intelligence, which harnesses AI and promises to sweeping new abilities to iPhones, such as a smarter Siri, notification summaries and powerful writing tools.

However, only new iPhones — specifically, the entire iPhone 16 lineup and last year’s iPhone 15 Pros — support Apple Intelligence (and most of the coolest Apple Intelligence abilities won’t be available at launch). This means that, in all likelihood, your current iPhone won’t support Apple Intelligence. Ever.

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

But don’t fret. There are a bunch of really cool other features and abilities that iOS 18 delivers to older iPhones. From big overhauls to the Mail and Photos apps, a dedicated app for managing your passwords (called Passwords), and a much-improved Game Mode.

However, some of the most impactful changes that iOS 18 delivers directly affect your iPhone’s Home Screen and Control Center. Specifically, it gives you almost complete control over customizing the layout of each. It’s wonderful.

I’ve been using the public beta of iOS 18 for the last several weeks to get a better handle on the new Home Screen and Control Center features. Here are my favorites.

Apps Aren’t Confined to the Classic Grid Layout

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

iOS 18 allows you to drastically switch up the layout of apps and widgets on your iPhone’s Home Screen. You’re still technically confined by the classic grid layout, but iOS 18 lets you place apps wherever you want on the Home Screen. So you can have blank spaces, rows and columns.

This allows you to remove a lot of clutter from your Home Screen. Plus, you can have even fewer apps and more open space on your Home Screen to better show off your wallpaper.

All you have to do is long-press your Home Screen until your apps jiggle. Then you can move apps and place them anywhere on your Home Screen. They won’t automatically go to the next available spot.

You Can Change the Color (or Tint) of Your Apps

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

If you’re somebody who meticulously color coordinates the colors of your apps so that everything on your Home Screen looks neat and tidy, well, your life is set to become a lot easier. That’s because iOS 18 allows you to customize all your apps’ color schemes or tints.

If you want everything to have a tinted effect of red, yellow or blue — you can. There’s also dark and light modes. You can also increase the size of your app icons.

All you have to do is long-press on the Home Screen and you’ll see a new Edit Button in the top-left corner. Select “Customize,” and then you’ll see various options to tint or change the color scheme of your Home Screen.

Apps In Dark Mode Will Look Way Cooler

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Similar to the tinted effect, your iPhone’s Dark Mode has a new — way cooler — look in iOS 18. Instead of just darkening your wallpaper, you can make it so all the apps take on a new look so they have dark backgrounds. They even get a little dimmer, too.

This makes Dark Mode even more effective, reducing eye strain and allowing you to look at your iPhone comfortably at night.

You still initiate Dark Mode the same way as before — through the Control Center, holding down the Brightness slider and turning on Dark Mode. To further darken the apps, you have to long-press your Home Screen until your apps jiggle, then select Edit, Customize and select the Dark option at the bottom.

Your Lock Screen’s Default Buttons Can Be Customized (Finally)

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To date, the buttons (or shortcuts) at the bottom of your iPhone’s Lock Screen have been designated to opening the Camera and Flashlight apps. And you haven’t been able to change them. Well, thanks to iOS 18, now you can customize those buttons to suit your needs better.

In fact, you can designate those buttons to quickly open any of the apps that populate your Control Center. So you can switch them to your Timer, Calculator or Apple TV Remote (etc.), instead.

To do this, unlock your iPhone and long-press the Lock Screen. Then, select the big “Customize” button at the bottom, select Lock Screen, and you will have the option to replace either of those two buttons.

Control Center Is More Customizable Than Ever

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

Your iPhone’s Control Center gets a massive overhaul and redesign thanks to iOS 18. For the first time, it allows you to organize the Control Center into multiple pages — separated into things like media playback, smart home controls, and connectivity — and then quickly swipe between them.

Just like the new Home Screen, you can also customize the actual layout of each Control Center page, too, allowing you to place each button exactly where you want. And, for the first time, you can add buttons for third-party apps into Control Center, too.

To customize your Control Center in iOS 18, open it (swipe down from the top-left) and long press on an open area. You’ll then be able to add a control, move current ones around or resize them. Also, long swipes up or down let you flip between different Control Center pages.

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