The phased rollout of Apple Intelligence continues with iOS 18.2, but there are plenty of other new features for those who couldn’t care less about AI. As ever, you can install the update via Settings > General > Software Update once it’s available.
1 New Apple Intelligence Capabilities
Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2 brings five new features: Image Playground, Image Wand, Genmoji, ChatGPT support, and a Writing Tools tweak.
Image Playground is a new iPhone, iPad, and Mac app that creates images from concepts, descriptions, and people. Write a text prompt like “a cute dog wearing a party hat and smiling behind a birthday cake,” choose a cartoon-like style (Animation or Illustration), and off you go. AI will create small previews you can swipe through and refine.
You can even feed Image Playground an image from the People album in Photos to create an AI version. Image Playground suggests AI creations, too, and is accessible as an option in Messages, Freeform, and even third-party apps.
Image Wand, a feature exclusively available in the Notes app from the Markup menu, lets you write a text description or circle your rough sketch to turn it into a proper drawing. And if you circle an empty space, Image Wand will create an image from scratch based on the surrounding context. It can even make pictures from handwritten text.
Based on Image Playground, Genmoji is Apple’s AI emoji generator available from the built-in emoji keyboard. You can use a text prompt like “an angry pink elephant with hearts for eyes” or choose a person’s image to create a genmoji that looks like them. To ensure genmoji are viewable on any device, they’re sent as regular images.
iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Writing Tools. Siri offers to offload a complex request to ChatGPT with your permission. You can sign in with ChatGPT to access your account benefits from within Siri. Apple says requests are anonymous and won’t be used to train OpenAI’s models.
ChatGPT in Writing Tools lets you create text from scratch. Before iOS 18.2, Writing Tools could only summarize, rewrite, and proofread existing text. Speaking of Writing Tools, you can now rewrite text in a specific style, such as a poem.
iOS 18.2 expands access to five English-speaking languages: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Apple Intelligence will expand to Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, and other languages in 2025.
2 Visual Intelligence
Google Lens-like Visual Intelligence is exclusive to the iPhone 16 lineup. Accessible by pressing and holding the Camera Control button, Visual Intelligence lets you learn about real-world objects in the viewfinder.
Point the camera at a nearby restaurant and hit “Search” to find related Google results or “Ask” to upload the image to ChatGPT for more information. Visual Intelligence can summarize any text in the viewfinder, and you can tap an email address or phone number to quickly add it to your contacts.
You’ll need an Apple Intelligence-capable device for this feature, otherwise you can create a shortcut that uses Google Lens instead.
3 AirTag Location Sharing
You can temporarily share an AirTag location with a link in the Find My app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Thanks to Apple’s partnerships with global airlines, you’ll be able to share an AirTag location with them to help track delayed baggage “in the coming months.”
4 Mail App Categorization (iPhone-only)
The Mail app automatically files incoming emails into four smart categories—Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions—to help you triage your inbox. Apple does this by performing on-device scans of email metadata instead of the body. As a bonus, a new digest view bundles all messages from one sender into a single view.
Mail categorization is iPhone-only for the time being.
5 Require Screen on for Camera Control
iOS 18.2 disables the Camera Control capture button when your iPhone 16 sleeps to prevent accidental camera launches, but you can change this via a new Require Screen On toggle in Settings > Display and Brightness.
Turn this setting off to open your designated camera app by pressing the capture button regardless of whether the display is on or off.
6 Camera Control Double-Click Speed
You can already change the default Camera Control launch gesture from single to double-click before, and iOS 18.2 permits you to adjust the double-click speed between “Default,” “Slow,” and “Slower” at the bottom of Settings > Accessibility > Camera Control.
7 Two-Stage Shutter With Camera Control
Turn on “AE/EF Lock” in Settings > Camera > Camera Control for a two-stage shutter in the built-in Camera app. If you’ve used a DSLR before, you’ll feel right at home; press and hold Camera Control lightly to lock focus and exposure, then press deeper to snap up a photo.
8 Audio Layering in Voice Memos
The Voice Memos app brings layered audio support, so you can record a song idea and add vocals later. You can import these two-track projects into Logic Pro on the iPhone 16 lineup. This feature is unsupported in Voice Memos for iPad and Mac.
9 Volume Slider on the Lock Screen
iOS 18.0 removed the volume slider from the Now Playing control on the lock screen when using headphones or the built-in speaker, but iOS 18.2 brings it back! It’s off by default, so enable it by switching on “Always Show Volume Control” in Settings > Accessibility > Audio and Visual.
10 Volume Limit for the Built-In Speaker
iOS 18.2 brings volume limits for the built-in speaker to protect your hearing when playing music, movies, and other media. Enable it by flipping on “Limit Maximum Volume” under the Built-In Speaker section in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Volume Limit.
There’s a new widget for the Type to Siri feature in Control Center in iOS 18.2. You can use it to replace the default flashlight and camera shortcuts on the lock screen. Double-tapping the bottom of the screen for the Type to Siri interface doesn’t always work reliably for me, so this widget should help with that.
12 Full Screen Video Player in Photos
The Photos app plays your videos in fullscreen instead of showing black bars, plus you can scrub frame-by-frame. You can also swipe right to return to the previous view when browsing Collections views, and turn off auto-looping video playback in Settings > Apps > Photos.
For a tad more privacy, iOS 18.2 lets you clear your Recently Viewed and Recently Shared album history.
13 Safari Download Progress in Multitasking
iOS 18.2 lets you track the progress of file downloads on the lock screen and in Dynamic Island while multitasking. Start downloading a file in Safari, then switch to another app to see the download progress as a Live Activity widget.
14 Change App Defaults for Calling, Payments, and More
iOS 18.2 simplifies managing which apps your iPhone uses for sending emails, browsing the web, and more. You can change default apps for email, messaging, calling, call filtering, web browsing, passwords and verification codes, NFC contactless transactions, and keyboards in Settings > Apps > Default Apps.
15 Delete Core Apps in the EU
You can already delete many built-in apps. However, iPhone owners in the European Union can now remove core apps like App Store, Camera, Photos, and Safari. EU users also have a new App Installation in Settings for reinstalling apps if the App Store has been removed.
Don’t Forget About These Nice-to-Haves
Honestly, I’m more excited about quality-of-life improvements in iOS updates than major features, and iOS 18.2 doesn’t disappoint in this regard.
- iPhone Mirroring via Personal Hotspot: You can now mirror your iPhone even if the Mac is using its Personal Hotspot feature.
- Sudoku puzzles: Daily Sudoku puzzles are available in the News app for Apple News+ subscribers.
- New Fitness actions: You’ll find four new actions for the Fitness app in Shortcuts: Fitness Settings, Open Award, Open Session History, and Open Trophy Case.
- Safari unsecured connection warning: A new Not Secure Connection Warning toggle in the Safari settings upgrades URLs to HTTPS whenever possible.
- Safari history and website data settings: New options in the Safari settings to import and export browsing data, as well as clear history and website data.
- Safari wallpapers: Safari has four new built-in wallpapers for the New Tab page.
- Album disc numbers: Disc numbers are now displayed for some Apple Music albums.
- Podcasts categories in Library: Apple Podcasts now displays categories in the library view, and you can favorite them.
- Vehicle Motion Cues on ‌Dynamic Island‌: Vehicle Motion Cue status is now displayed within Dynamic Island.
- Customizable tab bar in the TV app: The TV app lets you add or remove items to customize the navigation bar.
- “Trust This Computer” with Face ID: You can finally authorize the “Trust This Computer” prompt with Face ID instead of the passcode.
- iMessage nudity reporting: Explicit image reporting in the Messages app launches in Australia, with more countries to follow later. Apple reviews reported content and may take action if necessary. iMessage nudity reporting joins the existing Communication Safety feature for iMessage.
- Musical Memories: Your Music Recognition history (tap and hold the Shazam button in the Control Center) now displays where you’ve Shazam’d a song.
- Adult content blocking in Utah: iOS 18.2 opts iPhone owners in Utah under the age of 17 into adult content blocking to comply with Utah law.
- Updated Apple Arcade filters: The Filters menu on Apple Arcade has been redesigned, and brings a new option to turn off game previews.
- More Dark Mode icons: Icons in the Settings app and the AirDrop icon on share sheets now comply with Dark Mode settings.
Given the number of under-the-hood changes and improvements, iOS 18.2 should be a big step up over the previous version. iOS 18.3 should follow in Spring 2025 with additional tweaks and expanded language support for Apple Intelligence.
