The biggest complaint people had with the new iPhone 16 lineup was that it lacked the very feature that had been most heavily marketed: Apple Intelligence. When it came to upgrades, it quickly became apparent that the new phones were essentially vessels for Apple to showcase its slate of new AI features. Given that, it was especially ironic to be told we’d have to wait a few months for those features. They’ve finally started rolling out, as seen with the iOS 18.1 release a few weeks ago. Now, iOS 18.2 is out in beta and is expected to become available to the public sometime in December. Here are some features that caught our attention from the long, long list.
Image Generation
This iOS version is big on generative art. With a new Image Playground app, you can create custom images based on text prompts that you enter. While similar to any online AI image generator, this feature is integrated into your iPhone and is free to use. Additionally, with Image Wand, you can now supplement your memos on the Notes app with images. The ability to create custom emojis, Genmojis, gained quite a lot of hype during WWDC when the feature was announced. It’s finally becoming available on this iOS version. This will work the same way as Image Playground: you’ll enter a text prompt and have it convert to an emoji.
Vehicle Motion Cues
iOS vehicle motion cues are coming to the dynamic island. Honestly, this is the feature I’m most looking forward to since I suffer from extreme motion sickness. Motion cues is not a new feature (it was introduced with iOS 18), but integrating them on the dynamic island is. Using your phone during a car ride worsens the sickness, so this feature will ensure I can easily navigate on Google Maps as long as I have the dynamic island at the top of the screen in my peripheral vision.
iPhone Mirroring With Hotspot
With iOS 18.2, when you connect your iPhone to a Mac via hotspot, it will automatically mirror your phone, too. Previously, hotspot didn’t have mirroring capabilities, so this will be a nice bonus feature.
Type to Siri
Another great news is that you can finally talk to Siri like a human instead of typing to it. Siri going multimodal (accepting multiple input ways) makes me happy because it doesn’t work well with all sorts of accents. It would have made me more happy if Apple had worked on being more inclusive instead, but I’ll take what I’m getting for now.
ChatGPT-Integrated Siri
This is old news, but Apple Intelligence is also making Siri less dumb by integrating ChatGPT directly into it. This means all your queries will be passed onto the AI assistant now without requiring you to sign up for an OpenAI account. The ChatGPT-Siri integration also means your results will include images in addition to text.
Volume limit
The new volume limit feature will be incredibly useful in quiet, public spaces where you wish you didn’t accidentally blare out a loud video or song on your phone. On iOS 18.2, you’d be able to set a maximum volume limit for how loud your iPhone can play songs, media, or other content via the speaker. Thankfully, this won’t apply to reminders, calls, and alarms.
Default apps
You know how your iPhone sometimes asks you about your browser preference for opening a link? And you have to enter a preference each time? With iOS 18.2, you’d be able to go into a new Default Apps section in Settings and set preferences for Email, Messaging, Calling, Browser, and so on. It will make a note of all your choices so you don’t have to tell it repeatedly.
Deleting core apps
I like that the EU is slowly teaching Apple that it can’t have its strange rules about everything and needs to comply with a universal standard. This Cupertino giant really needs to be humbled in multiple areas. First, it mandated a universal Type-C charging standard for Apple, and now it ensures that users can delete core apps such as the App Store, Safari, Messages, Camera, and Photos. However, the core app feature is currently exclusive to the EU. We hope it rolls out worldwide soon.
Visual Intelligence
The new iPhone 16 is getting a Google Lens-like visual intelligence feature that will allow you to point your iPhone at any object and have it describe it to you. Long pressing the camera control button will activate the feature, after which you simply have to point your iPhone at the object of your choice. Interestingly, if you point at a restaurant, it will read out its reviews and opening hours to you.
Writing Tools
Apple Intelligence’s much-touted writing tools were already rolled out with iOS 18.1, but the second-gen software is adding more styles and tones. Currently, the tools are limited to just three styles.
Availability
Apple hasn’t announced when it plans to release iOS 18.2 to the public. All we know is that it’ll be in December. The great thing about this release is that unlike iOS 18.1, Apple Intelligence supports more than just U.S. English on 18.2. It now covers English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK. However, it’s still only limited to one language, which I’m hoping changes soon.
