We Found the Best 9 Hidden iOS 18 Features for Your iPhone

5. Hide app labels for a cleaner home screen

Do you feel like your Home screen is a bit cluttered? If so, this new feature might help. Now, with iOS 18, you can get rid of the app labels or app names that you see under each app icon on the Home screen. If you can identify an app just by its icon, who needs the label?

On the Home screen, long-press any empty space until it vibrates, then tap Edit > Customize. A menu will appear at the bottom of the screen; choose the Large option, which will slightly enlarge the app icons and remove the app labels.

6. Change an app to a widget without leaving the home screen

Not all iOS apps have a Home screen widget, but if you do, you don’t have to dig around on the Edit Widget page to find it. If you’re using iOS 18 and want to turn an app into a widget, you can do it very quickly right from the Home screen.

In a supported app, press and hold the icon on the Home screen to bring up the Quick Actions menu. If the app has a widget, you’ll see an app icon next to several widget icons (up to three). Click on one of the widget icons to turn the app into a widget. If you want to switch back from widget to app, go to the Quick Actions menu and tap the app icon on the left.

7. Secretly Select Songs Using the Action Button

I’m not going to lie, it’s satisfying when someone asks, “What song is this?” Being able to turn on Music Recognition on iPhone and get an answer quickly. But getting the answer very clearly means asking Siri to launch Shazam or turning on Music Recognition in Control Center. Wouldn’t it be fun to trick your friends into thinking you have an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music?

In iOS 18, you can get closer with the Action button (currently only available on iPhone 15 Pro models). Go to Settings > Action Button and scroll down until Music Recognition is selected.

To turn it on, simply press and hold the action button for a few seconds. Shazam will appear on the dynamic island to listen to what’s playing and identify the song. If you want to turn on Shazam and spy on your phone, no one needs to know that you’re getting help from a supercomputer in the cloud.

8. Find Handwritten Photos and Art in the Photos App

A lot is changing in the Photos app in iOS 18, from the way things are organized to the ability to use generative AI to remove objects in photos (coming next month). Apple has also added a few surprises to the app to help you sort your library.

Scroll through the main library itself to see categories like People, Pets, and Memories until you reach Utilities. Click on it to see the full list — but note that a new feature in this interface is the ability to swipe left to reveal additional panels. Before iOS 18, the utilities included options to show hidden, recently deleted, and duplicate photos.

Now, it includes many more options. Click Handwriting to show images with handwriting. Looking for illustrations, not photographs? Click on the illustrations (although this also seemed to require a lot of screenshots in our testing).

9. Share a specific section of the podcast

Did your favorite podcast hosts say something particularly funny or thoughtful that you want to share with someone? In the Podcasts app in iOS 18, you can send an episode to a friend with advanced playback for that moment, but that feature isn’t easy to find.

Tap the app’s Now Playing bar at the bottom of the screen to reveal playback controls and pause the episode. Use the progress bar to jump back to the beginning of the section you want to share.

Next, click the More (…) button and choose Share Episode. In the sharing options that appear, tap Since the beginning below the episode title, then select Since [Current time]. Click Done.

Finally, choose a sharing method, such as a message or email. When the recipient receives the shared episode and opens it in the Podcasts app, they’ll see the option to play from [time].