Apple iOS 18.3: New iPhone Release With Crucial Update Recommended For All Users
Updated Tuesday, Jan. 28 with details of more features that have emerged in iOS 18.3.
The latest iPhone update has arrived (right on schedule). It includes several minor changes, bug fixes, and a major update for iPhones running Apple Intelligence. Here’s everything you need to know. It follows iOS 18.2.1, a small update that was released on Monday, January 6. Yes, that’s right, just three weeks ago. Now that the version is out, there are new features, both minor and major, that are useful additions.
These include a wider variety of visual intelligence, the return of a popular ability in the Calculator app, and much more. All the details below.
Which iPhones can run iOS 18.3?
The new version of iOS 18 is compatible with any iPhone from 2018 onwards. That means the iPhone Xs, iPhone
How to get it
Software updates are easy! In your iPhone’s Settings app, tap General, then Software Update. Then, click Download and Install and let the program work its magic. This is a large update at 1.14GB on my iPhone 16 Pro Max, so it may take a while to download and install.
What’s in the release
Unlike iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2, there are no major Apple Intelligence features rolling out here. The next big update to Apple Intelligence will arrive in iOS 18.4, expected in April.
In fact, one feature that is already active will be suspended when you update to the new version. That’s because some specific notification summaries generated by Apple Intelligence are causing issues. These include news notifications and have caused problems for news organizations. To address this issue, Apple has suspended summaries for the News and Entertainment categories.
This update also adds warnings that summarizing can cause problems, and summaries will now appear in italics. Apple Intelligence is only available on six iPhones: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.
There’s also a big change for these phones: Apple Intelligence is now enabled by default. This is important: if you don’t want Apple Intelligence, you’ll now have to turn it off in Settings under Apple Intelligence and Siri.
The new features are getting more useful, but some parts of them require data, if ChatGPT is called, so you may not want to use them. Overall, I’d say it’s worth keeping the switch on, but the important thing is to make your own choices.
Since launch, there have clearly been minor changes in the new version: iPhone 16 series phones have a camera control, and the AE/AF lock toggle has been renamed Focus and Exposure Lock. If you crop content while editing a PDF, Apple will now warn users that the cropped area has not been removed from the PDF (which can save some embarrassment). Messages will add a Genmoji entry to the + button, making it easier for you to create your own custom emojis – another Apple Intelligence feature.
Visual Intelligence (exclusive to the iPhone 16 series models) has now been expanded so that you can now identify plants and animals as well as add a calendar event when you point the camera at a poster or flyer.
The calculator app lets you repeat calculations when you click the equals sign (so after 2 x 2, you press = and the number 4 appears, click = again and the x2 calculation repeats to show, yes, that’s right, math wizard, 8).
Apple has added the Unity Rhythm wallpaper to honor Black History Month, and this wallpaper is available on every iPhone running iOS 18.3.
Finally, you can now turn off notification summaries right from the Lock screen, if you use Apple Intelligence.
