Apple released iOS 18.6 to address important bug fixes and security updates, so grab it the next chance you get. But while you’re updating to keep your iPhone safe, this is a great opportunity to reevaluate how you’re using it. With just a few changes, you can improve your day-to-day iPhone experience and get ready for iOS 26 when it arrives next month.
After digging into the latest update, I found 10 settings that made an immediate difference in how I use my iPhone. Some are simple quality-of-life upgrades, while others help cut down on background drain or boost privacy.
You don’t need to be a tech expert to make these changes, and most take less than a minute to apply. If your iPhone has been feeling a little sluggish or just not working the way you want it to, these quick adjustments might be all it takes to get things back on track.
For more on what’s new in iOS 18, learn about improvements to the overhauled Calculator app and the Mail app. And don’t forget to consult our iOS 18 upgrade checklist, which includes making sure you have a proper backup before upgrading.
Turn off Mail Categories from within the Inbox. (iOS 18.5 beta shown here.)
Change the default buttons on the lock screen
In real estate, location is everything, and the bottom corners of the iPhone lock screen are the prime spots, each an easy thumb press away when your device is still locked. Before iOS 18, those posts were held by the flashlight and camera buttons, with no way to change them.
In iOS 18, you can finally replace them with other buttons — or remove them entirely, a balm for folks who unknowingly activate the flashlight (believe me, there’s a better way to turn it on). You can add buttons to recognize music via Shazam, enable Dark Mode, set an alarm/timer, enable Airplane Mode, open your Wallet, send money via Tap to Cash and more.
Here’s how:
1. On the iPhone’s lock screen, touch and hold anywhere on the display until you see the Customize button. You’ll need to unlock the phone using Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode. If it opens the home screen, swipe down from the center-top of the screen (not the right edge, which brings up Control Center.
2. Tap Customize and then choose Lock Screen.
3. Remove one of the buttons by tapping the – (minus) button on the icon.
4. To replace the button with another function, tap its space (now with a + icon) and then choose the one you want on the next screen. (You can also opt to leave that space empty with no button.)
5. Repeat those steps for the other button if you want to change it.
6. Tap Done when you’re finished.
7. Tap the lock screen again to exit the customize mode.
In iOS 18.4, Apple Intelligence can prioritize notifications to grab your attention.
Set up some of the new tasks available on the Action button
The Action button on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16E and iPhone 16 Pro replaced the dedicated mute switch found on every earlier iPhone model with a configurable control. By default, it serves the same purpose — hold it to turn Silent Mode on or off — but you can configure it for other actions like opening the Camera app, performing multiple actions at once or even ordering coffee. The iOS 18.4 update adds Visual Intelligence as an option for the Action button. That makes the AI technology available on the iPhone 16E, which does not include the novel new Camera Control but is now an option for any iPhone with an Action button.
In iOS 18, the Action button gets new capabilities. You can bypass Control Center and choose a control of your choice, such as opening the Remote interface for navigating Apple TV or using Shazam to identify a song.
To choose a different action for the Action button, go to Settings > Action Button. Swipe sideways to select and activate one of the available actions. For the Controls, Shortcut and Accessibility options, tap the Choose button to pick which specific action to run.
Position app icons where you want so this very good girl isn’t covered.
You can also quickly turn compatible apps into widgets that display more information. Maps, for instance, can be a map of your current location with shortcut buttons to search for places or bring up a list of nearby places (such as dinner spots). Touch and hold the app icon and look for a row of resize buttons in the menu that appears. Once expanded beyond the standard icon size, you can drag the handle in the bottom-right corner of the new icon. To get it back to its single icon size you need to touch and hold again and choose the single-icon button
In the home screen’s Dark mode, icons and the background are given a darker treatment.
In Dark mode, the background image also changes. Apple’s default iOS 18 wallpaper dynamically changes from light to dark as the day progresses, or you can choose colors that offer a light and dark option. If you use a photo, its overall exposure is reduced to dim the light output.
If you want dark icons but aren’t a fan of the dimmed photo treatment, tap the sun icon in the corner of the options sheet at the bottom of the screen to toggle back to Light mode just for the background.
Tinted icons: A new and different option is to tint all of the app icons so they share the same color. In the Customize options at the bottom of the screen, choose Tinted as the icon style. You can then adjust the Hue (the slider with the color spectrum) and Luminosity (the slider with the dark to light range) to choose the color tint you prefer.
Make the home screen icons larger and hide the app labels.
After making any of these changes, tap anywhere on the screen to apply them and exit the Customize interface.
Change up how the Control Center looks
Control Center was once a convenient place to quickly access controls such as playback volume and Airplane mode but under iOS 18 it’s a configurable playground. You can position controls where you want, resize many to reveal more information and add new controls on multiple screens.
Swipe down from the top-right corner to reveal the Control Center (or swipe up from the bottom on the iPhone SE). To enter edit mode, touch and hold or press the + button at the top-left corner.
Just as with moving apps, drag a control to another slot on the screen to reposition it. Many of the controls also include a bottom-right handle that can resize the control — in most cases, it reveals the name of the control and its current status (such as Flashlight Off).
Some controls get their own screens, such as Home. Normally it’s on the third screen, but here it’s been moved to the second screen.
To remove controls, tap the – (minus) button that appears. You can also add other controls: Tap Add a Control and scroll through the available options ranging from starting a Screen Recording to a host of accessibility options.
Read more: All the new controls you can add to Control Center
Lock or hide any of your sensitive apps
Our phones carry some of our most sensitive data and yet it’s not uncommon to hand a phone to a friend to view photos or look up something online. That doesn’t mean they’re going to snoop but it doesn’t not mean they might be more curious than you’re comfortable with. For data you want to ensure stays out of sight or to add a layer of protection in front of sensitive information, iOS 18 adds the ability to lock and hide apps.
For example, let’s say you keep an ongoing set of lists of gift ideas for family members in the Notes app. You can lock individual notes, but that requires a separate step. Maybe a few ideas were made as individual quick notes or drawings. Instead of micromanaging access, you can lock the entire Notes app by doing the following:
Touch and hold the app icon you want to lock and choose Require Face ID or Require Touch ID (or Require Passcode if Face ID or Touch ID are not enabled) from the menu that appears. Confirm your choice by tapping Require Face ID (or similar) in the next dialog.
When you choose Hide and Require Face ID to protect an app, it gets put into the Hidden folder in App Library (top). Tap the folder and authenticate to access the app (bottom).
iOS 18 imposes some limitations on hidden apps. Some, such as many of the built-in ones like Notes or Reminders, can only be locked and cannot be hidden at all. Also, the Hidden folder locks itself when you launch an app or swipe away from the App Library.
Turn off Loop Videos in the Photos app
Many apps have implemented a small but annoying (to me) feature, and now Photos under iOS 18.2 has it too: Videos automatically replay when you watch them until you tap the Pause button. That can be fun once or twice, or when viewing short clips. I’m not a fan of having to take action to make them stop each time.
Now I can take action once. Go to Settings > Photos, scroll down until you see Loop Videos and turn the option off. A video will play on its own but then stop at the end as it should.
In the Calendar app’s Month view, pinch to zoom in and see more details.
The Day view, which breaks down your day hour by hour, now has a new Multi Day view that shows two consecutive days to give you context for what’s coming without turning the phone into landscape orientation and viewing the Week view. Tap the View button at the top of the Single Day view and choose Multi Day from the popup menu.
Turn on Enhance Dialogue in the TV app to discern characters’ speech better in noisy scenes.
These are just a few new features and changes in iOS 18. Check out our broader coverage of Apple Intelligence, more impressions of the system after using it for months and how these all work together with the iPhone 16 models.
