iOS 18 has so much it can make your head spin.
You probably already know about some of the main features, such as customizing the home screen, formatting text messages, and improvements to Maps. All the Apple Intelligence features are also available.
That’s not all iOS 18 has to offer. There are a lot of new settings that aren’t released, so they stay under the radar, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t important.
These are all the hidden features of iOS 18 that you need to know about.
For more, here are seven iOS 18 settings you’ll want to change right away, how to back up your iPhone the right way, and how to fix these three pesky iOS 18 settings.
Restart your iPhone from the new Control Center
You don’t need to press any physical buttons to restart your iPhone if you’re using iOS 18. The redesigned Control Center features all the classic controls you’re used to, like brightness, volume, orientation, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, but there are some new controls, including one to restart your iPhone.
All you have to do is swipe down from the top right of your iPhone and press and hold the new power button in the upper right of the control center. You can’t just touch it; you need to hold it down for a second or so and then the slider will appear to turn off your iPhone.
To turn your iPhone back on, you’ll still need to press and hold the physical side button.
In iOS 17 and earlier, the only way to restart iPhone is to press and hold the volume button and the side button.
Use a QR code to share your Wi-Fi password
There are several ways you can share a Wi-Fi network and password with people via your iPhone, and there’s a new way to do it in iOS 18. Using a QR code fills in some gaps for ways to quickly share Wi-Fi Information:
- Share with multiple people at once. Instead of sending your Wi-Fi password individually, you can have everyone scan the QR code from your phone.
- Share with someone not saved as your contact. Proximity sharing for Wi-Fi doesn’t work if that person isn’t in your contacts.
- Share with someone who has Android. Nearby Sharing and AirDrop do not work with Android devices.
Check this out: 11 hidden features in iOS 18
So, if you meet any of these scenarios and don’t want to text your Wi-Fi password, you can use the QR code. Go to the new one Passwords app, go to the Wi-Fi section, tap the network you want to share, and then press Display the QR code of the network. If the other person scans the QR code with their camera, they will connect to the Wi-Fi network.
This only works for Wi-Fi passwords, not regular passwords.
Adjust the width of the flashlight beam
The flashlight on the iPhone is getting a big upgrade. You’ve long been able to change the intensity of your flashlight, but in iOS 18 you can now also adjust the width of the light beam, as long as you have a compatible model. You can go wide, to cover more area with less light, or narrow, to use more intense light in less area, and anywhere in between. It’s a fun feature to play with to light up people for photos.
To use the new feature, turn on the flashlight (use the lock screen or control center) and a new user interface will appear in the dynamic island. You can change the light intensity by sliding up and down, but to change the width of the beam, you will need to swipe left and right. If you tap anywhere on the dynamic island, you can turn the flashlight on and off.
A wide beam flashlight (left) and a narrow beam.
note: This feature only works on iPhone models with Dynamic Island, including iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max, iPhone 15 series, and iPhone 16 series.
Transcribe voice notes and make them searchable
The Voice Memos app is great for capturing ideas or song snippets, but they’ve always been blurry. You can give them a descriptive title, but that doesn’t help when you want to find that one note you’ve recorded that contains the word “porcupine”. In iOS 18, the app can create transcriptions of your voice memos and search for words that were previously only available as audio waveforms.
In the Voice Memos app, tap one of your notes to reveal its controls, then tap Edit record button, which looks like a waveform. Or, tap the three-dot button to the right of a note and select Edit record.
Next, tap on transcribe button to create the transcription (or view the text if it is already transcribed). touch Done.
Take an existing voice memo (left) and create a transcription of the recording (right).
Now, when you use the Search field, the app looks through transcripts in addition to titles for results. Text is also available across iOS. When you perform a search from the home screen, you’ll see Voice Memos as a category with notes that include the search term (you may need to tap Show more results to find out).
With transcriptions made, voice memos are more searchable.
Hide app labels for a cleaner home screen
Is your home screen feeling a little cluttered? If so, this new feature can help. Now with iOS 18, you can get rid of the app labels or app names you see under each app icon on your home screen. If you can tell an app by its icon alone, who needs the label?
On your home screen, press and hold any empty space until you enter scroll mode, then tap Edit > Customize. A menu will appear at the bottom of the screen; Select Big option, which will make your app icons a little bigger and remove the app labels.
This will also remove app tags from folders in the App Library.
Change an app to a widget without leaving the home screen
Not every iOS app has a widget for your home screen, but if it does, you don’t need to dig through the widget editing page to find it. If you’re running iOS 18 and there’s an app you want to turn into a widget, you can do so very quickly from the home screen.
In a supported app, press and hold the icon on the home screen to display the quick actions menu. If the app has a widget, you’ll see an app icon next to a row of widget icons (up to three). Tap one of the widget icons to change the application to a widget. If you want to go back from the widget to the app, go to the quick action menu and press the app icon on the left.
This only works for apps that have iOS widgets.
Secretly identify songs using the action button
No lie, it’s satisfying when someone asks, “What song is that?” to turn on Music Recognition on iPhone and get an answer quickly. But getting the answer very obviously means asking Siri to run Shazam or turning on Music Recognition in the control center. Wouldn’t it be fun to let your friends think you’ve been blessed with an encyclopedic knowledge of pop music?
In iOS 18, you can zoom in using the action button. Go to SETTINGS > Action button and scroll through the options until Knowledge of music is selected.
Set the Music Recognition feature to the action button, then identify songs by simply holding the button.
To make it work, simply press and hold the action button for a few seconds. Shazam appears in the dynamic island to hear what’s playing and identify the song. If you’re sneaky enough to turn on Shazam and look at your phone, no one has to know you got help from a supercomputer in the cloud.
Find handwritten images and illustrations 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 images. Apple has also thrown a few surprises into the app to help you organize your library.
Scroll down the main library itself to see categories such as People and pets AND memory until you arrive Municipal services. Tap it to see the full list — but note that a new feature of this interface is the ability to swipe left to see additional panels. Prior to iOS 18, Utilities included options to view hidden, recently deleted, and duplicated photos.
Now, it includes many more options. touch Handwriting to see images with handwriting on them. Looking for images that are illustrations rather than photographs? touch Illustrations (although in our testing this seems to have a lot of screenshots too).
View images containing handwriting in your photo library in iOS 18.
Share a specific section of a 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 could send an episode to a friend with advanced playback up until that point — but the ability isn’t easy to find.
touch Now the tape is playing in the app at the bottom of the screen to see playback controls and pause the episode. Use the progress bar to go back to the beginning of the section you want to share.
Next, tap on More (…) button and select Share the Episode. In the sharing options that appear, tap From the beginning under the episode title and then select from [the current time]. touch Done.
Start by sharing the episode itself.
Finally, choose the sharing method, such as through Messages or Mail. When the recipient receives the shared episode and opens it in the Podcasts app, they will see the option for it Play from [the time].
Specify that the shared episode starts at the time you selected.