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Awesome Hidden iOS 18 Features — Eye Tracking, Music Haptics, Accessibility
Mar 11, 2025
Article on Cult of Mac: More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones Chapters: 0:00 Intro 0:16 Eye Tracking 1:27 Music Haptics 2:24 Vocal Shortcuts 3:53 Vehicle Motion Cues 4:44 Listen for Atypical Speech Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac Instagram: https://instagram.com/cultofmac/
View Video Transcript
0:00
accessibility features usually fly under
0:02
the radar in terms of product
0:03
announcements but are very often some of
0:06
the coolest features on the iPhone here
0:08
are the five awesome accessibility
0:10
features coming this year in iOS
0:14
18 let's start with number one eye
0:17
tracking this Advanced and highly
0:20
ambitious feature lets you use your
0:22
iPhone entirely with your eyes likely
0:26
borrowing some tech from The Vision Pro
0:28
you could use this feature if you to use
0:30
your iPhone with soapy hands while
0:32
you're doing the dishes or dirty oily
0:35
hands while you're fixing your car
0:37
enable it in settings accessibility eye
0:39
tracking just like on the Vision Pro
0:41
you'll have to calibrate it by following
0:43
a DOT along on the screen and then it'll
0:46
work right away just glare out a button
0:48
for a few moments to activate it to
0:50
activate controls like scrolling volume
0:53
going to the home screen or control
0:55
center there's a floating onscreen
0:57
button that you can again just look at
1:00
in my testing the feature isn't super
1:02
reliable and that's understandable The
1:04
Vision Pro has multiple cameras less
1:07
than an inch from your face your iPhone
1:10
has one camera that you typically hold
1:13
at arms length away the accuracy isn't
1:16
going to be the same for the best
1:18
results put your iPhone on a MAG safe
1:20
stand hold your face kind of close to it
1:23
and make sure there aren't a lot of
1:24
Reflections or glare on your glasses
1:27
number two music haptics add an extra
1:30
Dimension to your music taking advantage
1:33
of the incredibly precise haptic engine
1:35
built into your iPhone music haptics are
1:38
a specially recorded track of vibrations
1:41
buzzes rhythms and patterns timed to the
1:44
music enable it in settings
1:46
accessibility music haptics in the
1:49
hearing section currently it's only
1:51
available in apple music which requires
1:53
a subscription but it may be added to
1:55
your third party app in the future not
1:58
every song in the Apple music catalog
1:59
has it but if it is available you'll see
2:01
a music haptics toggle under the play
2:04
progress bar I can't play music for you
2:07
on YouTube and I can't make you feel
2:09
what it feels like but this is a
2:11
recording of what it's kind of
2:14
[Music]
2:23
like number three vocal shortcuts let
2:26
you set up your own audio cues just like
2:30
but for running your own shortcuts
2:32
automations if you're not familiar with
2:34
shortcuts I made a quick explainer video
2:36
here this is a powerful way to automate
2:39
your phone with only your voice you
2:41
don't have to make room for a widget on
2:43
your home screen you don't have to type
2:45
in a shortcut with Spotlight or asking
2:47
Siri you don't have to dig through the
2:50
shortcuts app God forbid set it up in
2:53
settings accessibility vocal shortcuts
2:56
in the speech section towards the bottom
2:58
enable vocal shortcuts then tap add
3:01
action to create one create a Siri
3:03
request by entering in a command you
3:05
often give to Siri like text my partner
3:08
I'm on my way home play music by
3:10
driftless Pony Club or roll a D20 or you
3:13
can pick a shortcut from any shortcut
3:16
you have on your phone then you enter in
3:18
the custom trigger phrase you want to
3:21
use to run the action it can be
3:23
something as simple as stock update or
3:26
favorite music or it can be something
3:29
completely silly like aoy computer then
3:32
you'll need to speak it aloud three
3:33
different times so that your phone can
3:35
learn at this step I recommend going for
3:38
different pitches in your voice holding
3:40
your phone at different distances from
3:42
you so that it can learn all the
3:44
different ways you may speak it alloud
3:47
and that's all you need to do now you
3:48
have a custom trigger phrase to run your
3:51
favorite automation number four if you
3:53
get motion sick easily you've probably
3:56
had a hard time using your phone in a
3:57
bumpy car ride once solution is to get a
4:00
car with expensive air ride suspension
4:03
but a much cheaper option is to enable
4:06
vehicle motion cues in settings
4:09
accessibility motion show vehicle motion
4:12
cues if you set it to automatic it'll
4:15
come on every time there's significant
4:17
motion and it'll go away when you're
4:19
sitting still the dots along the edge of
4:21
the screen will animate to match the
4:23
motion of the Planes Trains or
4:25
automobiles you're riding according to
4:28
Apple motion sickness is is commonly
4:30
caused by sensory conflict between what
4:32
a person sees and what they feel these
4:35
dots will reduce the amount of sensory
4:37
conflict so that you can read or watch
4:39
Tik Tok on your long windy car road trip
4:42
without feeling ill number five if you
4:45
have a condition that affects your
4:46
speech listen for atypical speech might
4:49
offer a big Improvement on how features
4:51
like Siri and dictation understand your
4:54
voice according to Apple the feature
4:57
will recognize user speech patterns on
4:59
device device enhancing speech
5:02
recognition for a wider range of speech
5:05
you can enable it in settings
5:07
accessibility Siri listen for atypical
5:11
speech just checking that feature might
5:13
significantly improve the accuracy of
5:15
your speech to text and those are the
5:17
five accessibility features remember to
5:20
like And subscribe for more iOS 18
5:21
features I'm deerin Jones with Cult of
5:24
back
5:26
[Music]
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