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Discover Hidden iOS 18 Features You Didn't Know About!
Mar 11, 2025
Discover the best hidden iOS 18 features you didn't know about in our latest video! We'll uncover some incredible hidden features in iOS 18, revealing the secrets Apple didn't share. Learn about the new volume button animation, home screen customization options, and the adjustable flashlight beam width. Plus, find out how the updated recent tab in the phone app and the major iCloud page upgrade can enhance your iPhone experience. Don’t miss these hidden gems in iOS 18! 0:00 Introduction 0:24 Volume Button Animation 1:10 Home Screen Customization 2:14 Adjustable Flashlight Beam Width 2:42 Virtual Power Button 3:00 Smart Search Function in Settings 4:00 Recent Tab Update in Phone App 4:41 Files App Keep Downloaded Option 5:56 Offline Apple Maps Sync with Apple Watch 7:01 Conclusion Subscribe to our channel for more exciting iOS updates and hidden feature discoveries! More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com Follow us! Twitter: https://twitter.com/cultofmac Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cultofmac
View Video Transcript
0:00
all right L speaking of uh speaking of
0:03
features no one knew about how's that
0:04
for a segue wow man did you did that on
0:07
the Fly I know that that could that was
0:10
wow that's impressive that's what
0:11
happens when you podcast for 13 or 14 or
0:14
12 years whichever one is actually true
0:16
I'm not
0:18
sure oh yeah so uh we did a little post
0:20
uh this is by our own reesh Pandy yeah
0:24
he wrote 11 hidden iOS 18 features Apple
0:27
did not tell you about cuz they're
0:30
sneaky they like to hide
0:32
stuff so uh and one of these you know as
0:36
as mentioned 11 items this is probably
0:38
going to grow as time goes on because
0:39
there's about to be more things show but
0:42
one of the cool things it's a super
0:43
minor but this is the kind of thing I
0:45
love pressing the volume or side button
0:47
on your iPhone triggers an animation
0:50
that makes the screen bezel look like
0:52
it's expanding oh did you see that in
0:55
the video you say did you say bezel
0:57
bezel bezel I don't know how to
0:59
pronounce okay bezel bezel bezel it's
1:03
like it's like you click the volume like
1:04
either a side button or the power button
1:05
on your phone and it's like you're
1:07
you're squishing the black in a little
1:08
bit on the screen it's really cool yeah
1:10
it's that is one of those super cool
1:13
little uh UI things that Apple does that
1:15
you go wow that is thoughtful well
1:18
implemented doesn't you know make your
1:20
phone do something screwy that you don't
1:22
like it's just it's just a nice touch uh
1:26
you can see why they didn't mention it
1:27
but anyway it looks cool uh you're just
1:30
talking about all the home screen
1:32
customization options one of the things
1:33
you can do is you can hide the app
1:35
labels the name or the names you know
1:38
the little nam oh that actually is Handy
1:40
very clean looking right yeah I mean who
1:42
needs to see the actual name of the app
1:45
beneath the icon now what I don't know
1:47
is if if you can hide those one by one
1:50
no you you switch larger icons and then
1:54
all of the icons get slightly larger and
1:55
they sh and they hide the labels ah
1:57
wonderful I love that
2:00
I've got so many apps on my iPhone that
2:02
I never use and don't like I I'm stunned
2:04
that they're even there when they show
2:05
up in a search I'm like what is this I
2:07
don't even can't remember what they were
2:09
anyway let's see uh you can already
2:11
adjust the flashlight intensity on the
2:13
iPhone to the control center but in iOS
2:15
18 you can change the flashlight width
2:17
like the beam that it shoots out have
2:20
you seen that in action no there a tweet
2:22
on the page shows it it's pretty
2:24
interesting you can change the the the
2:27
angle of the beam is that what you said
2:30
the the like the width of the beam you
2:32
know like no way the focus of the beam
2:35
let's
2:36
see that's
2:39
crazy I knew you'd like that let's see
2:42
uh virtual power button added to the
2:43
control center so you don't have to
2:46
remember exactly how you turn the thing
2:47
on and
2:49
off let's see uh yeah search function in
2:54
the settings menu and iOS 18 will
2:56
automatically show relevant suggestions
2:58
based on your past usage might be handy
3:00
might be another thing where it tricks
3:02
you and keeps switching it out even as
3:04
you're typing press the wrong thing you
3:06
got to go dive back in dude that screen
3:09
bezel thing when you press the volume
3:10
button I'm watch it's cool is it that
3:13
that is uh that slick that is a Bonkers
3:17
UI effect the fact that they even
3:19
thought about that so it it it emulates
3:23
pressure on the on the outside band of
3:26
the phone to make it look like you're
3:27
pressing in on the frame of the phone
3:29
when it's just a UI effect it's like uh
3:32
it's like the rubber band effect from
3:34
way back in the day right yeah and uh
3:36
it's just one of those little cool
3:39
things that you just say wow that is
3:41
that is quality that's quality right
3:44
there it doesn't doesn't do a thing it
3:45
doesn't make the phone work faster run
3:47
it probably makes it the battery you
3:48
know 0.1% it probably drains the battery
3:51
yeah but uh it's quality workmanship
3:54
right there Lis quality
3:56
workmanship I agree let's see I I don't
3:58
know how much more this this is actually
3:59
pretty major too the iCloud page gets a
4:02
major up upgrade it looks if you show a
4:04
screenshot of that it looks way way way
4:06
different and actually in useful ways
4:08
because it's it's kind of weird I mean I
4:10
every time I dive into the iCloud part
4:11
of the phone it's like just seems really
4:14
anemic this look this looks great I
4:16
don't know if you've checked out a neat
4:18
thing that I've noticed in the settings
4:19
app is that like uh if you go to
4:21
different pages like the general page or
4:22
the accessibility page or uh like the
4:25
Wi-Fi page it has these ni nice little
4:27
like friendly explanatory like cards on
4:30
the top of the screen there like
4:31
explains the kind of settings that you
4:33
can expect to find there so it'll you
4:35
know teach people over time where to
4:36
find certain settings cool all right
4:40
let's see uh and this was the first one
4:43
in the uh in the post and and we were
4:46
talking about before the show it's a
4:46
little confusing uh but it's actually a
4:49
great thing they they tweaked the recent
4:51
tab in the in the phone app so that now
4:54
when you go in there you see the list of
4:55
people who've called you recently you
4:57
don't if there's like a a call button or
5:00
something or a icon that that that lets
5:03
you you you can easily press a thing
5:05
that pulls up the contact as opposed to
5:07
like right now you have to you know
5:10
click on that remember to click on that
5:11
little I icon over the right if you
5:13
happen to click on the person's name or
5:15
tap on the person's name instead you
5:17
automatically call them and you know I
5:19
it happens to be all the time I mean to
5:21
because to be honest I don't use the
5:22
phone that often and when I do use it I
5:24
almost never use it for in that way it's
5:27
always always like you know hey you know
5:30
what's her name please call such and
5:32
such which by the way at least 50% of
5:34
the time it gets it right that's AI it's
5:38
a power of AI That's why Nidia stock is
5:41
going to the
5:43
moon it's like to clarify if you're in
5:45
the recent Tab and you tap on any row
5:47
item right now it'll default to
5:50
immediately calling that person and you
5:52
have to tap on the tiny little ey to see
5:53
the details of the call which is
5:55
probably what you mean to do and in iOS
5:57
18 that's reversed where now if you tap
5:59
the r it'll show the detail View and you
6:01
have to tap a little phone button if you
6:02
want to try and call them it makes it
6:03
much much harder to accidentally call
6:06
somebody when you all you really want to
6:07
know is who is this person that called
6:09
me you know remind right now it's like
6:12
walking through a like a Minefield or
6:15
something trying not to call anybody
6:17
with your finger accidentally exactly
6:19
let's see what else anything else
6:22
Lis I think he hit all the Beats yeah I
6:26
don't know I didn't even understand the
6:27
files app has a keep downloaded option I
6:30
yeah file saved and I I mean I
6:32
understand what that is but I've never
6:35
uh that's not I've never run into that
6:37
being a
6:38
problem this this is cool though offline
6:41
Apple Maps syncing with Apple watch
6:43
first time ever apparently I didn't I
6:45
I'm that's one of those things I come
6:46
surpris really it doesn't work with
6:48
Apple watch but I've I guess I've never
6:49
tried it I never I I don't have a well I
6:54
don't often go anywhere without my phone
6:55
so why would I do that but anyway I
6:59
think that's I think that's maybe 11 I
7:01
don't know can't remember anyway that's
7:02
all that's all I got on there okay we'll
7:05
keep adding to it as time goes on we
7:06
discover more or you know the internet
7:09
discovers more hidden features in iOS I
7:12
always love the hidden features stuff
7:14
because there's always so many features
7:16
that are packed in there that they don't
7:18
have time to discuss at the keynote and
7:21
their life improvements that you just
7:22
get to stumble on and so like the hidden
7:25
iOS features it's one of my favorite
7:27
segments that we do every single time
7:29
they make uh or create new versions of
7:31
iOS because there's always a ton of
7:32
stuff in there that you discover right
7:34
and they're little nuggets that you
7:36
wouldn't have heard about from Apple
7:38
what one thing that I don't I don't know
7:40
if they mentioned this in the um the
7:43
wwec 24 keynote but uh the way that the
7:47
Siri UI Works where it like lights up
7:49
around the edges or something that looks
7:51
really uh pretty is that is that working
7:54
now in the in the beta or no that new UI
7:57
only comes to the new Siri so if you
7:59
don't have like right now Serio looks
8:02
exactly as it always has and it will for
8:05
everybody who doesn't have an iPhone 15
8:07
Pro
8:09
oh right right I got it because the the
8:12
the around the screen Edge UI for Siri
8:15
is supposed to indicate Siri's looking
8:16
at your entire screen and can take
8:18
action on what you're doing like have
8:20
symbolic okay I didn't even realize that
8:23
now that is interesting I didn't realize
8:25
that either that's pretty
8:27
cool of course of course it's got
8:30
additional meaning I of course haven't
8:32
tried it because I'm not going to
8:34
download an iOS beta no and it's also
8:38
not in there all the Apple none of the
8:39
Apple intelligence features are in the
8:40
first beta at all but people have been
8:43
posting shots that right because there
8:44
is some kind of way you can
8:46
like tweak there's some kind of tweak
8:48
you can do to to supposedly get the new
8:50
Siri but I don't I've never uh yet come
8:53
to figure out if that's actually the new
8:54
Siri UI or the actual new superpowered
8:59
EXT
9:00
almost kind of smart Siri or what it is
9:02
I don't know exactly what the
9:03
distinction is but I I have seen that
9:05
process and I'm in the I'm I'm in the
9:07
middle of myself it's it's it's a very
9:09
complicated uh set of stuffs you have to
9:12
go through just to have that new user
9:14
interface hey you know what it looks
9:16
pretty cool every time you use it you
9:18
say wow I'm glad I went through all that
9:20
time and effort this is the kind of
9:22
hard-hitting investigative journalism
9:24
you can find at cul
9:25
of.com that is true investigative
9:28
journalism