Charging limits, flashlight beam patterns and more: 6 iOS 18 updates Apple did not speak about at WWDC 2024

At WWDC 2024, Apple unveiled the much awaited iOS 18 and its AI powers. While the event covered all major features, Apple left behind a few small but smart features. In their defence, they already had too much on their plate, convincing the audience of what iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence offers. But it does not make these updates less significant.

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These features include new bezel animations, bilingual typing, Vision Pro will show a keyboard in the virtual mode, the addition of charging limits and a few more. Let’s discuss these features in detail.

iPhone’s bezels coming to life

One of these features is bezel animation on the upcoming iOS 18. The beta phase of iOS 18 shows a clever new animation when you press the side buttons. The Verge has observed that pressing the side buttons of the device, supported by iOS 18, makes it look like pushing into the screen. While this feature may seem to add just a fun element to the user experience, it might also have a role to play.

The rumour has it that Apple is planning to release the upcoming iPhone 16 series with solid buttons on the side that don’t move when pressed. This feature might compliment the new hardware upgrade. The animation might be a visual indicator of the clicking of side buttons.

Flashlight patterns

The beta phones also found that tapping the flashlight icon in the iOS 18 betas will also have a new pattern. For now, the flashlight can only be altered with its intensity, but now iOS 18 will also let users change the shape of the beam. The animation of a flashlight is that users can slide their finger left and right to adjust the pattern of the flashlight.

But this special flash can only be found on iPhone 15 pro phones, for now.

Dual-language writing experience

If you know multiple languages, this new feature might excite you enough. In the iOS 18 beta version, the OS lets users toggle between two different languages at once. Say goodbye to tapping on the screen again and again or change the keyboard to another language.

This feature will stop the autocorrect results just because the user wanted to write a couple of words in any other language than English.

Widget customisation

At WWDC 2024, Apple announced that the new iOS 18 is all about customisation. They also demonstrated how the home screen can be personalised well. Over and above, Apple is also working on a better way to resize widgets in iOS 18. The beta version shows that long-press on the home screen will open a row of size options in the contextual menu.

Vision Pro to have a virtual keypad

One of the most exciting features in Vision Pro is that the headset will show the user their keyboard when you are fully in a virtual environment. This feature will let the users work in the mountains or at the beach. But this feature is designed to work with the Magic Keyboard.

Charging limits

In the Settings app for iOS 18, iPhone 15 series users will see multiple options for setting a charging limit in the Charging section of the Battery menu. Currently, Apple lets the users set only an 80 per cent charge limit. However, with improved features in iOS 18, users will have the option to set the charge limits to 85 per cent, 90 per cent and 95 per cent.

iOS 18, being smarter than the previous operating systems, will also be able to notify users when they are using slow chargers. This new feature will be available in the Settings app, under the Battery menu. Read more about it here.

Adding to the list, Apple has also introduced new wallpapers in macOS Sequoia.