iOS 18.2 Beta 1: All New Features You Should Know About

Apple has silently released iOS 18.2 Beta 1 to all eligible iPhone models for developers. iOS 18.2 brings a slew of new features and settings but the most important that you should be hyped about is Apple Intelligence. Yup, more AI tools and apps like Genmoji and Image Playground are for you. Let’s dive deeper.

1. Apple Intelligence Features

Let’s start with AI (Apple Intelligence) first. After all, that is the flavor of the year for Apple. iOS 18.2 beta brings much more AI features to the iPhones than iOS.1 which missed out on several AI features.

Image Playground

It is a standalone text-to-image generator AI app. Image Playground will also integrate with the Messages app so you can generate images within Messages while chatting with your friends and family. Do wait for our deep dive later today.

Genmoji

The new generation is going to love Genmoji. It unlocks the potential to create new, fun, and complex emojis on the fly. Simply give a text prompt and Genmoji will generate an emoji that doesn’t even exist on the internet. It can be anything that fancies your imagination like an alligator playing soccer.

Image Wand

This is a Notes app feature. You can use Image Wand to turn your sketches and drawings into images in the Notes app. In a way, it is an extension of the Image Playground that has been integrated into the Notes app but given a new name for some reason.

Writing Tools

This is a no-brainer and will benefit writers of all sorts. Writing Tools is a collection of tools that you will find when drafting emails, creating notes, writing messages, and so on. It can change tone, proofread text, and make changes as you see fit. Interestingly, Writing Tools is no longer limited to three tones as Apple has previously showcased. We will explore this one in more depth soon.

ChatGPT Integration with Siri

Your personal assistant is getting the AI treatment. ChatGPT has been integrated with Siri so it can better handle complex tasks. Moving forward, Siri will take care of your regular mundane requests on-device while more advanced requests will be processed in the cloud by ChatGPT. Apple says the feature is opt-in so you can choose to use ChatGPT or let Siri handle it. There are some settings that you can toggle to change Siri’s behavior. More on that in a separate article though.

Visual Intelligence

Think of it like Google Lens. Simply point your camera at something and iPhone will use the power of the internet and AI to tell you what you are looking at. You can learn more about objects, places, gadgets, and more simply by scanning it using your camera. iPhone 16 models come with Camera Control button making it quicker to launch the Camera app.

Summarize Notifications

Receiving too many notifications? Who isn’t? Apple Intelligence can now summarize notifications and group them so you don’t have to go through each. This will be done for notifications that AI deems as not so important. On the other hand, important notifications like OTPs, reminders, etc. will be shown immediately.

2. Voice Memos

The humble and essential Voice app is getting an interesting update. You can now layer two different tracks on top of each other. You can also separate layers and edit mixes. So where can you use this? We will explore use cases in an upcoming article soon.

3. Apple Arcade

Subscribers of Apple Arcade can now turn off game previews. Many of us found it to be annoying anyway. There is also a filter menu in the All Games section.

4. EU Users Can Delete Apps

Users residing in the EU (European Union) can delete Apple apps like App Store, Safari, Messages, etc. from their iPhone. This is something that the rest of the world should also be able to do.

5. Volume Limit

Deep inside the Settings app, there is a new volume limit option for Sound and Haptics accessibility feature users. You will find the Limit Maximum Volume option to control the iPhone speaker volume while playing sounds, songs, movies, etc.

6. Safari Browser

Safari gets a little privacy update. Inside Safari settings, you will find a new section called History and Website Data where you can import, export, and clear history and website data with a tap.

Other Features

Here is a list of some small features and settings we found:

• Sleep Apnea detection is now available in Canada.
• You can now categorize as favorites in the Podcasts app.
• Type to Siri option or shortcut has been added to Control Center.
• Control Center – Adaptive Audio gets a new icon and the Satellite control option is removed from the Connectivity section.
• Under Settings > Apps, there is a new default apps section.

And that’s it, folks.

Gaurav Bidasaria

Gaurav is an editor here at TechWiser but also contributes as a writer. He has more than 10 years of experience as a writer and has written how-to guides, comparisons, listicles, and in-depth explainers on Windows, Android, web, and cloud apps, and the Apple ecosystem. He loves tinkering with new gadgets and learning about new happenings in the tech world. He has previously worked on Guiding Tech, Make Tech Easier, and other prominent tech blogs and has over 1000+ articles that have been read over 50 million times.