iOS 18 is a smart upgrade, even without the AI

It's a weird year for iOS.

Usually, the new software version arrives all at once. Not so with iOS 18. The foundational stuff has arrived, and in a normal year, things like RCS support and a redesigned control center would be more than enough. But iOS 18's headline feature, Apple Intelligence, isn't even part of this initial release, and we may not see some of its most interesting features until well into 2025. The iOS 18 rollout starts now, and it's just going to keep on rolling for the foreseeable future.

iOS 18 is an ambitious update, even without Apple Intelligence in the picture. Customization options are at an all-time high, and with some tinkering, you'll be able to personalize your iPhone like never before. It's almost un-Apple-like.

Control Center is a good place to start. The quick-access settings panel has looked and functioned in basically the same way for most of the past decade, but it gets a big overhaul in iOS 18. I think this is Apple at its best: everything you need is still there and the vibe is overwhelmingly familiar, but once you dig in, you can see how it's a massive change.

Controls are divided into pages now, with the familiar stuff like connectivity and focus modes in the places you'd expect them to be on the first page. And each page is highly customizable: you pick the controls you want to add or remove and decide where you want them and what size they should be. It'll get even more interesting when third-party apps start adding their own controls.

You can rearrange and resize controls to your heart's content.Adding controls is way easier now: just grab 'em from this panel and drop them in.

The new layout took me a minute to get used to. At first, I was swiping too far down the screen and skipping to the second or third page of controls. It took a week or so to retrain that muscle memory, and you can just delete the additional pages if you want to. Personally, I'm hoping I can turn the new control center into a little remote control for my phone and use it to cut down on the number of trips I make to individual apps.