I know what you're thinking: Another year, another iOS. And most years, I'd be inclined to agree with you. Apple has increasingly become less risk averse, making annual software upgrades feel less "wow!" and more "welp..."
But to put it in Passover terms, this year is not like the others. This year, Apple is shaking things up, and I'm not just talking about Apple Intelligence or the long-awaited adoption of RCS. I'm talking about something deeper, something philosophical. I'm talking about customization, but more importantly, I'm talking about chaos.
The winds of change
Maybe the biggest indicator of change in iOS 18 is right front and center: home screen customization.
Anyone using iOS 18 can now avail themselves of myriad native home screen customization options.
That might elicit an eye roll from Android users who have long enjoyed the liberty of customizing aspects of their phone UI, but for anyone who's firmly in the iOS family, this year's customization features are a drastic departure. For the uninitiated, let me recap; anyone using iOS 18 can now avail themselves of myriad native home screen customization options.
You can change your app icons; you can change the icon colors; you can drag all your apps to the dead center of your home screen and make one, giant, app-flavored soup. The world — and your iPhone — is your oyster, and Apple is finally letting you decorate it (or torture it) as you wish.
iOS 18 only just came out officially this week, but I've already seen the full spectrum of iOS home screen decoration. There's lots of monochrome, there's Kermit, there's what I can only describe as app-based Tetris. People are having fun with it — and who can blame them?
What’s your current iOS 18 Home Screen Set Up? pic.twitter.com/olYJuL9cpnJuly 21, 2024
The chaos doesn't stop at the homescreen.
Along with added home screen customization, Apple is also slowly rolling out its new suite of generative AI-enabled features dubbed Apple Intelligence. I won't unpack all of them here (trust me, there are a lot), but one jumped out of my mind upon Apple's announcement — I'm talking about Genmojis.
For Apple, a company that has been nothing short of dictatorial about its image and what users can and can't do with its products, allowing Genmojis isa a surprising choice.
Again, for the uninitiated, Genmojis creation is a new iOS feature being rolled out as a part of Apple Intelligence that allows users to generate unsanctioned emojis with AI. That's right; you can generate your emojis from scratch without Apple first okaying them. For other tech titans, that might feel on-brand, but for Apple, a company that has been nothing short of dictatorial about its image and what users can and can't do with its products, allowing Genmojis is a surprising choice.
Both home screen customizations and Genmojis point toward a larger trend of Apple easing its vice grip on iOS and the Apple ecosystem and letting users take the wheel. While I'm willing to wager that most people won't take advantage of the wacky antics that granular icon customization and placement offer, we can all appreciate the option.
If Apple were your parents, iOS 18 equates to moment they handed you the keys to the family car — you still have to be home by 9 p.m., but Tim Cook and friends are doing more than just letting you take your iPhone for a spin around the block.
A new iOS horizon
For me, it's not so much the new customization or AI that has me excited, it's what those features represent.
Apple is turning the page on its walled-garden approach to ecosystems.
In more ways than one, Apple is turning the page on its walled-garden approach to ecosystems, and that newfound inclusivity (whether forced by the European Union or not) is creating some huge benefits for everyone who uses its products.
Today's iPhone, the iPhone 16, has USB-C; it plays nice with RCS, affording green bubble Android users features like read receipts, tapbacks, and more; it further sheds Apple's reluctance to let its customers choose how their phones look and feel.
Apple Intelligence alone is one of Apple's wildest experiments to date. It finds the company in similarly unfamiliar territory, embracing a nascent and unpredictable technology (generative AI) that is still prone to "hallucinations" instead of its typical wait-and-see approach with adoption.
I'm not saying Apple Intelligence or more iOS customization will be groundbreaking in and of themselves, but Apple's seemingly new attitude toward software might be. At the risk of sounding like a jaded tech journalist, iOS 18 has me excited for the first time in a while because it feels like Apple is willing to take some risks.
Of course, not all of those risks will be rewarded, but for us humble iPhone users, that little dose of chaos could make for a more exciting future iPhone.
