The phased rollout of Apple Intelligence continues with iOS 18.2, but there are plenty of other new features for those who couldn’t care less about AI. As ever, you can install the update via Settings > General > Software Update once it’s available.
1New Apple Intelligence Capabilities
Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2brings five new features: Image Playground, Image Wand, Genmoji, ChatGPT support, and a Writing Tools tweak.
Image Playground is a new iPhone, iPad, and Mac app that creates images from concepts, descriptions, and people. Write a text prompt like “a cute dog wearing a party hat and smiling behind a birthday cake,” choose a cartoon-like style (Animation or Illustration), and off you go. AI will create small previews you may swipe through and refine.
you’re able to even feed Image Playground an image from the People album in Photos to create an AI version. Image Playground suggests AI creations, too, and is accessible as an option in Messages, Freeform, and even third-party apps.
Image Wand, a feature exclusively available in the Notes app from the Markup menu, lets you write a text description or circle your rough sketch to turn it into a proper drawing. And if you circle an empty space, Image Wand will create an image from scratch based on the surrounding context. It can even make pictures from handwritten text.
Based on Image Playground, Genmoji is Apple’s AI emoji generator available from the built-in emoji keyboard. you may use a text prompt like “an angry pink elephant with hearts for eyes” or choose a person’s image to create a genmoji that looks like them. To ensure genmoji are viewable on any device, they’re sent as regular images.
iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 integrate ChatGPT into Siri andWriting Tools. Siri offers to offload a complex request to ChatGPT with your permission. You can sign in with ChatGPT to access your account benefits from within Siri. Apple says requests are anonymous and won’t be used to train OpenAI’s models.
ChatGPT in Writing Tools lets you create text from scratch. Before iOS 18.2, Writing Tools could only summarize, rewrite, and proofread existing text. Speaking of Writing Tools, you can now rewrite text in a specific style, such as a poem.
iOS 18.2 expands access to five English-speaking languages: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. Apple Intelligence will expand to Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, and other languages in 2025.
2Visual Intelligence
Google Lens-like Visual Intelligence is exclusive to the iPhone 16 lineup. Accessible by pressing and holding the Camera Control button, Visual Intelligence lets you learn about real-world objects in the viewfinder.
Point the camera at a nearby restaurant and hit “Search” to find related Google results or “Ask” to upload the image to ChatGPT for more information. Visual Intelligence can summarize any text in the viewfinder, and you can tap an email address or phone number to quickly add it to your contacts.
You’ll need an Apple Intelligence-capable device for this feature, otherwise you cancreate a shortcut that uses Google Lens instead.
3AirTag Location Sharing
You can temporarilyshare an AirTag locationwith a link in the Find My app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Thanks to Apple’s partnerships with global airlines, you’ll be able to share an AirTag location with them to help track delayed baggage “in the coming months.”
4Mail App Categorization (iPhone-only)
The Mail app automatically files incoming emails into four smart categories—Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions—to help you triage your inbox. Apple does this by performing on-device scans of email metadata instead of the body. As a bonus, a new digest view bundles all messages from one sender into a single view.
Mail categorization is iPhone-only for the time being.
5Require Screen on for Camera Control
iOS 18.2 disables theCamera Control capture buttonwhen your iPhone 16 sleeps to prevent accidental camera launches, but you’re able to change this via a new Require Screen On toggle in Settings > Display and Brightness.
Turn this setting off to open your designated camera app by pressing the capture button regardless of whether the display is on or off.
6Camera Control Double-Click Speed
you may already change the default Camera Control launch gesture from single to double-click before, and iOS 18.2 permits you to adjust the double-click speed between “Default,” “Slow,” and “Slower” at the bottom of Settings > Accessibility > Camera Control.
7Two-Stage Shutter With Camera Control
Turn on “AE/EF Lock” in Settings > Camera > Camera Control for a two-stage shutter in the built-in Camera app. If you’ve used a DSLR before, you’ll feel right at home; press and hold Camera Control lightly to lock focus and exposure, then press deeper to snap up a photo.
8Audio Layering in Voice Memos
The Voice Memos app brings layered audio support, so you can record a song idea and add vocals later. You can import these two-track projects into Logic Pro on the iPhone 16 lineup. This feature is unsupported in Voice Memos for iPad and Mac.
9Volume Slider on the Lock Screen
iOS 18.0 removed the volume slider from the Now Playing control on the lock screen when using headphones or the built-in speaker, but iOS 18.2 brings it back! It’s off by default, so enable it by switching on “Always Show Volume Control” in Settings > Accessibility > Audio and Visual.
10Volume Limit for the Built-In Speaker
iOS 18.2 brings volume limits for the built-in speaker to protect your hearing when playing music, movies, and other media. Enable it by flipping on “Limit Maximum Volume” under the Built-In Speaker section in Settings > Sounds & Haptics > Volume Limit.
