How iOS 18 can help you at work

Beyond the writing tools that come with Apple Intelligence, significantly faster processors, and the luxurious look of the iPhone 16 Pro models, there wasn’t much of explicit interest to business users at Apple’s product launch on Monday. It’s true that the new iPhones are better in many ways, but it’s the platform — in this case, iOS 18 — that remains the key selling point for business professionals.

Here's a rundown of some of the ways iOS 18 will help users get more done.

For many, the iPhone 16 is a software story

We now know that Apple will introduce iOS 18, the software that runs Apple devices and supports iPhones, on Monday, September 16. When it does, it will also send out an iOS 17.7 update for customers who don't yet want to upgrade to the new mobile operating system.

With interest in Apple Intelligence on the rise (though it’s not arriving until later this fall), business buyers should be aware of the products Apple removed from sale when it introduced its new iPhones. These include the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPhone 13 (the company still sells the iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus). Apple will likely add additional models (like the iPhone XR) to its list of older and discontinued products in the coming months.

It’s a fairly standard cadence, but it’s important to note that only iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 range devices will feature Apple Intelligence. Apple typically provides service and spare parts for five to seven years, but the shift to Apple Intelligence means some users (including business customers) will find they need to invest in newer devices in order to use it.

You may want to try your hand at hardware. Apple Intelligence offers several useful business tools, including powerful writing tools and contextual intelligence applied in useful ways (in Mail or Calendar, for example) to help busy professionals stay on top of everything. Some may choose to use these tools on other Apple devices, since they're just as useful on a Mac.

Otherwise, iOS 18 offers a host of useful improvements for businesses that don't require the latest hardware. As usual, Apple has tweaked a lot of elements in its operating system and has published a PDF containing 250 of these improvements.

Best for calls

While many younger employees may prefer messaging, phone calls are still critical in business, and iOS 18 has a variety of improvements that can help:

Available for iPhone 12 or later, Live Audio Transcription lets you record audio within Notes or during a Phone app call from within the app. When you record a call, a warning message will let others know you're doing so. The conversation will be automatically transcribed and searchable.

You can also search your call history, dial smarter, and switch SIM cards more easily. If you use AirPods Pro, you’ll benefit from much better voice isolation thanks to advanced computational audio. Finally, if you use Messages for business communications, you can now also schedule messages and emails to be sent at a specific time. And it now supports RCS.

Best for missed calls

It would be nice if carriers would streamline support for live voicemail. When you miss a call, this generates a real-time transcript of the message someone is leaving for you while they're talking; you can physically see it on your iPhone screen. It helps you stay focused and respond to important communications.

With iOS 18, Live Voicemail will gain support for additional languages ​​and countries including English (UK, Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, Puerto Rico), Spanish (US, Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico), French (France), German (Germany), Japanese (Japan), Mandarin (China, Taiwan, Macau), Cantonese (China, Hong Kong, Macau), and Portuguese (Brazil).

Cross-platform password management

The new Passwords app basically revamps a service that’s already available on iOS, and makes it easier to use. The app will sync and be available across all of your devices, including Windows systems. Combined with MDM tools, this makes provisioning easier, while still maintaining the secure end-to-end encryption that Apple is famous for. The Passwords app makes it easy to find the right account, while passwords will be automatically added to the app. Developers also get an automatic key update API to create a key when someone logs into their app to let them know that the key has been saved.

Why some apps need to be secret

One feature that may be useful for some business users is the ability to lock and hide apps. A locked app gets an extra verification step that requires a password or FaceID or TouchID authorization before it can be opened. That's nice, but for enterprise app developers it's important to note that information from a locked app can't appear for use in other parts of the system, including search. You can also hide apps.

What time was I supposed to be at each place?

While Apple Intelligence promises some great contextual AI features, Apple has also paid attention to the basics of its Calendar app. It now offers a redesigned monthly view to help you get a better overview of what’s coming up. The integration between Calendar and Reminders has also been improved, so you can create interactions with the Reminders app from within Calendar. This small but significant improvement should help drastically reduce the number of missed appointments.

A lock screen that works for you

While users may enjoy swapping out the lock screen's flashlight or Camera app triggers for other apps, developers will want to tweak their apps to be easier to use from that screen using Apple's new Controls API. App Intents will let Siri handle a lot more actions, so your enterprise storage app could end up being entirely voice-controlled — for example, enabled with a single tap on that lock screen button.

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