It has been a month since Apple has been testing the Beta version of iOS 18.3. Finally, Apple seems to be satisfied with this version and has now released it for all compatible iPhones starting January 27, 2025. The new version will bring changes to Apple Intelligence features as well as other enhancements and bug fixes. We have created a guide to all that you must know about iOS 18.3.

What Features Does iOS 18.3 Bring To Your iPhone?

Changes In Notification Summary Feature.

Apple has made changes to the Apple Intelligence Notification Summaries feature in iOS 18.3. This feature has been under the radar after BBC and other news channels complained that Apple Intelligence was misinterpreting the News headlines from the News websites and presenting a false context in its Notification summaries. Here are the changes made to this feature in iOS 18.3.

The Notification Summary feature has been currently disabled for two major categories – News & Entertainment. Apple assured that these categories would be included after Apple researches more about them and will be enabled via a future software update.

• All Notification Summaries will be presented in Italics on the lock screen to help users differentiate between normal notifications and summaries.
• Notification Summaries for a particular app can be disabled from the Lock Screen or the Notification Center. Users need to tap on Options and select the “Turn Off Summaries” option.
• Apple has now provided a warning in the Settings app that the Notification Summaries may contain errors. Apple also displays that the Apple Intelligence is in a Beta phase when users enable the Notification Summaries option.

Read Also: How To Use Genmoji On iOS 18?

Upgraded Visual Intelligence.

If you have an iPhone 16 series then there is good news for you with the iOS 18.3 update. There are two new features

Apple Intelligence allows users to add an event to their Calendar from a flyer or poster image. All you need to do is click the image of an event poster and Apple Intelligence will capture the date and time mentioned on the image and add it to your calendar.

The Visual Intelligence database has been upgraded to identify more plants and animals. Hold the camera control button and point it towards a plant or animal and it will display the information on the top of the screen without the need to click a snap.

Read Also: How To Use Image Playground in iOS 18.2

Apple Intelligence Feature Will Now Be Enabled By Default.

Until iOS 18.2, iPhone users had to enable the Apple Intelligence option if they wished to use this feature. The feature was there but it was turned off, probably because Apple was not sure of how the Apple Intelligence would work. But with iOS 18.3, Apple seems to be confident of the Apple Intelligence feature and has enabled it for all the compatible devices. Users not keen on using the Apple Intelligence feature will now have to disable it after updating to iOS 18.3.

To disable Apple Intelligence, Open the Settings app and tap on “Apple Intelligence & Siri”, to toggle off the Apple Intelligence toggle button.

Other Improvements & Updates In iOS 18.3

• The Calculator app will now repeat the last mathematical operation performed when the user taps the “Equals” sign again.
• Keyboard disappearing issues when typing Siri requests have been fixed.
• Finally, one of the most troublesome issues that made the audio playback continue playing the song till the end, even after the Apple Music app was closed, has been resolved.
• Users can now tap on the Block option in the upper left corner while receiving an incoming Voicemail call to Block the user from reaching your Voicemail. This is useful when you receive calls from telemarketers or unknown numbers.

• The Messaging App has a + icon on the left which can now be used to select Genmoji option which was previously accessible only through the Emoji Keyboard

• The App Store has been updated to include Natural Language in its Search options. For example, you can now type “Find War Games” and it will display a list of games that are based on the War genre.

Read Also: Android 16 Vs iOS 18.2: Which One To Choose?

Have You Upgraded To iOS 18.3?

Most experts feel that the iOS 18.3 update did not deliver much. Perhaps they were anticipating the Siri revamp. Apple has made it clear that the next generation Siri with advanced app integrations and personal context features will be released in the next update which would be the iOS 18.4, to be released in Spring 2025.