They are some of the world’s most popular smartphones.
But if you have an iPhone, make sure to update your device as soon as possible.
Apple has released iOS 18.3, with urgent security updates to protect your phone from hackers.
This includes a patch for one vulnerability that criminals have already been using to hijack iPhones.
Sylvain Cortes, VP of Strategy at Hackuity, says: ‘To safeguard against these threats, we’d strongly recommend users to promptly update their devices to iOS 18.3.’
Released just three weeks after the most recent iOS 18.2 update, this release also brings some minor changes to Apple Intelligence and other apps.
In iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence features like Visual Intelligence and Notification Summaries will get some important improvements and fixes.
So, here’s how you can update your device with the latest software.
If you have an iPhone, you should update your device immediately as Apple releases the iOS 18.3 update (stock image)
Apple says: ‘This update brings improvements to visual intelligence along with other enhancements, bug fixes and security updates for your iPhone.’
Those security updates include more than 20 patches to vulnerabilities which had been detected in previous versions of iOS.
Mr Cortes says: ‘Apple’s recent iOS 18.3 update addresses a significant number of security vulnerabilities across many of their essential utilities such as AirPlay, Kernel, Safari, Passkeys, Accessibility and more.’
Most importantly, Apple says it has evidence that hackers have already been taking advantage of one of these issues.
The security flaw affects a part of the iPhone’s basic functionality called CoreMedia which allows apps to play media like audio and video files.
Mr Cortes says: ‘In this release Apple addressed an actively exploited CoreMedia flaw that could have allowed cyber attackers to take control of targeted devices via a fake app pretending to play multimedia files, giving them access to their sensitive data.’
Apple doesn’t specify how widespread the flaw’s exploitation has been, but notes it may have been used in ‘versions of iOS before iOS 17.2.’
Updating your iPhone will ensure that any cybercriminals will not be able to use any of the flaws highlighted in this update against your device.
Apple says that the iOS 18.3 update contains security updates for the iPhone. These include a patch for a vulnerability which has already been used by hackers to take control of some users’ devices
This is why it is so important to update your device to the latest version of iOS as soon as you can.
‘Users that don’t update from older iOS versions remain at risk of exploitation, including unauthorised data access, financial loss, and erosion of user privacy,’ says Mr Cortes.
‘These vulnerabilities could allow attackers to execute arbitrary code, access sensitive or confidential information and compromise the security of both personal and corporate data.’
Alongside these important security fixes, iOS 18.3 also brings some new features and bug fixes for iPhone.
The biggest change is that Apple Intelligence, Apple’s suite of AI features, will be activated by default on all compatible devices.
That means features like ChatGPT’s integration with Siri, Image Playground, and AI writing tools will be on automatically.
While many of these might be a welcome change, Apple users might have reservations about features which use data such as ChatGPT integration.
To this off, go to Settings, select ‘Apple Intelligence & Siri’ and turn off the Apple Intelligence option.
iOS 18.3 will make Apple Intelligence on by default, which means features such as ChatGPT’s integration with Siri will automatically be activated. Users must turn this off themselves in Settings if they don’t want Apple Intelligence features
While iOS 18.3 is relatively thin on content, two Apple Intelligence features do get some interesting new tricks.
Visual intelligence, which was first teased back in September 2024, lets users analyse their photos by pressing the camera control button on the iPhone 16.
With iOS 18.3 iPhone users will be able to add events to their calendar simply by taking a picture of a poster.
Additionally, Apple says Visual Intelligence will let users ‘identify plants and animals’.
Apple also says iOS 18.3 will change Notification Summaries, a feature which creates condensed summaries of pus
This feature has been heavily criticised for producing misleading summaries of news articles.
Recently, a summary of the BBC article suggested that Luigi Mangione, 26, the alleged assassin of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, had shot himself.
The summary read: ‘Luigi Mangione shoots himself; Syrian mother hopes Assad pays the price; South Korea police raid Yoon Suk Yeol’s office’.
The update will turn off Notification Summaries for ‘News and Entertainment’ apps by default after this feature mistakenly claimed that Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, had shot himself
With this update, Notification Summaries for ‘News and Entertainment’ apps will be turned off by default and iPhone users will be able to set summaries on or off for each app.
All notification summaries will also be presented in italics to make it clear that they have been generated by Apple Intelligence.
Additionally, iOS 18.3 includes a few other minor updates such as the Calculator app now allowing users to repeat calculations by tapping the equals sign.
How to install iOS 18.3
The update is compatible with all iPhone models that can currently run iOS 18.
That means all models from the iPhone XS onwards will be able to install iOS 18.3, including the second and third-generation iPhone SE.
To install the update, open the Settings app on your iPhone.
If you have automatic downloads enabled, the update will have been installed overnight provided your iPhone was charging and connected to Wi-Fi.
Security experts recommend that you install the update as soon as you can to ensure that your device stays safe and protected from hackers (file photo)
But, if that isn’t the case, you should see a notification reading ‘Software Update Available’ from the Settings homepage.
Tapping this notification will bring you to the Software Update page, where you can see any new updates as they are released.
If iOS 18.3 is available, simply select ‘Install Now’ to begin.
If the option reads ‘Download and Install’, tap it to download the update, enter your passcode, and then tap Install Now.
To find the Software Update page when there is no notification, select the tab marked ‘General’ and tap on ‘Software Update’.
From there, you can also set future updates to automatically install by going to ‘Automatic Updates’.
Simply set iOS Updates to automatically install and download to ensure you always have the latest software.
Apple Intelligence: The best features
Apple Intelligence is essentially a snazzy brand name for Apple’s new-found focus on AI, triggered by the huge success of the ChatGPT.
Here’s a look at some of the best features of Apple Intelligence, which came to the UK via the iOS 18.2 operating system.
ChatGPT-Siri integration
Surely the biggest part of Apple Intelligence is the integration of OpenAI’s hugely popular chatbot ChatGPT with Siri, Apple’s in-built virtual assistant.
With better ‘language-understanding capabilities’ enabled by ChatGPT, Siri will help you across multiple apps and ‘accelerate everyday tasks’, Apple said.
You’ll be able to press and hold the side button to activate Siri as normal, but with ChatGPT behind it Siri will be able to ‘answer thousands of questions about how to do something’ that it couldn’t before.
iOS 18 users will be asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer
For example, you could say, ‘Play that podcast that Jamie recommended’ and Siri will locate and play the episode, without the user having to remember whether it was mentioned in a text or an email.
Or you could ask, ‘When is mum’s flight landing?’ and Siri will find the flight details and cross-reference them with real-time flight tracking to give an arrival time.
AI-generated emoji
If you can never quite find the emoji you’re looking for during chat conversations, Apple has the answer.
One of the more fun parts of Apple Intelligence is AI-generated emoji, which Apple has called ‘Genmoji’ (a mix of ‘generated’ and ’emoji’).
In the Messages app, you can type a short description of the emoji you want – such as ‘smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers’ or ‘squirrel DJ’.
AI-generated emoji: In the Messages app, users can type a short description (e.g. ‘smiley relaxing wearing cucumbers’) to get a unique emoji to send to someone
Similar to AI tools that just need a few words to create weird artworks, from that single prompt Genmoji returns an AI-generated approximation of what you had in mind.
If you don’t like what the AI has made for you, there are a few back-up options for you to choose from.
Clean Up
Apple’s Clean Up tool for the Photos app makes ultra-clean edits to photos – without any telltale signs that the snap has been tampered with in any way.
It lets users remove ‘distracting objects’ from the background of a photo – for example a photobomber in the background of a family snap.
Clean Up is very similar to Google’s photo-editing technology ‘Magic Eraser’ for its Pixel phones, heavily promoted in Google adverts in recent years.
The new Clean Up tool in Apple’s Photos app can identify and remove ‘distracting objects’ in the background of a photo
But the technology has been described by some as ‘Orwellian’ as it can distort reality and ‘create a false memory’.
Referring to Clean Up, one commenter said it ‘can be misused’ because it ‘makes deleting evidence easy’.
Image Playground
AI also powers a new image-generating tool called ‘Image Playground’, which is available on multiple apps, including Messages and Pages.
With Image Playground, users can create images in a few seconds, choosing from three styles – ‘animation’, ‘illustration’ and ‘sketch’.
Image Playground allows users to create fun images in seconds, choosing from three styles – Animation, Illustration and Sketch
A promo image appears to show a photo of a person being turned into a video game-style 3D avatar wearing a spacesuit in the ‘animation’ setting.
Rather like Genmoji, this ‘exciting’ image creation tool will help iPhone owners ‘communicate and express themselves in new ways’, the company says.
Movie Memories
The vast media storage capabilities of an iPhone means its always tempting to look back through your photos and video for a burst of nostalgia.
Recognizing this, Apple has come up with ‘Movie Memories’, an AI tool that creates the perfect home movie to watch on your device.
By typing a short description – for example ‘last summer in our garden’ – the AI can search your media library and and arrange photos and clips into a movie ‘with its own narrative arc’.
Movie Memories picks out the best photos and videos based on a user’s description and arranges it all into a movie with its own narrative arc
And as no movie is quite as good without a bit of music, you’ll get song suggestions from Apple Music to match the memory.
Again, Apple stresses the privacy aspect of using an AI to search through your private life.
‘As with all Apple Intelligence features, user photos and videos are kept private on device and are not shared with Apple or anyone else,’ it says.
AI writing tools
Using AI to make your writing extra concise is not a new thing – for example Microsoft’s Copilot AI is creating first drafts and suggesting edits in Word.
But now Apple is jumping on the bandwagon with its own AI-powered writing tools.
The tech will rewrite, proofread and summarize text on multiple apps, including Mail, Notes and Pages, as well as some third-party apps.
‘Whether tidying up class notes, ensuring a blog post reads just right, or making sure an email is perfectly crafted, Writing Tools help users feel more confident in their writing,’ the firm says.
