The A-Z of iPadOS 18: From scribbling genius to hidden apps

There was a lot announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, from details of the company’s upcoming steps into artificial intelligence, to the features that will be coming to iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Vision Pro later this year.

A number of the new features are multi-platform so the changes to Messages for example, will appear on iPad, iPhone and Mac, but there are a couple that are exclusive to iPad. I’m looking at you, Math Notes. 

This is everything you need to know about the features coming to iPad with iPadOS 18, as well as when the software is likely to appear and what iPad models will be compatible.

My top three iPadOS 18 features

The new features I’m excited about for iPad might not be the same as what you will be excited about. Of all the products Apple offers, I think the iPad is probably the one that is used most diversely. Some people will use an iPad for work, others will use it for watching movies or browsing, some will use it for gaming – and some will do all of the above.

Math Notes (and Calculator)

I’m just going to say it outright, the Maths Notes feature coming to iPad is insane. It will allow you to evaluate expressions, assign variables, and plot graphs with an Apple Pencil or a keyboard and you can basically sit back and watch the magic happen (I have, it’s excellent). Calculator will solve expressions inline as soon as you write or type an equals sign and you can even change a variable and watch the end figure or graph update straight away.

People have been waiting a long time for the native Calculator app to come to iPad, and with iPadOS 18 it’s finally here, but it’s a lot better than most would have expected. It not only serves up the Math Notes mentioned above, but it offers basic and scientific calculators, along with history and unit conversion.

Smart Script

If you have messy handwriting (all geniuses do right?), then Smart Script is for you. I use the iPad predominately for scribbling down notes with the Apple Pencil and it is one of my favourite uses for it. Smart Script in Notes will smooth out your handwriting so it’s slightly neater, straighter and more legible. 

What’s perhaps more impressive, is that you can paste typed text into a Note and it will appear in your handwriting thanks to some clever on-device machine learning wizardry and you will also be able to correct handwritten spelling too. Need more space? Sure. You will be able to touch and drag to move your handwritten words over in order to make more room, or scratch writing out to get rid of it. 

Live audio transcription

I’m a journalist so it will come as no surprise to many that the live audio transcription coming to Notes with iPadOS 18 is one of my highlights for the software. There are other third-party apps that will live transcribe for you but since Google made a similar feature available on the Pixel 7, I have always been envious. Doing pretty much what it says on the tin, you will be able to record audio sessions and generate live transcriptions in the Notes app. The transcription will be searchable and you can add comments too. I’ll still need to use apps like Otter for transcription of older audio files but this is certainly a step in the right direction for us writing folk.

What else will iPad be able to do this year?

The three above are my top features for iPadOS 18 but that doesn’t mean they will be yours. With that in mind, here is a quick summary of the other iPadOS 18 features to expect

Notes

I mentioned a few of the extra features coming to Notes above, but there are a couple of others worth noting (no pun intend, really). You will be able to highlight in colour in Notes for iPadOS 18, which is quite exciting for any die hard Apple Notes fans. Collapsible sections are also coming to Notes which is handy for organisation.

Customisation

There’s much better customisation with iPadOS 18, and that applies not only to the placement of apps and widgets, but their colours too, along with Control Centre. It’s similar to Material You in Android so it’s not an entirely new concept, but it is new for iPad users (and iPhone users for that matter). 

You can personalise your Home Screen layout to suit your wallpaper, and there’s the option of a new Dark look for apps that takes dark mode to a whole new level. It’s the tinting option that’s the most interesting however – and the most similar to Material You – allowing you to colour pick a colour from your wallpaper or any other colour you want and convert your apps to that colour. You’ll end up playing the memory game with your apps but it looks pretty.

In terms of Control Centre, there’s more flexibility coming in terms of what you can add and there’s a new sexy sliding feature too so you can swipe through to different controls screens.

Passwords app

Of all the features I probably use most on Mac and iPad, autofill will be up there in terms of frequency. Ask me to tell you any one of my passwords (or don’t because that’s naughty) and there’s little chance I would know it. Replacing autofill but offering the same functionality is the Passwords app in iPadOS 18 and it will hold everything from passwords to verifications and security alerts. It’s end-to-end encrypted as you would expect, and all your autofill passwords will automatically populate in the Passwords app when you update to iPadOS 18. The app will also work across iPad, iPhone, Mac, Apple Vision Pro and Windows.

Messages

Messages isn’t just for iPad, but the new features apply to iPad, Mac and iPhone so I’m going to mention it anyway. There are a couple of improvements with iPadOS 18 (and macOS Sequoia and iOS 18), the main one is the ability to schedule a message with Send Later. It allows you to schedule any message to send at a later date and time so you don’t forget a birthday for example. 

Tap Back – which is where you double tap to respond to a message with the six options – is being enhanced to offer the current options in colour (ooooh), but more excitingly, any emoji you want, whether that’s the aubergine or the cake. You will also be able to add effects to text to give your messages a little more spark. 

Safari

It wouldn’t be a major software update without a couple of features added to Safari. This time, it’s not quite as exciting as Profiles (which I use every day) but there is something called Highlights that will pull out useful information from websites to make getting contact details and directions easier. There’s also a redesigned Reader that will summarise what an article is about and offer a table of contents so you don’t waste your time.

Tab bar 

There’s a redesigned tab bar for some native Apple apps, including Apple TV and Apple News. The tab bar – or navigation bar – will float above the app’s content while you are browsing and when you don’t need it anymore, it will morph into the sidebar as you dive a little deeper into the app. It is also customisable so you can include your favourite tabs.

Photos

The Photos app is being redesigned for iPadOS 18, though this too applies to iOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. Your Photos Library will be automatically organised by helpful topics and it’s ditching the current tabs for just one main screen. That seems to be the trend at the moment as it’s a similar to the changes Sonos made to its app recently. 

Below the main grid, there will be Collections, which will automatically organise photos by topics like Recent Days, Trips and People & Pets. The eagle-eyed among you will also notice that pets are being acknowledged with the latest software, allowing you to label up your puppy so you can access pictures of them more easily.

Game Mode

A Game Mode is coming to iPad with iPadOS 18, minimising background activity in order to deliver consistently high frame rates for continuous play. It will also reduce audio latency with AirPods and make wireless game controllers more responsive.

SharePlay 

Speaking of playing, SharePlay is getting updated with iPadOS 18 to allow remote control in screen sharing. It means that when a family member or friend who knows a little less about their iPad asks you to help, you can remotely control their device. You can also tap and draw on your screen to indicate what they need to do on theirs. HANDY.

Productivity

For Keynote, Pages and Numbers, there’s a redesigned Document Browser coming, which should be music to the ears of anyone who uses these apps. I use Pages (I know, I know, guilty) and if you’re like me, you will likely agree that finding your most recent documents isn’t quite as simple as it should be – especially if you haven’t named it properly.

On the Productivity front, Freeform is also getting a bit of love with a Scenes mode that lets you organise, label, and reorder content so you can present your board section by section. You can also align your board by snapping items to the grid – not too dissimilar to a feature coming to Mac with macOS Sequoia. 

Fitness+

The Fitness+ app has a redesign with iPadOS 18, giving you quick access to a personalised selection of workouts. The For You tab will present workouts based on preferred trainers, durations, and music. There’s also a new search feature to make it easier to hunt down what you want to do. Watch out Peloton…

Privacy

We have to have a bit of privacy chat in any new software update right? Well, for iPadOS 18, along with the other platforms, this involves controlling how you share contacts with apps. It means you don’t have to give an app access to all your contacts – which is something you do now by default. Privacy and Security settings have also been redesigned, allowing you to see a breakdown of how much information you are sharing with apps, like Location Services and Photos, for example. 

With iPadOS 18, it will also be possible to lock an app, as well as hide an app. All iPad models that upgrade to iPadOS 18 will have a hidden apps folder by default, whether you choose to hide any apps or not. This folder is locked with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode so someone would need one of those to access and you can’t see the app icons in the folder like you can traditional folders. 

Calendar 

I’ve popped this last but in my opinion, it is by no means least. As someone who regularly uses both Apple Calendar and Apple Reminders, this small feature is a dream. With iPadOS 18, you will be able to create, view, edit and complete reminders from the Reminders app in Calendar. 

Which iPad models is iPadOS 18 compatible with?

Apple is usually pretty good at supporting older devices with its software updates, though it’s worth keeping in mind that some features require more power than others, while others might be region specific. Still, these are the iPad models that will support iPadOS 18:

• iPad Pro (M4)
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later)
• iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)
• iPad Air (M2)
• iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
• iPad (7th generation and later)
• iPad mini (5th generation and later)

When will iPadOS 18 be released?

Apple has announced it will release a public beta of iPadOS 18 – along with watchOS 11 and iOS 18 – in July so you will be able to try some of the new features I’ve mentioned here if you sign up to the Beta Program. What’s probably worth noting however, is that the public beta can be buggy so if you’re downloading it on your main iPad, be prepared for some glitches.

The final build of iPadOS 18 usually appears sometime in September, around the launch of the new iPhone and Apple Watch models. No specific date has been confirmed yet, though based on last year, it could appear the week after the iPhone 16 models are announced. That date has also not yet been announced, but it’s usually within the first two weeks of September so expect the majority of the new iPad features by the end of September.