With iOS 18.3, Apple is sort of taking a breather before it continues its staged rollout of major Apple Intelligence features. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing there but bug fixes and security patches (though there are those, too). There are plenty of small changes that are coming to your iPhone—here are the five ways your iPhone will be different after you update to iOS 18.3.

Apple Intelligence is on by default

When Apple introduced Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1, you had to choose to enable it. With iOS 18.3, it’s turned on by default. You still need an iPhone, iPad, or Mac that supports it, of course.

If you want to disable Apple Intelligence, open Settings, choose Apple Intelligence & Siri, and flip off the toggle.

<figure data-wp-context='{"uploadedSrc":false,"figureClassNames":"wp-block-image size-large","figureStyles":null,"imgClassNames":"wp-image-2587170","imgStyles":null,"targetWidth":"none","targetHeight":"none","scaleAttr":false,"ariaLabel":"Enlarge image: Disable Apple Intelligence","alt":"Disable Apple Intelligence"}' data-wp-interactive="core/image" class="wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container"><button class="lightbox-trigger" type="button" aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-label="Enlarge image: Disable Apple Intelligence" data-wp-init="callbacks.initTriggerButton" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-style--right="context.imageButtonRight" data-wp-style--top="context.imageButtonTop">
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="12" height="12" fill="none" viewbox="0 0 12 12">
<path fill="#fff" d="M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z"></path>
</svg>
</button></figure>

Foundry

Notification Summaries are italicized

The new Apple Intelligence feature that summarizes notifications has been met with mixed reviews. Sometimes it just gets things wrong, and when you can’t tell it’s an AI summary instead of a real text from Mom, that can lead to disaster. That little tiny “summary” icon on the notification isn’t enough.

So in iOS 18.3, Apple is making it more obvious when a notification shows an AI summary. The text will be italicized, while normal notifications will have regular text.

<figure data-wp-context='{"uploadedSrc":false,"figureClassNames":"wp-block-image size-large","figureStyles":null,"imgClassNames":"wp-image-2587172","imgStyles":null,"targetWidth":"none","targetHeight":"none","scaleAttr":false,"ariaLabel":"Enlarge image: Italicized notification summaries","alt":"Italicized notification summaries"}' data-wp-interactive="core/image" class="wp-block-image size-large wp-lightbox-container"><button class="lightbox-trigger" type="button" aria-haspopup="dialog" aria-label="Enlarge image: Italicized notification summaries" data-wp-init="callbacks.initTriggerButton" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-style--right="context.imageButtonRight" data-wp-style--top="context.imageButtonTop">
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="12" height="12" fill="none" viewbox="0 0 12 12">
<path fill="#fff" d="M2 0a2 2 0 0 0-2 2v2h1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 1 .5-.5h2V0H2Zm2 10.5H2a.5.5 0 0 1-.5-.5V8H0v2a2 2 0 0 0 2 2h2v-1.5ZM8 12v-1.5h2a.5.5 0 0 0 .5-.5V8H12v2a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H8Zm2-12a2 2 0 0 1 2 2v2h-1.5V2a.5.5 0 0 0-.5-.5H8V0h2Z"></path>
</svg>
</button></figure>

Foundry

Notification Summaries are disabled for some apps

Even if you recognize that the notification text is an AI summary, there are some that can be very problematic if they’re wrong. The Apple Intelligence notification summaries for some news events have been wrong at times, to the point where a person reading them would think the opposite of what happened.

Of course, we all know it’s just a notification and just an AI-generated summary at that, and you should always go read the article before passing judgment, right? Just kidding! This is the internet, where you have to immediately post an opinion just from seeing a link to a headline somewhere.

To help reduce the very obvious problems this can cause, Apple has disabled Notification Summaries from all apps in the “News & Entertainment” app category for now. The company plans to re-enable it in the future when the quality of the summaries is more reliable.

The Calculator app gets its repeat operation function back

Up until iOS 18, you could continually tap the equals sign (=) on the Calculator app and it would repeat the last operation. If you said 10 x 2 and tapped = you would get 20. Tap = again and you get 40. Tap = again and you get 80. And so on.

With the new Calculator app and all its fancy features (not to mention an iPad version!) Apple seemingly forgot this popular capability.

With iOS 18.3, it’s back!