Apps

iOS 18 lets you customize your Home Screen even more

Move app icons anywhere

Published

June 11, 2024

Luigi Leonardo

As with every year, the annual WWDC is all about software. Everyone is finally getting their first look at what’s coming to the iPhone later this year. It’s time to get excited about iOS 18.

All the customization at your fingertips

This year, Apple will bring more customization into the hands of its users. Starting with the new update, users can move icons and widgets to any open space on the Home Screen. The new options will allow for more creative placements to frame a wallpaper. Users can also adjust their sizes and their colors manually.

Users can also customize the Control Centre. They can ensure that only their most used tools are on the page. Plus, they can create their own groups.

Finally, users can also change the controls at the bottom of the Lock Screen. Instead of just the flashlight and the camera, any app and setting can take its position right at the user’s fingertips.

Apps getting glow-ups

A new Photos app is making its way to iOS 18. The update will automatically make collections to organize images faster. It can arrange content according to theme, subjects, and events.

Messages is also getting a glow-up. Users can now express themselves better with the ability to format text into bold, italics, underlines, and strikethroughs. They can even apply animated text effects to words. Oh, and the app will now allow you to schedule messages in advance.

Besides adding to the main app, Apple will now support RCS, a development it announced last year. The company’s devices can now support richer media when messaging others without Apple devices. Finally, using the same network as Emergency SOS, users can now send and receive messages in the app with satellite connectivity.

Content prioritization

While the above apps are getting a ton of new features, one specific improvement is coming to Mail and Safari: content prioritization. For one, Mail can now sift through your incoming emails and bring the most important messages to the top. It can also collate all messages from a business and arrange them in a helpful feed. Finally, the app will come with new on-device categorization options to better sort mail.

Safari, on the other hand, will better organize information from a webpage. Users can more quickly see the most important parts of a page without going through a ton of filler. It can also summarize long reads into condensed digests.

A more private iPhone

Apple is getting a new Passwords app. Building on the foundation of Keychain, the app can collate all your passwords. It will also alert you if a password is easy to guess, used multiple times, or was involved in a known breach.

iOS 18 is also allowing users to lock and hide any app they want to keep private. When locked, users will need a password or Face ID to access them. When hidden, the app (and its notifications) will no longer appear anywhere on the system.

Launching in the fall

iOS 18 is set to launch later this year, presumably debuting with the upcoming iPhone 16 series. Besides the biggest changes here, it will also come with the new Apple Intelligence.

Apps

Netflix expands its cheaper ad-supported tier to Southeast Asia

This also includes more countries in Europe and South America.

Published

May 15, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

If you don’t care about seeing a deluge of ads on your platforms, you’re an incredibly rare breed these days. That same skill will come in handy for those nicely priced subscription tiers that comes with ads. Netflix, for one, has one of those tiers, and it’s now coming out in more countries.

As is prevalent in other platforms today, an ad-supported subscription tier lowers the price you have to pay every month. The catch, however, is that there will be an occasional sprinkling of ads here and there.

Netflix offers this service, which allows subscribers to get the service for cheap at the expense of their time. Currently, it is limited to only a few major markets in the world. However, the platform is expanding the tier’s reach to more countries in Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia.

Starting in 2027, Netflix’s ad-supported tier will expand to 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Indonesia, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Thailand.

Netflix says that the ad-supported tier is a popular option for subscribers. Currently, the tier has around 250 million subscribers worldwide. Since some of the new countries have a more budget-conscious attitude when it comes to purchasing services, this number will likely go up after the expansion in 2027.

Apps

Google might limit free storage to only 5GB

The change will affect new users.

Published

May 15, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

Google One is a monthly subscription that gives you at least 200GB of cloud storage for your files and photos. For most people, a Google One subscription starts when Google inevitably tells them that their free storage space is running out and will soon stop backing up files. Starting today, new users might get that warning sooner rather than later as Google tests a lower limit to free storage.

Historically, Google offers users 15GB of free storage as a start. However, especially these days, 15GB can run out rapidly, prompting a Google One upgrade. Still, despite how “little” it is, Google’s free storage is generous compared to its contemporaries.

Now, Google is reportedly going to be more at par with the rest. As spotted on Reddit (via 9to5Google), new users will receive only 5GB of free storage. Based on Wayback Machine, the company changed its policy sometime between February to March.

Notably, 15GB is still available as an option, but users have to link their phone numbers to their accounts first.

According to Google, the policy change is meant to encourage users to upgrade their security. However, critics will point out that it just enables the company to collect more data about their users. Of note, the platform is already pushy about linking phone numbers before the change, but this adds another layer to entice people.

Also, Google confirms that the new policy is only a regional test for now. They have not announced when (or if) the change comes out for real.

Apps

Instagram takes on Snapchat yet again with new Instants feature

Posts disappear after they’re viewed once.

Published

May 14, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

The popularity of Snapchat’s competitors is as fleeting as their disappearing messages. However, despite how volatile the market is, Instagram wants to try again with a new feature (and app) called Instants.

Pardon me if you’ve heard this premise before. Instants is a feature that lets users share disappearing photos. However, unlike the 24 hours allotted for Stories, Instants will disappear right after a friend views them, but they can still react and reply to them.

The idea of Instants is to trim the excess fat from what Instagram is these days. Instagram’s Adam Mosseri admits as much when he said users want as easier way to shoot content.

As such, users won’t have access to Instagram’s editing tools. They also can’t upload pre-shot content from their camera roll. Like its contemporaries like BeReal, the new Instants feature is about living in the moment and sharing exactly what users see.

Despite disappearing after a single view, Instants will be automatically archived, so they can be reuploaded as normal Stories later on.

It isn’t the Wild West, though. Even if it pares down all the extra features, Instants will still use the safety features available to all of Instagram. Users, especially young ones, can mute and block others’ Instants. Likewise, parents will have control over when and how their young children interact with the feature.