What's new in iOS 18.2 (part 2)?

New options for Locate

Localize already allows users to share their articles with people they trust, so that they can also follow the same articles. But, Apple has apparently been sensitive to the numerous cases of lost or stolen luggage that are flooding the press.

Indeed, the Find My application has a new option to share the location of an object with a trusted personin order to find it as quickly as possible. Apple gives the example of sharing the link with a airline so that it can help you find a lost object.

To do this, simply choose the option Share Item Location (Share item location) in the tracked/compatible objects tab. This will create a link which allows a third party to see the location of the lost item.

For this function, Cupertino has thought wide. Indeed, this link can be opened on any browseron a Mac / a PC, an iPhone / an Android – small sign of openness on the part of Apple. This link will be valid for one week. It will deactivate itself if you find the item in question.

On the other hand, it poses a small condition: the trusted person must have an Apple account to track the lost object. Once connected, the (trusted) person will be able to see the location of the object on an Apple Maps type map. It will have access to the user's contact details, including their email address and telephone number.

Note also that it will offer special access Apple Partner for airlines. But at the moment, we do not yet have any specific information on the subject.

There is also a new option to display contact information.. This will provide access to more information (this will be a link openable from any browser/OS), including the owner's phone number and email address.

RCS and French operators

With the previous beta, Apple had improved Messages with support for RCS (pour Rich Communication Services). As a reminder, this messaging protocol offers better compatibility between iPhone and Android and it also brings notable improvements compared to traditional SMS messages.

In France, in addition to SFR, Free and Bouygues Telecom offer this compatibility for the momentOrange being still in the deployment phase. To check the activation of RCS, simply go to the Settings app > Messages > under the SMS Service section, and check the option Service RCS.

As a reminder, the RCS standard will bring many iMessage-style features between iPhones and Androids : read receipts, input indicators, or even high quality images and videos (finally)… It will be possible to share its location with other people within discussion threads and send messages both by cell phone and WiFi.

What's new in Artificial Intelligence

The first beta of iOS 18.2 added ChatGPT integration with Siri, including the ability to log into your ChatGPT account in Settings to access ChatGPT Plus features. The second beta 2 allows you to subscribe to ChatGPT Plus directly in the Settings application.

ChatGPT limits for free users are now more visible. As a reminder, with the integration of OpenAI's AI, users with free access can use ChatGPT-4o and DALL-E 3, but only for a limited number of prompts.

In iOS 18.2 beta, ChatGPT integration with Siri allows users to ask questions about and get information about photos and documents, such as PDFs and presentations

On the Notes side, when you highlight a text, a new option called Create an image appears in the copy/paste pop-up menu. This allows you to use Image Playground to generate an image based on this context.

Finally, Apple working on more advanced Siri functionalityand to prepare, it provided developers with new APIs so that applications were ready for the new capabilities.

Other new items in bulk

In the iOS 18.2 beta 2 release notes, Apple states thatit improved battery life and device temperature. However, there are no modifications in the Settings application, we will have to see what happens in practice. We also do not have any information regarding the price models supported. In the past, Cupertino reserved certain battery tracking features for the iPhone 15 and 16.

In shadow modethe Settings app icons have a new look. The background of the icon is now black, and no longer white…

For iPhone 16 users, there are new photo functionsstarting with an option to lock autoexposure and autofocus settings via a light press. The AE/AF lock toggle can be activated by going to Settings > Camera > Camera Control. There is also an option to adjust the Camera Control double-click speed (Default, Slow and Slower). Adjusting the camera control can be done by opening Settings > Accessibility > Camera button.