iOS 18.2 Public Beta 1 Brings Genmoji and More AI to Some iPhones

Apple released the first public beta of iOS 18.2 on Wednesday, a little more than a week after the tech giant released iOS 18.1 to the general public. While iOS 18.1 brought a few new features and fixes to all iPhones, and a few Apple Intelligence features to others, the latest beta brings more AI features to some developers and beta testers. There are also a few new features in the beta that aren’t a part of Apple Intelligence, meaning everyone can access them. 

Read more: An Expert’s Guide to iOS 18

Since this is a beta, I recommend downloading it only on something other than your primary device. Because this isn’t the final version of iOS 18.2, the update might be buggy and battery life may be short, so it’s best to keep those troubles on a secondary device.

Note that the beta is not the final version of iOS 18.2, so there could be more features to land on your iPhone when iOS 18.2 is released. There’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.2 to the public yet.

Here are some of the features that could land on your iPhone with iOS 18.2 soon. And just a reminder that only developers and beta testers who have an iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max or the iPhone 16 lineup can access the AI features for now. If you have any other iPhone, you won’t have access to those features.

Genmoji

There are over 3,000 emoji you can use, but sometimes you can’t find the one you really want. Genmoji is here to help. With the Apple Intelligence Genmoji feature, you can describe the emoji you’re looking for and iPhones with Apple Intelligence will attempt to generate a new emoji based on your description. 

To use Genmoji, go into a message and tap the emoji keyboard in the bottom left corner of your keyboard. Then, type the emoji you’re looking for into the search bar. If there isn’t an emoji that matches your description, tap Create New Emoji just below the search bar. Your iPhone will then show you a few examples of what it came up with based on your description. You can swipe through the emoji, and when you find a Genmoji you like, tap Add in the top right corner to permanently add that new emoji to your keyboard.

Visual Intelligence

This is Apple’s answer to Google Lens. Visual Intelligence is an Apple Intelligence feature that lets you point your camera at something, like a dog, and your iPhone will then use the photo to search online to help you identify it. The feature can also be used to detect phone numbers to create contacts, scan QR codes and translate languages.

You can also integrate this feature with ChatGPT to help you identify items, as well as to help you better understand what’s on a page or screen. It’s important to note that you don’t need a ChatGPT account to use the integration.

This feature is also only available on the iPhone 16 lineup since it utilizes the series’ new camera control side-button. If you have one of the new iPhones, long press the new side-button where the SIM card tray used to be to quickly pull up Visual Intelligence. 

“The camera control provides instant, easy access to the camera with just a click. It allows you to adjust various camera features simply by sliding your finger,” Apple said at its “Glowtime” event in September. “Its convenient design ensures it’s always within reach.”

Image Playground

This Apple Intelligence feature takes Genmoji one step further and lets you create whole images based on text prompts called Image Playground. This feature is a standalone app and it can also be found in Message by tapping the plus (+) button to the left of your text box. 

Image Playground is filled with prompt suggestions, themes, places and more to get you started. You can enter multiple prompts to make the image more specific, but once I entered seven prompts a popup appeared telling me to use fewer. There’s also an option to change the art style from the default cartoony 3D images to illustrations. 

If you want to put yourself, friends and family or your pet into one of these images, you can. Tap the plus (+) sign in the bottom right corner and then tap either Choose Photo or Take Photo. You’ll still have to choose or enter a prompt in addition to the photo.

The feature can create some simple images, and it can be unintentionally funny with how weird other images are. In one instance, I selected the prompts astronaut, artist and lighthouse. One of the results showed what I can only describe as a half-stronaut propped up on an easel with blank pages behind them opposite another easel with a drawing of a lighthouse on it. Stellar work.

Read more: Apple Intelligence’s New Notification Summary Feature Can Be Absurdly Wrong

Glowing Siri and ChatGPT

Apple announced at WWDC in May that its virtual assistant Siri was entering a “new era” soon thanks to Apple Intelligence enhancements. And with the iOS 18.2 beta, Apple is bringing most of those enhancements to some iPhones.

With Apple Intelligence, instead of seeing a logo pop up on your screen when you activate Siri, you’ll see a glowing light around your screen. You can use Siri like you normally would, and you can also use ChatGPT for your queries. 

I asked Siri to use ChatGPT to show me how to brew a cup of coffee, and it wrote out a seven-step process on how to make drip coffee in a standard brewer. The instructions were a little wonky, telling me to measure out my water and coffee grounds before grinding my coffee beans. But there is a disclaimer at the bottom of these ChatGPT requests, which reads, “Check important info for mistakes.”

You can also copy what Siri and ChatGPT show you by tapping a button in the top right corner of the window that shows two pieces of paper. Then, you can paste this in a message or a note if you want — but again, you should verify the details of your request.

New Mail categories

Your Mail app also gets an upgrade in the iOS 18.2 beta. Apple announced in September that Mail would soon be able to sort emails to multiple categories to keep your important emails in one place and ads or promotions in another, like Gmail and Outlook do. The new layout keeps things mostly tidy, but Mail doesn’t always get it right. For example, I found an email for digital tickets I previously ordered in the Promotions category rather than the Primary category.

You don’t have to use the new layout if you don’t want to. To change your Mail layout back, go into Mail, tap the three dots (…) in the top right corner and tap List View. 

Find My Upgrades

The Find My app can be used to locate things like your AirPods and MacBook, and with the iOS 18.2 beta, Apple makes it easy to get help finding lost items. In the beta, if you go into Find My > Items and tap one of your items, you have a new option to Share Item Location. 

If you enable this option, Find My will create a link that you can share with others so they can notify you if they find your lost or missing item. However, these links expire after one week, which may not be enough time to find missing them.

There’s also another option near Share Item Location called Show Contact Info. If you enable this feature, others can connect to lost items so they can find ways to contact you and bring your item back to you. 

Those are a few of the new features public beta testers can try with this iOS 18.2 public beta. There will likely be more betas before this version of the OS is released to the public, so there’s plenty of time for Apple to change these features. As of now, there’s no word on when Apple will release iOS 18.2 to the general public.

For more on iOS, you can check out my review of iOS 18, what to know about iOS 18.1 and our iOS 18 cheat sheet.