The Most Useful New Features Coming To Your iPhone With iOS 12

Update: September 12, 2018: At today's Apple event in Cupertino, the company announced that iOS 12 will begin rolling out on Monday, September 17. Pre-orders for the new iPhone Xs and Xs Max will begin on September 14. The phones will ship on September 21. The new iPhone Xr will not be available to pre-order until October 19 and will ship on October 26.

Even if you’re not considering investing in one of the new iPhones Apple is expected to announce at the start of September, you can still give your current iPhone a major (and free!) upgrade this fall: If Apple sticks to its past release schedule, iOS 12 will come to iPhones next month.

The new operating system, which Apple previewed at this year’s annual developers conference, WWDC, is all about making your phone use more intentional and streamlined: Searching your photo gallery for the image you want will become much simpler, and notifications less distracting. It’s easier to see how your phone battery is actually performing over the course of a week and, if Instagram is requiring one too many charge, to set limits on your time spent. Of course, because this is the era of personalized messaging, Apple is introducing its newest addition to its emoji lineup: Memoji.

Ahead, all the features you can look forward to when iOS 12 arrives this fall. And, if you can’t wait until September to try them out, enroll in the iOS beta program now to get a sneak peek on your iPhone.