Also, those using third-party cloud storage solutions can now sync desktop and documents to the cloud.

And speaking of cloud storage, there’s a revamped iCloud management panel in the Settings app. There isn’t really any new functionality here, but it’s in a much more digestible and scannable format, and it’s quicker to make changes to what’s being synced.

None of these changes is radical, but it’s nice to see small iterations happening in terms of making iOS a more efficient and customizable operating system for users who want to get into the nitty-gritty of things like file management.

Hidden and locked apps

There’s one last set of features worth noting here: locking or hiding apps.

Locking an app makes it so an additional Face ID authentication is required to launch the app, so sensitive data is protected even if you hand your phone to someone for another purpose.

It additionally makes it so data from that app doesn’t appear anywhere else it might across the operating system. That includes places like Spotlight searches, suggestions, and notification previews.

You can also hide an app, which relegates it to a special folder in the app library that you need Face ID to open. Hidden apps still appear in a few other isolated places, though, like the Screen Time app.

This is a niche feature. Most of us don’t have a lot of situations where someone is using our phone but we don’t want them to see some ultra-specific thing. But it’s nice that it’s there for those edge cases.

An interface so good I wish Apple had used it twice

All told, I love this new Control Center interface. In fact, I find it quite strange that Apple didn’t copy it for the home screen. Just a few days ago, I wrote about how awkward wiggle mode is and how the new place-an-app-icon-anywhere approach in iOS 18 mitigates that but doesn’t fix it. Here it is, just a swipe away: an alternate solution to the same grid-based interface that works far better than what we get with the home screen.