iOS 18 is a big release for the iPhone apps, with the brand new Passwords app plus significant enhancements to apps like Messages, Photos, and Journal. One of my most-used apps, Notes, gets a variety of powerful new features in iOS 18 including live audio transcription, highlights, Smart Script, and more. Here’s everything new in Apple Notes.
Collapsible note sections
If you’re a heavy Notes user, you know that sometimes a note can get unruly if you add too much content to it. Personally I have a lot of notes that require a lot of scrolling to see their full contents.
Now, in iOS and iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, Notes automatically detects where you have a heading or subheading and makes the contents underneath that heading collapsible.
On iPadOS and macOS, hovering your cursor near the left edge of a heading or subheading reveals a new down-facing arrow that you can click to collapse that section—instantly hiding everything in it until you choose to click the arrow again and reveal it. On iOS, you’ll need to tap on the appropriate header first to see the arrow pop up.
Highlight colors for text
Apple Notes keeps adding powerful new options each year for formatting your text. This year’s addition is highlights.
In iOS 18, when you select some text inside a note, you can now highlight it in one of five colors:
- Purple
- Pink
- Orange
- Mint
- Blue
Not only does this apply a highlight, but it also changes the color of the text itself for a two-tone approach.
Live audio transcripts
Earlier this year, one rumored AI feature was the ability to get live transcripts of recordings in Apple Notes or Voice Memos. It turns out, audio transcripts is a new feature for everyone. It does not require Apple Intelligence.
The next time you’re in a meeting or a class, open iOS 18’s Notes app. It can now record audio for you and provide a running transcript of what’s spoken.
Smart Script for digitally-enhanced handwriting
My handwriting is not great. And in a time when keyboards and touchscreens have become far more prevalent than handwriting, I’m guessing I’m not alone.
Smart Script is a new Apple Pencil feature in Notes that lets you handwrite using a uniform, beautifully designed script. One that’s probably a lot nicer looking than your own natural handwriting.
With Smart Script in iPadOS 18, you get the benefits of handwritten notes without the potential legibility issues that some people’s handwriting might bring. In a nice touch, the feature even works for pasting text into a handwritten form.
Math Notes and automatic equations
Finally, the Notes app also benefits from the chief feature of the iPad’s new Calculator: Math Notes.
Here’s my colleague Fernando Silva describing the feature:
It takes whatever math equation you write and can instantly solve it. Not only that, but you can modify the equations, and the answer changes in real-time. Another awesome feature is that you can also write down a graph equation and it will graph it for you. The ability here seems pretty limitless.
Top comment by Ken
My question is when is apple going to allow hand written markups to a photo or a section of text with the pencil. This seems like a very basic requirement that I have been looking for for a long time. I use notes extensively, but I also had to install Notability to get these features that I require with many of the tasks I use note taking for.
One nice detail is that you don’t have to use an Apple Pencil to benefit from automatic calculations. Any typed equations on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac will be automatically solved too.
Wrap-up
Apple Notes has grown into one of Apple’s most powerful, versatile apps on its platforms. These handful of updates in iOS and iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia make an already great app even better.
What are your favorite iOS 18 updates to Notes? Let us know in the comments.
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