iOS 18: Check out India-centric features now available for eligible iPhones

Along with Live Voicemail for iPhones, Apple has added support for various Indian languages across the system for customisation, typing, Siri, and more

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With iOS 18, Apple has introduced a series of India-focused features to eligible iPhones. Released on September 16, the platform update for iPhone enhances communication, updates the Move to iOS app, and adds support for various Indian languages.

These India-centric features aim to improve the user experience by introducing new customisation options for the home screen and control panel, an updated Photos app, a new Passwords app, and utility-based features like iPhone mirroring on Macs.

Here are all the new iOS 18 features now available for iPhone users in India:

Live Voicemail

Apple has introduced Live Voicemail Transcription functionality in India with iOS 18. This feature allows users to set voicemail to answer incoming calls, prompting callers to leave a voice message. The voice message is then displayed on the user's iPhone alongside a live text transcription. Users can also pick up the call while the voice message is being recorded.

In addition to Live Voicemail, Apple has also launched Live Caller ID, smart call history search, phone keypad search, and an enhanced dialing experience for iPhone users in India.

Lock screen customisation

With iOS 18, iPhone users in India can customise the clock widget on the lock screen with numerals from 12 different Indian languages, including Arabic, Arabic Indic, Devanagari, Bangla, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Meitei, Odia, Ol Chiki, Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu.

Multilingual keyboard

iPhone 12 or newer models running iOS 18 now support phonetic typing with Latin characters in English and up to two additional Indian languages. If users have multiple message threads in different languages, the keyboard will remember the script used in the previous conversation and switch automatically. The feature supports English, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

Alphabetical keyboard layouts for Indian languages

iOS 18 introduces alphabetical layouts for 11 Indian languages. The keys for Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu are arranged alphabetically, allowing users to type directly in their preferred language.

Language search

Apple has added support for select Indian languages in language search, enabling users to search for specific words using familiar spellings. If a word has multiple spellings in the same language, users can look it up regardless of the variant used. Language Search currently supports Assamese, Bangla, Devanagari, and Gujarati.

Translate

With iOS 18, the Translate app on iPhones has been updated to include Hindi. Hindi translations are also available for the Safari browser and native apps like Notes.

Multilingual Siri

iPhone's virtual assistant Siri has been updated to support nine Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.