iOS 18 possesses an outstanding feature that is the ability to control the device with just your eyes.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 have several new features, including Apple Intelligence. But in addition to these standout features, these new software releases also offer many new accessibility features to make iPhone and iPad easier to use.
A new feature of iOS 18 for iPhone is Eye Tracking - controlling your smartphone with just your eyes.
Eye Tracking can truly change the way phones are used for people with mobility disabilities or anyone who interacts with a device.
This feature allows you to use your eyes to perform various actions without touching the screen, such as launching apps, surfing social networks, taking screenshots, locking the device, and more.
Whether you have accessibility needs or just want to tinker with the new feature, here's how to enable Eye Tracking for iPhone in iOS 18.
Eye Tracking is available on almost all iPhones and iPads that support FaceID. For iPhone, this includes all devices with Apple's A12 Bionic chipset or higher except the iPhone SE. Meanwhile, for iPad it will be all iPad Pro models released after 2018.
How to enable iOS 18 Eye Tracking on iPhone
Setting up Eye Tracking on iPhone and iPad takes only about a minute. To do so, you must enable this feature on your device and complete the calibration process.
1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Tap Accessibility and tap Eye Tracking.
3. Place the device with about 45 cm from your face.
4. Turn on Eye Tracking to begin the calibration process.
5. Look at the ten colored dots as they appear around the screen.
6. If the Customize Assistive Touch Menu dialog box pops up, tap Yes.
7. Use the Smoothing slider for smoother cursor calibration.
Turning on Eye Tracking on your iPhone or iPad will also activate focus mode (Dwell Control). This is a feature used by Eye Tracking to help you perform various actions without physical touch.
After you turn on Eye Tracking, a cursor that looks like a gray dot will appear on your screen. You can look at the screen to move the cursor with your eyes and select options using Dwell Control. With Dwell Control, when the cursor is placed on the right option, you just need to hold it for a long time or look at it for a certain period of time to open the menu and enable or disable features this way.
When you want to perform advanced tasks on your device, you can use Eye Tracking with AssistiveTouch. With this feature, you can quickly open the context menu to access device lock options, open Notification Center or Control Center, take screenshots, scroll, and more.
Eye tracking is a great feature that expands a user's ability to use their iPhone or iPad. This opens up the Apple ecosystem to users who were previously unable to use an iPhone or iPad due to the touch interface. However, as of now, this feature still needs to be optimized before it can work well when iOS 18 officially launches.