Microsoft has rolled out major upgrades to the Windows 11 Settings app in 2025, introducing design enhancements and around 16 new features, including a new 'Advanced' page, hardware indicators, passkeys support, a full clock in Notification Center, an AI agent, Quick Machine Recovery, and more, aiming to streamline user experience and bridge the gap with the Control Panel.
Microsoft's latest Windows 11 25H2 preview builds introduce more Control Panel elements into the Settings app, along with new language, date/time options, bug fixes, and a redesigned mobile device companion for Insiders. The updates aim to modernize user experience and improve performance, though some known issues remain, which are being addressed in future updates.
Apple is set to introduce a redesigned Settings app across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15, featuring a cleaner layout, improved search, and reorganized categories for a more consistent user experience.
The latest Windows 11 preview builds include a hidden setting that suggests users will soon be able to uninstall specific AI components from the operating system. The "AI components" category in the Settings app allows users to view and remove installed AI components, although the feature is not fully functional yet. Microsoft is working on a major AI update for Windows in 2024, and being able to uninstall AI components will be beneficial for users who do not want to utilize these upcoming features.
The watchOS 10.2 update for Apple Watch brings back the ability to swipe between different watch faces, a feature that was removed in watchOS 10. Users can now easily switch configurations by swiping left or right on their watch faces. While the default behavior still requires a long-press gesture, users can enable the swipe feature by going into the Settings app and toggling on the "Swipe to Switch Face" setting.
Microsoft is reportedly testing ads in the Settings app of Windows 11, with screenshots showing an ad for Microsoft 365 at the top of the panel and prompts to complete the setup of a Microsoft Account. This move follows a trend of preview builds featuring ads, raising concerns about the user experience of the upcoming operating system.
Users can now purchase a domain name directly from within the Settings app on their iPhone, thanks to a feature quietly added as part of iOS 16. This allows users to have their own domain for a small business or personal website, offering benefits such as a more legitimate appearance for a business and portability for email addresses. The feature is available for iCloud+ subscribers aged 18 or older with two-factor authentication turned on and a primary iCloud Mail email address set up to use a custom email domain. Apple is only facilitating the transaction, with a third-party domain registrar handling the purchase.
