iPhones and iPads are highly personal devices, but you might want to let someone else use a particular app on yours without letting them poke through Messages, Mail, and Photos. For example, a child could play a game, a volunteer could check in attendees, or a friend could take photos. To allow this, Apple created Guided Access, which you turn on in Settings > Accessibility—give it an easily remembered passcode and decide if you want to let the display auto-lock. Then, to turn on Guided Access, open the app you want to share and triple-click the side or top button. Options let you control buttons, the accelerometer, software keyboards, touch input, and a time limit. To end a Guided Access session, triple-click the side or top button, enter the Guided Access passcode, and tap End.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Userba011d64_201)

We’ve seen an uptick in fake invoices from scammers using PayPal. Because they’re being sent through PayPal itself, spam filters won’t catch them, and they have few of the usual markers of phishing email (but look for sketchy names and email addresses at the top). Some are even forged to appear as if they come from Apple. Never pay a PayPal invoice that you can’t tie directly to something you’ve ordered, and don’t call the number listed—the scammer will try to convince you that the invoice is real. If you receive one of these invoices, click the “Report this invoice” link at the bottom to help protect others who might have received it, and forward the message to phishing@paypal.com. Don’t mark the invoice as spam, though, since that will train your email client to be suspicious of legitimate messages from PayPal.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Moostocker)

Is it time to make your Apple devices smarter? Apple has just released macOS 15.1 Sequoia, iOS 18.1, and iPadOS 18.1 with an initial collection of Apple Intelligence features and a promise of more coming in December. The company is making a big deal about Apple Intelligence, calling it out as a key feature of the recent updates to the iPad mini, iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro.

You may need some of that new hardware to take advantage of Apple Intelligence. Its features work only on a Mac with Apple silicon, an iPad with an A17 Pro or M-series chip, or an iPhone 15 Pro or any iPhone 16. Intel-based Macs and older iPhones and iPads can’t play.

Although we have no problem with recommending that you upgrade your iPhone and iPad to iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, we recommend more caution when it comes to upgrading your Mac to macOS 15.1 Sequoia. There aren’t any general showstoppers, but you shouldn’t upgrade until you’re confident your particular workflows are fully compatible.

What will Apple Intelligence do for you if you upgrade? Here’s what you need to know.

Writing Tools Everywhere

The Apple Intelligence Writing Tools will help you craft and polish your prose—or just make your email sound more professional. Writing Tools provides three core functions:

• Proofread: The Proofread tool will significantly reduce spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes in your text. While it may not match up with a human proofreader, using it will make your text cleaner.
  
• Rewrite: If you’re unhappy with the tone of your text, use the Rewrite tool to improve it or make it friendlier, more professional, or shorter. Even if you don’t adopt the complete rewrite, some of its phrases or word choices might take your writing up a notch.
• Summarize: A straight summary might be useful for condensing text, and specialized summaries can list key points, make a list, or create a table. These features are probably most useful when working with text you’ve been given and need to edit into shape.

Writing Tools are available in nearly all apps that accept text. Either look for an Edit > Writing Tools menu or Control-click a text selection and look in the Writing Tools submenu. Right now, Apple apps like Mail and Notes provide proofreading controls that let you see (and revert) each change independently. With the Rewrite and Summary tools and Proofread in other apps, you have to compare the original and the rewrite manually, with your only options being to replace the selected text or copy the suggested revision.

Photos Enhancements

Photos benefits from Apple Intelligence in three ways as well:

• Clean Up: Many a great photo suffers from a random bystander or distracting telephone pole. Clean Up removes people and objects from your photos, either identifying them automatically or working from your manual selection. It’s not perfect, but Clean Up is a hugely welcome addition to Photos.
  
• Descriptive search: We’ve been able to search for objects in photos for several years now, but with Apple Intelligence, you’ll be able to find photos and videos based on more extensive and natural descriptions, like “Halloween in 2014.”
• Descriptive memory movies: The Memories feature in Photos automatically creates movies based on photos it thinks you might want to see together. With Apple Intelligence, you can describe the photos you’d like it to include.

Notification Summaries

Apple has long been sensitive about how distracting our devices can be due to numerous apps posting notifications throughout the day. Apple Intelligence tries to help by summarizing lengthy individual notifications and groups of notifications. Notification summaries probably won’t rock your world, but it can be nice to have a sense of what’s going on with a group of notifications before you wade into an involved conversation. If you don’t like the summaries for particular apps, turn them off in Settings > Notifications > Summarize Previews.

Mail (and Messages) Enhancements

Speaking of summaries, in Mail, the most welcome Apple Intelligence change is to replace each first-line snippet in message lists with summaries of the message or conversation content. It makes scanning email for important messages easier.

Other Apple Intelligence changes include moving priority messages—those that require a quick reply—to the top of the message list and the option to summarize long messages or conversations using a Summarize button at the top of the message pane. Both Mail and Messages also offer a Smart Reply feature that suggests reasonable replies. They’re like tapback responses on steroids.

Audio Recording, Transcription, and Summarization

Apple Intelligence offers major advances for the Notes and Phone apps: audio recording, transcription, and summarization. Be aware that the Phone app alerts participants when you start recording—just joke, “For quality assurance…” before tapping the record button.

The big win comes with Notes (on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac), which can record a meeting and provide a transcript for later searching and summarization. The clearer the audio, the better. It stumbles on many names and doesn’t differentiate between speakers, but transcripts can be hugely helpful. You can keep a transcript in its recording (left), where you can jump around in the audio by tapping the associated text, or you can use the ••• button to export it to its enclosing note (middle) or tap a button to get a summary (right).

Siri Enhancements

Apple has promised a lot for Siri but hasn’t delivered much. A new interface replaces the animated circle with a glowing light and the option to type your query rather than speak it. However, the only functional improvement from Apple Intelligence so far seems to be Siri’s awareness of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac user guides. If you’re unsure how to accomplish a built-in task, try asking Siri.

What’s Coming Next

Welcome though they may be, the initial wave of Apple Intelligence features won’t set the world on fire. But Apple has big plans for Apple Intelligence, with new features slated for release in December 2024 and more coming in 2025. Things you can look forward to in a few months include:

• ChatGPT will make its promised appearance, bringing world knowledge into Writing Tools and Siri.
• You can jazz up your conversations in Messages with original Genomoji merely by describing the emoji you’d like to see. “Penguin on a surfboard,” anyone?
• The Image Playground feature will let you generate original images in various styles, though none are photorealistic on purpose—no deepfakes from Apple.
• Image Wand will enhance your Apple Pencil sketches by turning them into polished images, and if you circle an empty space, Image Wand will create an image from the surrounding area.
• Writing Tools will let you describe a specific change you want to apply to your text, like adding more descriptive words to a blog post. We hope Apple puts more thought into the workflow so it’s easier to compare the before and after.
• The Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 line will tap Apple Intelligence to help users learn about objects and places in the iPhone’s viewfinder.

Further out, Apple says that Priority Notifications will surface your most important notifications, and Siri will learn how to draw from your personal context, take action in numerous apps, and gain awareness of onscreen information. We’re still curious to see how Apple will integrate a more intelligent Siri into the HomePod and Apple TV.

(Featured image by Apple)

Although the first wave of Apple Intelligence features won’t upend the user experience for most people, Apple is pushing hard to ensure that all its new devices can participate. That’s largely what’s behind the recently released seventh-generation iPad mini. It’s physically unchanged other than a few new colors, but under the hood, the iPad mini sports an A17 Pro processor that makes it compatible with Apple Intelligence. Other changes from the previous generation include Apple Pencil Pro support, 128 GB of storage at the base level (up from 64 GB), 10 Gbps USB 3 (twice as fast), Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 (up from Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0), and cellular support only via eSIM (no more physical nano SIM). The price still starts at $499, with cellular connectivity adding $150. It’s a minor update, but one that keeps the iPad mini up to date for those who prefer a more compact iPad design.

(Featured image by Apple)

Recent news reports have revealed that a little-known company called Babel Street can track iPhone and Android user locations. Babel Street does this by leveraging data from mobile advertising data brokers. Investigators from data removal firm Atlas Privacy discovered they could use Babel Street’s Locate X tool to identify patients at a Florida abortion clinic, jurors in a New Jersey trial, attendees at a Los Angeles synagogue and a Dearborn mosque, and even children in a Philadelphia school.

Much of this is possible because people use apps that reveal their location to data brokers, who package the information and resell it to companies like Babel Street. Apple does have an advantage here—Atlas estimated they could locate roughly 80% of Android phones but only 25% of iPhones. That’s due to Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature, introduced in iOS 14.5, which requires apps to get permission from users before tracking them for third-party advertising purposes. Unfortunately, many people unthinkingly grant such permissions, and location and identification data can also leak out in other ways.

Although it’s difficult to avoid being tracked by data brokers entirely, you can drastically reduce the likelihood and frequency of tracking, which helps ensure that any location information that does become available isn’t sufficient to identify you personally. Your employer may also consider your location to be sensitive information and want you to restrict it to the extent possible. To achieve this, you’ll need to adjust settings in several parts of Settings > Privacy & Security on your iPhone (and iPad, if you regularly use it in multiple locations).

Turn Off Allow Apps to Request to Track

You’ll find the most important setting in Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking. At the top of the screen is a switch labeled Allow Apps to Request to Track. Make sure that is off! If it has been on in the past, apps that have requested permission will appear below.

By preventing apps from even asking if they can track you, you keep them from sharing a unique identifier associated with your iPhone with other apps and websites. Otherwise, advertisers can follow you from app to app and website to website, gathering information about you—often including your physical location—as you go about your life.

Don’t let apps persuade you to turn this setting on or allow them to track you. Apple’s rules explicitly forbid them from reducing functionality to those who refuse to allow tracking.

Allow Location Access Only for Apps That Need It

While you can turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track with a single switch, preventing apps from seeing your location requires more targeted work. Although Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services has a big Location Services switch, turning that off will drastically reduce the utility of your iPhone. You won’t be able to get directions from Maps, tag photos with their location, share your location with family members, and much more.

Instead, for each app in the list, determine what level of location access you want to grant based on its function and description of why it needs access. Grant the minimal level of access necessary, which varies by app. Navigation apps need location access to work at all. Camera apps need it to geotag photos. Weather apps use it to provide custom weather reports and extreme weather notifications. But do you want to give a social media app access to your location at all times?

Apple provides five location access levels:

• Never: Choose Never for any app with questionable explanations of why location access is requested.
• Ask Next Time or When I Share: If you’re unsure if you want to allow or deny location access for an app, select this option. The app will prompt you the next time it wants your location, enabling you to make an informed decision based on your actions.
• While Using the App: For most apps you want to allow to see your location, choose While Using the App. It’s entirely reasonable that a location-requiring app be allowed to determine your location while you’re using it.
• While Using the App or Widgets: This option only appears for apps with widgets; choose it only if you use a widget that needs location access.
• Always: Grant Always access only to apps that generate location-related notifications when the app is not open. The most common example is a weather app that provides notifications of incoming storms.

The Precise Location option becomes available if you allow location access for an app. Turn it on only if the app needs to know your location within 15 to 200 feet (5 to 60 meters). An Uber or Lyft driver will need to know where to pick you up, for instance, so those apps should have Precise Location turned on, as should navigation and camera apps. For most others, turn off Precise Location. Your approximate location—a variable radius between 2.5 to 12 miles (4 and 20 kilometers)—is usually sufficient to locate you in the right part of the world.

Block Bluetooth and Local Network Access for Apps That Don’t Need It

Apps can use Bluetooth to infer your general location through interactions with other Bluetooth devices and movement patterns, so Apple requires apps to ask to use Bluetooth. As a result, just as with location, you should go through the apps listed in Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth and revoke permission from any that don’t seem as though they should need it. Most will be legitimate—an app designed to communicate with a Bluetooth-connected device, for instance. Any app that needs access to Bluetooth and doesn’t have it should prompt you when you next open it.

Similarly, Apple now requires apps to request permission to use your local network. For the most part, these requests are reasonable—apps may need to discover network-connected devices like routers, printers, speakers, smart home gadgets, and more. Or games may need to discover other players on the network. However, because your network can reveal information about your location, it’s best to revoke access for any apps that don’t seem as though they should need it. There’s no harm in doing so; they’ll ask again if they need access.

Ultimately, all we can do is stay vigilant about what we’re allowing on our devices, encourage Apple to add even more privacy protections, and lobby our elected representatives for legal protection. It’s unconscionable that private companies can gather extensive location data on hundreds of millions of citizens.

(Featured image by iStock.com/Chayada Jeeratheepatanont)

Apple has included the Tips app with the iPhone and iPad since iOS 8 in 2014 and on the Mac since macOS 10.14 Mojave in 2018. Initially, it didn’t contain much useful content, and many longtime users ignored it. However, Apple has significantly increased the amount of information in Tips over time, adding device-specific tips, full device and app user guides, highlights of new features, and more. Many tips even include short demonstration videos. Tips is worth exploring or referring to the next time you have a question. Be sure to encourage anyone you know who’s new to the iPhone, iPad, or Mac to take a look—it even helps them practice key gestures!

(Featured image by Adam Engst)

Apple has concluded a three-day release of the first Macs to use the M4 chip family, which debuted earlier this year with the iPad Pro. The updated iMac and MacBook Pro retain the same industrial designs as in the past, while Apple took a shrink ray to the Mac mini.

These are highly compelling Macs, with the M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips providing best-in-class performance; the iMac and MacBook Pro gaining an iPhone-like 12-megapixel Center Stage camera; Thunderbolt 5 offering faster data transfers; and a nano-texture glass option available for those battling glare and screen reflections. If you’re pondering your next Mac, here’s what you can look forward to.

iMac Adds M4 Chip, 12MP Center Stage Camera, and Nano-Texture Glass

Apple’s colorful all-in-one iMac is popular as a public-facing Mac or household workhorse. The M4 chip packs even more power into the iMac’s svelte frame without changing its low starting price of $1499 ($1299 for a two-port model with several odd limitations). To ensure optimal performance with Apple Intelligence, the company increased the base memory from 8 GB to 16 GB, and you can up that to 24 GB for $200 more or 32 GB for $400.

The iMac still boasts a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display that provides crisp text and vibrant graphics. For $200, you can get it with nano-texture glass that cuts down on reflections and glare from windows or bright lights. Apple also replaced the 1080p FaceTime HD webcam at the top of the screen with a new 12-megapixel Center Stage camera that pans and zooms to keep you in the frame as you move around during video calls. (Not having to sit perfectly still makes those lengthy virtual meetings easier to handle.)

Lastly, the M4 chip supports Thunderbolt 4, so the higher-end model of the M4 iMac gives you four Thunderbolt 4 ports instead of the two Thunderbolt and two USB 3 ports in the previous model.

Along with the new colors, Apple is shipping color-matched versions of the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse. They all now charge using USB-C rather than the outdated Lightning. Apple left the Magic Mouse’s charging port on the bottom, which prevents it from being used while plugged in.

While the M4 is roughly twice as fast as the M1, most current users probably won’t benefit greatly from upgrading, and it’s even less of an improvement over the previous M3 iMacs. However, for anyone upgrading from an Intel-based Mac or transitioning from a PC, the new M4 iMac is an extremely attractive option.

Smaller Mac mini Gains M4 and M4 Pro Chips, Plus Thunderbolt 5

The entire point of the Mac mini is the “mini” part—it’s supposed to be small and inexpensive. With the new M4 Mac mini, Apple has reduced its footprint even more, dropping its depth and width from 7.7 to 5.0 inches. To maintain airflow, Apple had to add some height, so it’s now 2.0 inches tall, up from 1.4 in the previous model.

The price for the base M4 model remains $599, and it now includes 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage. The M4 Pro model has increased by $100, now starting at $1,399 for 24 GB of memory and 512 GB of storage. You’ll still need to supply your own keyboard and mouse, but Apple updated the Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, and Magic Mouse to charge using USB-C rather than Lightning.

As with the iMac, the M4 model is roughly twice as fast as the M1 version of the Mac mini, and Apple says the M4 Pro is two to three times as fast as the M2 Pro it replaces. It’s probably not worth upgrading for performance alone unless you’re coming from an Intel-based Mac or relying on resource-intensive apps.

Apple also positioned two USB-C ports and a headphone jack on the front panel for easy access. That’s a win unless you connect speakers to the headphone jack, at which point your Mac mini will always have a cable sticking out. The back side features Gigabit Ethernet for networking, HDMI for a display, and three Thunderbolt ports for connectivity. On the M4 model, those ports are Thunderbolt 4; on the M4 Pro model, they use Thunderbolt 5 to provide high-speed data transfers up to 120 gigabits per second.

Finally, those who need lots of screen real estate will appreciate the fact that the M4 Mac mini can support up to three external displays.

As much as the new Mac mini is an impressive and inexpensive package, it has a few trade-offs compared to the previous model. Along with the M4 Pro model’s price increasing by $100 and the possible annoyance of plugging speakers into the front, the previous M2 Pro Mac mini had four Thunderbolt ports, one more than in the new version. Plus, it had two USB Type-A ports, which remain popular despite the ascendance of USB-C. But the strangest thing? The power button is on the bottom, so you must pick up the Mac mini to turn it on or off.

Even if current Mac mini users don’t have much incentive to upgrade, the M4 Mac mini is compelling for anyone still using an Intel-based Mac. In particular, those still using 27-inch iMacs would do well to consider an M4 Mac mini and Apple Studio Display—the performance gains will be incredible.

Powerful MacBook Pros Leverage M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max Chips, Add 12MP Center Stage Camera and Thunderbolt 5

Apple’s final announcement of the week put all the pieces together. The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models feature:

• A choice of the M4, M4 Pro, or M4 Max chip, with a dizzying array of processor core and memory options that provide everything up to insanely great performance
• A 12-megapixel Center Stage camera that enhances video calls by panning and zooming to keep you in the frame as you move around
• A nano-texture glass option to make the screen easier to read outside in bright sunlight
• Thunderbolt 5 in the M4 Pro and M4 Max models for high-speed data transfers

Along with those improvements from the iMac and Mac mini releases, Apple also added some welcome tweaks specific to the MacBook Pro:

• All models of the M4 MacBook Pro feature brighter Liquid Retina XDR screens rated at 1000 nits outdoors, up from 600 nits.
• The M4 14-inch MacBook Pro now includes three Thunderbolt 4 ports, a step up from the two ports in the M3 version.
• The M4 14-inch MacBook Pro can now drive two external displays along with its built-in screen. The M3 version could do that only if you closed the lid.

The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,599 with an M4, $1,999 with an M4 Pro, and $3,199 with an M4 Max. The 16-inch MacBook Air starts at $2,499 with an M4 Pro and $3,499 with an M4 Max.

These new MacBook Pro models are nearly ideal. (More ports would always be welcome, but a Thunderbolt hub will help.) The only hurdle is the price, which increases rapidly as you choose faster M4 chips, more memory, and additional storage. You can’t swap chips or expand memory later, but you can save some money by putting less storage onboard and expanding capacity with inexpensive external SSDs.

MacBook Air Models Now Start with 16 GB of Memory

Finally, we can expect Apple to upgrade the MacBook Air, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro to the M4 family sometime next year. Until then, however, Apple has quietly raised the base level of memory for its M2 and M3 models of the MacBook Air from 8 GB to 16 GB. That’s likely to ensure optimal performance for Apple Intelligence, which is rather resource-intensive. Whatever the reason, the M2 MacBook Air still starts at $999 and the M3 model at $1,099, both with 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage. They’re great little machines, but if you can wait, the M4 version can’t be too many months away.

(Featured image based on originals by Apple)

All those data breaches are coming back to haunt us. Once our phone numbers and addresses began to be leaked, it was only a matter of time before scammers would personalize their attacks to make them seem more real. The latest “sextortion” scams purport to have compromising video of you taken from your computer’s webcam, backing it up with your phone number and a Google Street View-like image that matches your leaked address. They make a lot of claims and dire-sounding threats, but talk is cheap, and there’s nothing behind them. Do not pay the scammers!

(Featured image by iStock.com/Thapana Onphalai)

In macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and watchOS 11, Apple has officially renamed Apple ID to Apple Account. The new name is a slightly more sensible term because you can sign in to an Apple Account that holds your information, whereas an Apple ID was primarily an identifier—it’s an email address—that didn’t inherently imply that it stored data. The name change is mostly a distinction without a difference, but you should be aware of it when reading support documentation or tech articles. You’ll see the new term in System Settings on the Mac and Settings on the iPhone and iPad.

(Featured image based on an original by iStock.com/Armastas)

Although we’re still fans of 1Password, and there are plenty of other good password managers out there, like BitWarden and Dashlane, Apple has finally removed the last hurdle to using its built-in password management capabilities.

Starting in macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and visionOS 2, Passwords is now a real app rather than being trapped inside Safari, System Settings, and Settings. If you have resisted using a password manager or don’t wish to continue subscribing to an alternative, give Apple’s Passwords a try. It makes creating, maintaining, and entering passwords faster, easier, and more secure than doing it by hand. Those already using a password manager can export their accounts and import into Passwords.

What You’ll Find in Passwords

We’ll focus on the Mac version here, but the other versions are nearly identical apart from their screen sizes.

The left-hand sidebar, reminiscent of Reminders, provides categories of accounts:

• All: Select All to see all your accounts, regardless of what shared group they may be in.
• Passkeys: If you have any passkeys for large websites like Apple, Google, and others, they’ll appear here.
• Codes: Passwords can create, store, and enter two-factor authentication codes for sites that support them. If you need to look one up manually because Passwords couldn’t autofill it, you’ll find the associated account here.
• Wi-Fi: This category contains stored passwords for all the known Wi-Fi networks on your device. Because known Wi-Fi networks aren’t synced between devices, the number of these will vary between your devices.
• Security: If you have any accounts with weak passwords, accounts you previously shared and stopped sharing, or accounts whose passwords were leaked in a security breach, they’ll appear here. Edit these accounts and click the Change Password button to start the process; when the password changes, they’ll disappear from this category.
• Deleted: Any accounts you delete stay here for 30 days before being deleted for good. You can delete any of these accounts immediately or restore them to their previous group.
• Shared Groups: If you use Family Sharing, you automatically get a Family Passwords group to simplify sharing important accounts with your family members. But you can also share accounts with other groups of Apple device owners. To move an account to a group, choose it from the Group pop-up menu.

The middle pane lists the accounts in the selected category. You can sort the list using the menu with vertical arrows, search for a specific account, and manually add a new one with the + button. Otherwise, scroll through the list and click an account to view it in the right-hand pane.

At the top of the right-hand pane is an AirDrop button and an Edit button. Click AirDrop to share an account with someone nearby or Edit to make changes or set up a two-factor verification code. If you want to copy information, click the User Name, Password, Verification Code, or Website item to get a Copy menu. The password becomes visible when you mouse over it. Clicking Website also offers an Open Website option and lets you add more sites where the password should autofill.

Setup Requirements

Most people shouldn’t need to do anything to start using Passwords. However, if you have trouble, check the following items:

• Turn on Password AutoFill: If your device isn’t entering passwords for you, turn on AutoFill Passwords and Passkeys in Settings/System Settings > General > AutoFill & Passwords. Also, ensure that Passwords is enabled in the AutoFill From section if multiple password managers are installed.
• Turn on iCloud Keychain: If you want your passwords to sync securely among your devices, which makes life a lot easier, go to Settings/System Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Passwords and turn on Sync This Device.
• Set up iCloud Passwords for other browsers: Apart from Safari, Chromium-based Web browsers (Arc, Brave, Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, etc.) can access and autofill your saved passwords if you install Apple’s iCloud Passwords Chrome extension. (There’s also now an iCloud Passwords add-on for Firefox.) The overall experience is not as seamless as in Safari, requiring a once-per-launch code, and you have to create new accounts in Safari or manually in Passwords, but it works.
  
• Configure settings: Choose Passwords > Settings (or look in Settings > Apps > Passwords for iOS 18 and iPadOS 18) to access options. Generally speaking, it’s fine to keep them all turned on.
  

If you have additional questions, check Apple’s documentation for detailed instructions for all the platforms on which Passwords runs. But realistically, Passwords is easy to use, and although the app itself is new, the underlying password management features and syncing have been in place for years, so they’re stable and reliable.

(Featured image by iStock.com/designer491)