iOS 18 is coming in Beta this June and will be fully packed with features. During the WWDC 2024 event between June 10th – June 14th Apple will seed the first Developer Beta of iOS 18 and registered developers will be able to download iOS 18 and test it.
Apple is planning major overhauls with iOS 18 and many leaks indicate Apple is seriously looking into Generative AI and enhancing Siri as one of the key changes in iOS 18.
Siri hasn’t had a major overhaul in many years and with 2023 being the booming year of AI innovation, Apple will most likely follow suit and finally make Siri worth using. A lot is going on in iOS 18 so let’s see what we should expect in June.
What to Expect From iOS 18?
There are several changes we expect iOS 18 to contain. While we won’t likely know for sure until June 10th during the WWDC 24 keynote, here is what Apple will most likely feature in iOS 18:
RCS Support in iMessage
Apple has been under fire recently both in Europe and in the US after several regulatory bodies found Apple in a gatekeeper position and deemed Apple’s tight grip on iOS as monopolistic behavior.
One of the biggest issues was centered around RCS (Rich Communication Services) support in iMessage.
Apple has been particularly stubborn about this to the point where the GetTheMessage movement was born in an attempt to get Apple to implement it.
In a nutshell, RCS support in iMessage would allow you to communicate with Android users the same way you communicate with iMessage / iOS users, by being able to:
- Send high-quality photos
- Send locations
- Send videos
- Enable typing indicators
- Enable read receipts
- Enable WiFi messaging.
- Group Chat support between iOS and Android.
Currently, iOS to Android messaging is stuck in the 2000s with the infamous green bubbles that can only carry out text.
It’s rumored that iOS 18 will finally put an end to this and iMessage will get RCS support. This is likely a move to avoid several fines in the EU and even in the US as the U.S. Department of Justice recently filed an Anti-Trust lawsuit against Apple citing, amongst other things, RCS support in iMessage.
Home Screen customization
Another iOS 18 feature that was announced to make its way to production is the ability to customize the home screen icon position and icon color, thus allowing users to leave gaps in the icons arrangement and to tint the icons to better match the wallpapers.
This feature would essentially allow you to place an app icon anywhere in the grid instead of having them snap one after another.
This allows you to create empty space around your icons, or arrange them in a certain way. Combined with widgets, this can allow for a better Home Screen design as icons no longer have to follow a row.
Siri enhancements and Generative AI
I don’t know if it’s only me or if other people noticed it too, but Siri has become pretty dumb in the last couple of major iOS versions.
I remember being able to ask Siri to do various conversions and give me directions, recipes, etc. back in iOS 14 and iOS 13 and it would always respond with accurate info. Today on iOS 17 it’s like Siri is not even trying anymore, most of the time giving me a web result instead of a response.
I even had issues with Siri not being able to convert from USD to EUR and instead showing me a web result.
With the advent of generative AI, this can likely be fixed Siri can be enhanced quite a lot. OpenAI’s ChatGPT is already widely popular and it proved users would rather have a capable AI assistant than perform manual searches.
Jailbreak tweaks like SiriPlus already successfully integrate ChatGPT and Google Gemini with Siri, so it’s very likely Apple will look into enhancing Siri’s capabilities using AI in iOS 18.
Tim Cook did recently tease the fact that Apple is working on Generative AI and more details will be available later this year, so it’s very likely we’ll be hearing about this during WWDC 24.
Enhancements to Apple Maps
Leaks indicate Apple may implement two new features, topographic maps and custom routes in iOS 18.
The custom routes features would essentially allow users to choose a specific route either because they are familiar with it or because of other points of interest along the way.
The topographic maps feature which debuted on watchOS 10 shows additional info such as elevation, POIs, contour lines, trails, etc. This feature may come to iOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2 as well, though this was not officially confirmed yet.
Other iOS 18 UI design changes
Apple will likely tweak the general iOS design a bit in iOS 18. There were rumors Apple may allow round icons on iOS 18, but there is currently no solid indication that may be the case.
We might see more Home Screen customization options besides the icon arrangement feature, though it’s unknown to which extent for now.
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