When Apple CEO Tim Cook tees off the keynote at this year’s World Wide Developers Conference, he will be introducing software for the iPhone which has been trailed as ground-breaking. Here’s what’s in it.
A few weeks ago, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter, said about the new software, called iOS 18: “In fact, some engineers are signaling that it will be the biggest-ever revamp to iOS.” As you’d expect, there’s a lot to be announced and we can expect iOS 18 to be given the greatest time at the keynote. There’ll be plenty that hasn’t been leaked but here’s what we think we know.
AI Stands For Apple Intelligence
AI will be key to today’s announcements, and will be deeply integrated into apps and features, while maintaining Apple’s obsession with security. A partnership with OpenAI will be announced, to provide features which are managed in the cloud on Apple servers.
The features are designed to be genuinely useful to the widest range of users, rather than cool-but-esoteric features like video and image generation. So, Safari will be able to recap article and web pages, and the iPhone will sum up notes from meetings, or summarize emails. There’ll also be reply suggestions for emails and text messages.
But not everyone will see all the benefits on current models of iPhone: Mark Gurman claims that you’ll need the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, or one of this fall’s releases, to make the most of Apple Intelligence.
Siri Upgraded
A big revamp is coming for Siri, based on large-language models, it’s predicted, taking the voice assistant which has lagged behind rivals recently back to the forefront. You’ll be able to instruct Siri to open apps like Mail and then delete an email, for instance, or ask Siri to edit a photo in the Photos app, move files between folders and summarize articles. Siri should have a more conversational tone and a more realistic voice.
Passwords
A standalone Passwords app is in the works, which is a blow for rivals like the brilliant 1Password, but will be more convenient for Apple users and a big step up from the current useful-but-hidden Passwords Keychain. Full details here.
Customization Changes
According to the latest reports, iOS 18 will let you customize the Home Screen to interact with app icons in new ways. Users will be able to place app icons and widgets wherever they like on the home screen—a useful feature Android users have had for years. And if you want to change the colors of app icons, you can do that, too.
Messages
Apple will announce bringing RCS to iMessage, which may tempt many WhatsApp users away from that platform to the core Apple app. Read more about that here.
What else?
Oh, there’s plenty. From AI-created custom-emoji gussied up on the fly, to upgrades to Mail to categorize emails better, there’s a lot coming. I’ll end on the one I am waiting for above all others: Voice Memos, which I use all the time, will get automatic transcription capabilities, offering something that’s currently best done by the Recorder app on Google Pixel.
I’ll be reporting back on the details when they’re officially announced, from 10 a.m. Pacific today.
