Apple previewed support for RCS messaging in the iOS 18 Messages app at WWDC24. Adding Rich Communication Services will bring enhanced texting between iPhone and Android users, with features not possible before.
It’s a change Apple dragged its feet on for many years. Along with RCS support, Apple is also introducing new features like polls for iMessage, enhancing group chat interactions. Learn more about these changes.
New features in Apple Maps in iOS 18 will be a boon to hikers. The app is getting topographic maps along with thousands of suggested hikes across national parks in the United States.
The app can also create custom walking routes.
Apple is introducing a new Game Mode in iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The feature minimizes background activity to deliver higher sustained performance and smoother gameplay.
Additionally, Game Mode will reduce audio latency with AirPods and game controllers for better responsiveness.
Apple Mail for iPhone, Mac and iPad is getting a real dose of artificial intelligence. When it next version launches in the autumn, it will be able to summarize emails, assign them to categories based on their contents, and draft replies to messages so the user doesn’t have to.
“Staying on top of emails has never been easier,” promises Apple.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 remove many of the previous restrictions on Home screen customization. User now have far more control in placing app icons. And they can even change the color of icons.
New artificial intelligence features are likely to make iOS 18, macOS 15 and iPadOS 18 the biggest upgrades to Apple’s platforms in many years. Leaks say AI enhancements are coming to most of Apple’s standard apps, helping users write, summarize information, clean up images and more. At their announcement coming at next week’s WWDC24, these will all come under the heading of “Apple Intelligence.”
Plus, Siri reportedly will get a significant intelligence upgrade.
WWDC24 kicks off on June 10 but you don’t need to wait until then to find out what’s in store for iPhone, Mac and other Apple computers. Leaks already revealed much of what to expect at Apple’s annual developers conference, at least in broad terms. Here’s your WWDC24 spoiler alert: “Apple Intelligence” in the form of AI, AI and more AI.
Here’s what will be on the agenda when Apple unveils iOS 18, macOS 15 and iPadOS 18 next week.
Apple will overhaul its Settings app across iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS 15 when it unveils the updates at WWDC24, according to a report Friday. In other words, not everything at the big developers conference will be about AI.
Update: Control Center, which provides easy access to frequently used features on iPhones (as well as Macs and iPads), should see changes, too. Apple will upgrade it “with a new music widget and improvements to how it operates smart home appliances,” Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman wrote over the weekend in his PowerOn newsletter.
As a part of its AI upgrade, Siri in iOS 18 will reportedly enable control of individual apps through your voice. Apple has supposedly upgraded its voice assistant’s underlying architecture using LLMs to achieve this.
Additionally, Apple will process many basic AI tasks on-device in iOS 18 for faster response and a better user experience.
In a sign Apple TV+ may yet arrive for Android users — meaning hell must be entirely coated in ice — Cupertino is looking to hire a senior engineer to build a TV and sports app for the smartphone platform, according to a new report.
Apple might use generative AI in iOS 18 to allow iPhone users to create custom emojis, letting them express themselves just the way they want. The company is already at the forefront of adding the latest Unicode emoji to iOS.
Additionally, Apple is working on an AI-powered smart recaps feature. It will provide you with a summary of your missed notifications, new messages, documents, and more.
iOS 17.5.1 went out Monday to patch a nasty bug that could make images completely deleted from an iPhone reappear later. Multiple times. It’s was a problem with a lot of potential for embarrassment.
Tablet users got iPadOS 17.5.1 to fix the same bug. And Tuesday brought tvOS 17.5.1 to fix the problem on Apple TV.
iOS 17.5, iPadOS 17.5 and macOS 14.5 Sonoma, all currently in beta testing, feature a new word game called Quartiles, according to a new report. The game joins Apple News’ pair of daily crossword puzzles.
Apple’s new Ferret-UI multimodal large language model could help artificial intelligence systems better understand mobile screens like the one on your iPhone, according to a research paper released Tuesday.
Among those potentially benefitting from this? Perhaps the much-maligned Siri voice assistant will do more for you on mobile devices. And maybe visually impaired users and developers who need to do user interface testing will benefit, too.
After a wait that stretched out weeks longer than usual, Apple seeded the first beta of iOS 17.5 to developers Tuesday, along with the initial beta of macOS Sonoma 14.5.
And it’s going to be a very busy day for developers because iPadOS 17.5 beta 1, watchOS 10.5 beta 1, tvOS 17.5 beta 1 and visionOS 1.2 beta 1 also all went out.
iPhone users can now install iOS 17.4.1, a “bug fix” update on the major upgrade released early this month. iPadOS 17.4.1 is also available for tablet users.
And Vision Pro got its own patch, but there are no updates out Thursday for Mac or Apple Watch.
Privacy-preserving URL protection and beefed-up password protection are coming to Google Safe Browsing for the popular Chrome browser for macOS and iOS, Google said Thursday. The Chrome security update comes to Macs, iPhones and iPads first. Android devices will see them later in March.
AirPods Pro might be able to act more like a hearing aid with the release of iOS 18, according to an Apple tipster.
The additional audio function would benefit those with slight hearing loss who aren’t ready for more serious hearing assistance.
New generative AI features are expected to be a highlight of iOS 18, and a skilled artist created a concept video that presents an early look at how they might work.
The video also shows other suggested upgrades, like bringing Split View — Apple’s multitasking feature that lets two apps appear side by side on iPad (and Mac) — to the iPhone.
Apple just dropped iOS 17.4, bringing a plethora of new features — some of which fundamentally change how the iPhone works.
The biggest point update to iOS 17, iOS 17.4 comes almost six months after the operating system’s initial release. It enables support for third-party app stores, browsers and payment apps on the iPhone. The bummer? These major changes are only coming to the European Union. Still, there are a lot of new iOS 17.4 features that will enhance the experience of every iPhone user.
Apple changed course and is not disabling iPhone web apps in the European Union. The method for turning websites into applications will not disappear with the release is iOS 17.4 after all.
The flip-flop is just a small aspect of big changes coming to iOS because of EU legislation.
Apple just seeded the release candidate of iOS 17.4 to developers. When it goes to the general public — probably next week — it’ll bring in a collection of new emoji to iPhone, and a more secure version of iMessage. For Europeans, the update will be a major one, as it’ll usher in sideloading and other changes.
The release candidate for iPadOS 17.4 also came out Tuesday. However, macOS Sonoma 14.4 is still on beta 5.
Center Stage is a brilliant feature that lets an iPad’s front-facing camera follow someone on a video call. Center Stage is not available for iPhone, though. And apparently, it never will be.
Apple developed an alternative version called DockKit, but this requires an add-on accessory.
For the first time, an iOS trojan has been spotted in the wild. Adapted from a well-known Android trojan, GoldDigger, the new malware is called GoldPickaxe, according to a new report. And it steals an iPhone user’s facial recognition data to go after money in banking and other financial apps. We’ll show you how below.
Are you willing to die with your boots on? Do you know the number of the beast? If so, you’ll want to keep an eye on this upcoming mobile game from heavy metal band extraordinaire, Iron Maiden.
In conjunction with Roadhouse Interactive and 50cc Games, the legends of metal are putting together a free-to-play role-playing game, due out this summer, on iOS and Android. It’s called Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast (naturally), and will apparently include characters from the long history of Iron Maiden album art, as well as a soundtrack that has previously unheard live recordings from the monsters of rock.