Apple reportedly will introduce several enhancements to its Messages, Notes and Music apps as part of iOS 19. New additions in the Messages app include automatic translations and support for polls. And the Music app will enhance the Now Playing view on the Lock Screen by adding animated, full-screen album art.
Translation and polls coming to Messages app in iOS 19
All leaks and rumors surrounding iOS 19 so far have been about its visionOS-like revamp. Or about how it will lack new Apple Intelligence features as Apple works on revamping its Siri and AI efforts.
A new report sheds light on the improvements Apple plans to bring to some of its core system apps. Citing “information shared by previously-accurate sources,”9to5Mac says Apple will add automatic translations to incoming and outgoing texts in the Messages app. This should make texting your international friends and communicating with businesses abroad easier.
This presumably will use the system translation feature already deeply ingrained in iOS. (You can use Apple Translate using the app for iPhone and Apple Watch, translate text scanned from the camera, translate text from Visual Intelligence or translate web pages in Safari.)
Google Meet and Zoom offer real-time translation in video calls. Apple supposedly won’t add such a feature to its messaging app for now.
Additionally, Apple will take a cue from WhatsApp and Telegram and add poll support to Messages. This could help group chats decide where to eat or what dates work best for hanging out.
Curiously, Mendes says “Apple is also testing integration with Apple Intelligence as part of this feature.” He speculates that this could “automatically suggest the poll structure based on the context of the conversation.”
Animated album art on iPhone Lock Screen
The Now Playing view in iOS 19 will also receive an upgrade, with the Music app displaying full-screen album art on the Lock Screen. This already happens inside the Music app, but Apple plans to expand it to the Lock Screen.
If the visionOS-style user interface rumors prove true, it could be really cool watching the animations shine and reflect off the glassy Lock Screen interface.
Notes app may finally get Markdown support
In the Notes app, Apple supposedly will add the ability to export notes in Markdown. While regular users might not care about this, the improvement should help power users. (This is already a popular feature in third-party note-taking apps.) Markdown is an easy way to format plain text, using asterisks for **bold** and *italics,* [brackets for links](cultofmac.com) and hyphens for creating lists.
CarPlay gets some visionOS-style love
CarPlay reportedly won’t be left untouched in the sweeping user interface overhaul. Although “the extent to which the redesign comes to CarPlay remains to be seen,” there will be “multiple changes” that will make CarPlay feel at home with the rest, Mendes says.
All will be revealed soon
The above-rumored iOS 19 features won’t radically change the experience of using Apple’s stock apps on the iPhone. But they will help improve the overall experience and bring the Messages and Notes apps closer to their competition.
Otherwise, the major features of iOS 19 seem all but confirmed. You can expect a sweeping new visual design that takes cues from visionOS and will unify the look of all Apple platforms. On iPhone, the bottom tab bar, a design staple from iPhone OS 1, will become a more fluid, dynamic floating element.
Apple also reportedly will reset the numbering of its operating systems to reflect the upcoming year, so iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS and tvOS will all be in lockstep. Instead of iOS 19, the next version would be called iOS 26.
Apple Intelligence will take a backseat with only a few new features.
Apple will announce all of its software updates on Monday, June 9. That’s the first day of WWDC25, beginning with a live-streamed keynote at 10 a.m. Pacific.
D. Griffin Jones contributed to this report.
