iOS 18: 9 new features to look forward to one week before its unveiling

We are less than a week away from the presentation of iOS 18. On June 10, the WWDC24 of Apple will be held, and the company will showcase all the new software it has prepared. We will see all the new operating systems for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch in an inaugural conference that promises to be the most interesting in recent years.

And with so little time left to see it, we already know many new features about iOS 18 thanks to rumors and leaks that have appeared. Here are 9 improvements in iOS 18 that we are eager to see live.

iOS 18 will be presented in just a week with many new features

Artificial Intelligence Everywhere

This seems to be the year of AI, and Apple, although it may be somewhat behind its rivals, wants to get on board. It is expected that in iOS 18, we will have many AI-related new features that will "invade" the system completely, this information is confirmed in the recent report of bloomberg. Almost all apps, the Spotlight search, and Siri will include AI-related innovations.

Siri

Siri will be one of the major beneficiaries of the arrival of AI. There is talk that Apple could launch a kind of Siri 2.0 powered by generative AI. This new Siri should be more conversational, understanding context and responding more reasonably, in addition to being able to continue a conversation and provide much more defined answers.

Apple Music

Apple's music app could be one of the big winners from the arrival of AI. It is said to be capable of creating much more personalized playlists for each user automatically. Even asking Siri for specific songs depending on our mood, it could create a more interesting music list.

Messages

The Messages app could also improve significantly with AI. Among other functions, we could have automatic responses and summaries of a group conversation in just a few sentences to catch up in seconds.

Photos

It seems that the Photos app in iOS 18 could use generative AI for more professional editing of all our photos. The iOS photo editor is very powerful, but with AI, we might be able to remove elements from a photo quickly or even change the background thanks to generative AI.

AI-Generated Emojis

One of the big new features in iOS 18 related to AI would allow us to create completely personalized emojis. Currently, we can combine several emojis into one on the iPhone, but with this feature, we could describe an emoji and have the AI create it to our specifications for sharing.

More Customizable Home Screen

iOS 18 could take a big step forward in terms of customization with some very interesting new features. Beyond a possible design change in the style of visionOS, iOS 18 could have other completely new customization options:

• Icons Anywhere: iOS 18 will allow placing icons anywhere on the screen, leaving blank spaces between apps. This has never been possible before as iPhone icons are organized from left to right and top to bottom since the first version of iOS.
• Changing Icon Colors: Another customization option will allow changing the color of app icons to give them different shades. For example, we could make all social media app icons blue or green.

Improvements in Calculator and Notes Apps

The iOS Calculator app seems to come with some interesting new features. Firstly, it seems we will finally have the Calculator available on the iPad, an app that has never been on iPadOS. Secondly, it seems it will be a more powerful app with more advanced features, like a history or improvements in the unit conversion system.

As for Notes in iOS 18, it will also be an app with a deep redesign. One of the improvements will be the arrival of voice notes; users will be able to record, save, and play audio recordings. There also appears to be some integration of the Calculator within Notes, which would allow adding and solving equations, creating formulas from handwriting, performing unit conversions, or viewing 2D graphs in the Notes app.

New Accessibility Features

Apple has confirmed the new accessibility features coming to iOS 18, and we have many interesting updates. These are the announced features:

• Adaptive Voice Shortcuts: A feature that will allow users to assign a unique phrase that they can say to activate an accessibility setting.
• New "Categories" Section for Live Speech: Live Speech allows users to type what they want to say to be played aloud during phone calls or in-person conversations. The feature will improve, allowing phrases to be organized into categories that can be customized by adding or removing phrases.
• More Apps Supporting Text Size Adjustments: Apple wants more applications to be compatible with this feature. macOS 15 is expected to extend this feature to apps like Books, News, Stocks, Tips, and Weather.
• Reduce Motion Sickness in Vehicles: Vehicle Motion Cues is a new experience for iPhone and iPad that can help reduce motion sickness for passengers in moving vehicles.

RCS Support in Messages

It seems that Apple has finally decided to appease Google, and by the end of the year, it is confirmed that the Messages app will support RCS technology. This means that messages between iPhone and Android will be more compatible with features like typing indicators and read receipts, higher resolution photos and videos, audio messages, and improvements in group chats. We expect to see this in iOS 18.