While iOS 17 brought significant improvements to the iPhone over the past year, it doesn’t seem to be the real party until iOS 18, where you can really expect a lot of new features that will actually benefit you.
Every year Apple comes out with a new version of iOS. The iPhone operating system then gets significant innovations. The Diary app is fun in the beginning, of course, but will you still use it? The features in iOS 18 will really change your phone usage significantly.
By March, with iOS 17.4, significant things are already about to happen. Apple will also allow other app stores in Europe. So you no longer have to search for apps through the App Store. iOS 18, however, is marked by significantly new features.
Where does that leave AI on the iPhone?
I’m sure it hasn’t escaped your notice: it’s the age of AI. As a result, many phone makers are diving in full on it. Whether it’s the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, the Google Pixel 8 Pro or the OnePlus 12, AI is the key word with all of them. You get access to a significant number of cool features, such as live translation, Circle to Search, and photo enhancements.
Apple, on the other hand, remains very quiet about AI. Still, the company really can’t be left behind on the iPhone anymore. So we take an immediate look at Siri in iOS 18. The digital assistant on the smartphone is hopelessly outdated, whereas in the beginning it was still a significantly distinctive feature.
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So, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple is going to focus significantly on this in iOS 18. In October, the well-informed journalist revealed that Siri should be improved through generative AI. This should allow even more questions to be answered and also allow the AI to complete sentences.
Work to be done on these features
You can already see the latter feature on the Samsung Galaxy S24. Here the AI ensures that sentences are automatically completed and you can choose whether AI should write your message to someone else in a different style. For example, consider having a reply written up formally.
(Image Jeroen Kraak/WANT)
But to compete with Samsung, AI will also need to be integrated into the camera. Think of automatically improving noise on dark photos or removing reflections. Apple, of course, wants to continue to claim that you take the best smartphone photos with an iPhone.
Yet Apple already seems to be implementing AI features. For example, the podcast app will soon be able to transcribe podcasts in several languages. Dutch is unfortunately not among them, but it is a sign that Apple is not sitting still.
Messages will be different in iOS 18
In addition, iOS 18 will start supporting RCS (Rich Communication Services). This will allow you to send and receive messages even better as Android users. RCS is the standard used on those phones. For example, it will soon be possible to send and receive higher resolution photos.
It will also soon be possible to send audio. Many features, which on an iPhone were only possible through iMessage, which you can only use with other owners of Apple products. So you will soon no longer need WhatsApp for those functions, which provides even more convenience.
Exactly how iOS 18 will be we’ll see in June. Then Apple will hold its developer conference WWDC. The company will then reveal exactly what the new operating system will look like.
