Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference next week promises to be a pivotal moment in the iPhone maker’s history. At WWDC, the Cupertino tech giant will show how it has chosen to integrate AI technology into its devices and software, including through a historic partnership with OpenAI. As the big event approaches, there have been all kinds of leaks about what iOS 18 has to offer and its rumored AI-based apps and features.
Among the changes, Apple is said to be powering some of its new AI features with its Ajax LLM. Other reports suggest that Apple plans to process AI data in a way that even employees won’t have access to, which will help Apple continue to fulfill its promise of data privacy for its users.
Below, we’ll take a look at how Apple is said to be adding AI to its apps and services in the next major iPhone update, along with other improvements and changes coming to iOS 18.
The future of Siri with AI
- Apple’s digital assistant is set to get an AI makeover. The digital assistant will use Apple’s own large language models and allow Siri to control individual functions in apps. This will work without any developer or user setup required, such as what App Intents or Siri Shortcuts currently require. Instead, users will be able to ask Siri to do things like delete an email or edit a photo, for example.
- However, some of Siri’s improved AI capabilities won’t be ready until next year. For example, Siri’s ability to handle multi-step tasks will likely slow down.
- A more advanced Siri will also come to the Apple Watch for use on the go. You can use Siri on your watch to play music on another device, a report says.
- Siri will get more natural sounding voices.
- Siri will be able to summarize notifications that include people, companies, calendar events, locations, dates, and more.
- Could Siri’s new look be hinted at in the animations below?
The new look of Apple Photos
- A new interface is teased.
- Humans will also have the ability to retouch photos with AI, perhaps challenging Google Photos in this area.
- A “Cleanup” feature, for example, will let you remove objects from your photos using generative AI technology similar to Google’s Magic Eraser.
- One report notes that Apple has only made an internal app called Generative Playground that uses genAI to create and edit images. It’s unclear how this functionality will be rolled out to end users, though iMessage integration has been spotted in the form of an app extension.
Safari with more AI
Notes injected with AI
- Users will be able to request AI summaries on Notes.
- GenAI will also help transcribe audio into Notes.
- In-app audio recording will be supported along with audio transcription and AI summarization.
- Math Notes will help users create graphs and solve equations through AI by recognizing the text of math equations and then helping you solve them.
- Notes users can also have the option to autocomplete their math equations as they type.
- Project Greymatter is the codename for a set of AI tools that integrate into core like Safari, Photos and Notes, Bloomberg reported.
Voice memo transcriptions
iMessages is getting an AI makeover
- AI generating emoticons will be supported, allowing users to create their own emoticons with technology.
- AI summaries of omitted texts will also be available.
- Overall, deeper Siri integration is expected.
- Tapbacks will get new icons.
- Message effects for individual words will be supported in addition to effects for the message itself.
- Messages will offer suggested responses generated by Ajax LLM on the Apple device to facilitate SMS sending.
- RCS support is also supported this year to provide recipe reading, input indicators, and high-quality videos and images when texting with Android users via iMessage.
Calendar refresh
- Apple’s LLM will be able to communicate with the Calendar app to check for events when composing responses to messages.
Mail with AI support
New settings interface
- Hopefully, settings will become less confusing with a revamped interface and updates that include better organization and improved search.
Control Center Updates
- A new music widget will be available — possibly featuring larger artwork?
- HomeKit improvements for smart home integrations.
Notices
Spotlight
Home screen updates
- iOS 18 will bring the ability to place app icons wherever you want, instead of having to align them to the grid with no spaces between them.
- Users will also be able to change the color of app icons, perhaps as Apple’s answer to Google’s Material You.
Maps with route creation
Music with AI-based playlists
More improvements
Other apps with planned updates include Freeform, Xcode, and Apple’s productivity apps like Keynote and Pages, which may get genAI features.
