iOS 12 Said to Feature Animoji in FaceTime, Deeper Siri Integration, and Do Not Disturb Improvements

[DMWARP]

I’d imagine iOS 12 will be 90% bug fixes but for the majority of users if they don’t see shiny new features they won’t (intentionally) upgrade. New Emoji/Animoji are something that will entice people to upgrade.

A redesigned Stocks app isn’t important to most people but is probably fairly easy to achieve, and therefore another ‘feature’ they can use to make up the 10%.

I expect (and hope!) Siri gets a lot of attention this year. Especially with HomePod now out. Hopefully it gets unified so all it’s abilities are on all the devices it is. I can imagine Siri getting it’s own section in the keynote along with iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS.

tvOS and watchOS are still relatively new so there’s a big area for new features here too.

I think it’s important to remember that as technologies and operating systems mature less new features should be expected.

 

[kazmac]

What about the bug fixes Apple? Sheesh.

 

[dampfnudel]

I'm very curious what this rumoured home screen redesign was all about (that's getting pushed back to 2019).

Yeah, I’m curious myself how they could change it in a beneficial way and not in a “let’s just make it look different” kind of way with little to no benefit to the user. It’s too bad we won’t get to see a preview this June.

 

[Sunshoopa]

About the same as the iOS 6 update to me which consisted of mainly maps which I don’t even use. It did have an AppStore redisign, but we already had that with 11 now. So now I hope they focus on the bugs.

I might stick with my jailbroken version until iOS 13 comes if this is all it is though.

 

[btrach144]

The iPad needs multi-user support. Even if they limited it to iPads with 4GB of memory, that would be fine.

I wish for this as well but we all know Apple is holding this back on purpose because it forces you and your spouse to buy your own iPads. For this reason, my family uses a Surface Pro 3 because we only need 1 device for our entire family.

 

[Mr_Ed]

It’s probably relatively easy, definitely for standard emojis and probably not that much more with Animoji’s because of the face mapping that had to be done with Face ID, and it’s popular with 14-35 year olds. Last summer there were articles about the cheeseburger emoji for Google Pixel being messed up. The cheese was UNDER the hamburger. I don’t care, most people my age didn’t notice but some people did care. Some higher up at Google apologized.

If i find out some security fix wasn’t finished because programmers were working on emojis THEN I would be upset. But I haven’t heard of that happening, ever. To find out that Apple spends time on a feature that a lot of people like and use, and doesn’t interfere with anything I want to do with the phone, doesn’t bother me in the least.

It's probably relative to how satisfied you are with the product and how useful the overall experience is to each of us. I (and I suspect many others here) have no problem with Apple adding a feature we can simply ignore if we don't find it useful. But when we see release after release with emoji updates while other functionality we find more useful to us is not improved upon, we will complain about it. To suggest it is somehow "wrong" to do so as some (not necessarily you) often do, and to dismiss it as strictly an age-related thing is silly. In this instance, there is ample evidence of an age gap with emoji use, but the same is not necessarily true for Siri and other features that could be improved upon and are not.

I've been an Apple consumer since the early 90s. I am among those who feel Apple has been on a downhill slide for some years now in terms of robustness, intuitiveness, and minimal intrusiveness (something I REALLY appreciated). I didn't mind paying a premium because at the time their products were discernibly superior for my uses. Well, "It just works" is not really true any more. At this rate, a day will come when the "premium" is no longer justified for me. I think this is true for a lot of us. So yeah, getting hassled on an increasingly regular basis to update my mobile devices for new emojis is very disappointing.

 

[apolloa]

So more buggy new features, wonderful.....

The complete lack of proper testing, and poor quality control on the one thing Apple does actually make themselves is getting tiring... I don’t hold much hope for iOS 12 new features being any different.

 

[OldSchoolMacGuy]

The iPad needs multi-user support. Even if they limited it to iPads with 4GB of memory, that would be fine.

That means selling less iPads. With all tablet sales falling, they aren't going to do something that means multiple people can share a single device rather than each buying their own. Sorry, not gonna happen.
[doublepost=1518466432][/doublepost]

So more buggy new features, wonderful.....

The complete lack of proper testing, and poor quality control on the one thing Apple does actually make themselves is getting tiring... I don’t hold much hope for iOS 12 new features being any different.

All you ever do is complain. Every single response here. I can't imagine going through life as such a negative person who does nothing but find the bad in everything. On top of that, the best way you have to spend your time is sitting online complaining. What an amazing life you lead.

 

[efp722]

[doublepost=1518466604][/doublepost]

Hoping to get rid of the square icon grid and do widgets like on android

man that'd be amazing. I'd love to try and android (haven't used in at least 5 years) but I'm just in so deep with Apple at this point that it's just easier to stay.

 

[EdT]

SxzzS

It's probably relative to how satisfied you are with the product and how useful the overall experience is to each of us. I (and I suspect many others here) have no problem with Apple adding a feature we can simply ignore if we don't find it useful. But when we see release after release with emoji updates while other functionality we find more useful to us is not improved upon, we will complain about it. To suggest it is somehow "wrong" to do so as some (not necessarily you) often do, and to dismiss it as strictly an age-related thing is silly. In this instance, there is ample evidence of an age gap with emoji use, but the same is not necessarily true for Siri and other features that could be improved upon and are not.

I've been an Apple consumer since the early 90s. I am among those who feel Apple has been on a downhill slide for some years now in terms of robustness, intuitiveness, and minimal intrusiveness (something I REALLY appreciated). I didn't mind paying a premium because at the time their products were discernibly superior for my uses. Well, "It just works" is not really true any more. At this rate, a day will come when the "premium" is no longer justified for me. I think this is true for a lot of us. So yeah, getting hassled on an increasingly regular basis to update my mobile devices for new emojis is very disappointing.

I don’t completely disagree with you. For the most part I haven’t been an Apple user as long as you. I did have an Apple II back in the early 80s but my next Apple anything was an iPod around 2003 or 4. My first iMac computer wasn’t until 2007 and iPhone wasn’t until the 4s (2012?).

My feeling is that Apple is wasting time/resources on things like Apple Car and Apple TV and Car Play. Not that I’m against those products, or other fields Apple has decided to venture into, but that they aren’t doing anything new or significant with those products. Either decide that you are in, and make a major push, or get out. I think other companies like Google suffer from the same fractioning. Items that don’t seem to be related that others are already doing, and right now doing better, with little focus and no long term roadmap for people to gage them by.

I would cut Apple Car and put those engineers and programmers elsewhere. And if there are other divisions that seem to be going in circles I would evaluate whether to stay in or get out. Emojis, animated or otherwise are at least a subset of a product that is central to Apple’s future, and I doubt it takes too much time or people to implement them.

 

[SeattleMoose]

If Siri was more than just partially useful, this would be great news...

 

[sos47]

in iOS 12 i want pro features like 100% photos features, everything thats possible on macOS

 

[apolloa]

That means selling less iPads. With all tablet sales falling, they aren't going to do something that means multiple people can share a single device rather than each buying their own. Sorry, not gonna happen.
[doublepost=1518466432][/doublepost]

All you ever do is complain. Every single response here. I can't imagine going through life as such a negative person who does nothing but find the bad in everything. On top of that, the best way you have to spend your time is sitting online complaining. What an amazing life you lead.

Haha oh dear, that’s because you have blinkered opinions and choose to see what you want to see, and judge people by selective posts they make on an Internet forum.. haha. You carry on selling your soul to a consumer electronics corporation as you do.. I’m sure they appreciate it.
If you got out of the news thread once in a while you’d see different sides, but you carry on sitting in your judgemental tower buddy..

 

[QuarterSwede]

The iPad needs multi-user support. Even if they limited it to iPads with 4GB of memory, that would be fine.

Yep. The iPad isn’t even on my radar until they add it. So far they’re treating them as personal tablets (except for education ones with multiple users) so I’m not expecting them to.

 

[halluxsinister]

Apple's alleged plans to double down on the quality of its iPhone, iPad, and Mac software platforms, rather than rush to introduce new features, have been revealed in more detail by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg News.

The report claims that Apple's software engineers will have more discretion to delay features that aren't as polished, with the company essentially shifting to more of a two-year roadmap for iOS and macOS, rather than trying to release major feature-packed upgrades every single year without question.The report describes Apple's new strategy as a "major cultural shift," and an admission that its recent software updates have suffered from an uncharacteristic number of bugs, ranging from a critical root superuser vulnerability on Mac to iMessages appearing in the wrong order across Apple devices.

Apple's commitment to a fast-paced iOS release schedule already led some features to be delayed regardless, including Apple Pay Cash and Messages on iCloud, so the new strategy would likely involve not announcing or testing those features in beta until they are much closer to being ready for public release.

Despite the increased focus on under-the-hood refinements, iOS 12 is still expected to include some significant new features, including Animoji in FaceTime, which will enable people to place virtual faces over themselves during video calls.

Additionally, in iOS 12, Apple is planning deeper Siri integration in the iPhone's search view, Do Not Disturb improvements that will give users more options to automatically reject phone calls or silence notifications, a redesigned version of its Stocks app, and a multiplayer mode for augmented reality games.

As previously reported, Apple is also expected to make it possible for developers to release apps that work across iPhone, iPad, and Mac, starting with iOS 12 and macOS 10.14, which should be introduced at WWDC 2018 in June.

Last month, Gurman reported that developers will be able to design a single third-party app that works with both a touchscreen, and a mouse or trackpad, depending on whether it's running on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Apple would presumably also streamline its own apps on the desktop and mobile.

The report didn't reveal exactly how the process will work, but Apple could be planning to release a new SDK with new APIs that enable true cross-platform functionality. Right now, Apple's UIKit and AppKit frameworks provide the required infrastructure for iOS and macOS app user interfaces respectively.

Today's report reiterates other features that are delayed, including redesigned home screens on iPhone, iPad, and CarPlay, tabbed apps on iPad, and the ability to view two screens from the same app side by side on iPad.

Article Link: iOS 12 Said to Feature Animoji in FaceTime, Deeper Siri Integration, and Do Not Disturb Improvements

Good idea. Because the quality has been on a long, downhill slide that showed, and has made me increasingly down on Apple as a company, and less likely to buy their gadgets in the future.

Here’s a feature suggestion I plan to send directly to Apple: LOCKING AUDIO. That’d be a handy feature in a device (the iPad) that Apple wants to pretend is a competent replacement for a computer. You know, you’re listening to music on your iPad, and browsing the web, when suddenly the music is silenced and replaced with some CRAP you didn’t want to listen to, because Apple didn’t think to provide this feature? (Maybe in settings, there should be an AUDIO tab, with a lock feature that allows you to turn it on or off, (and make it accessible as a button you can put on the bottom pull-up menu when you long-press (or force-push?) on the volume slider...) making it so that whatever app you select, when this option is enabled, is the ONLY thing that plays, and plays UNINTERRUPTED? Because right now, the only way to listen to music on an iPad and NOT have it get periodically interrupted to start playing a stupid goddamned AD with blaring audio because a website you’re browsing decides it would be to their economic benefit to play one, even though there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell it’s to their economic benefit because (in my case anyway,) it will so piss me off that I will vow NEVER to buy their product(s)... Sorry, I digressed. I do that. The only way is to listen on some other device, which almost defeats the purpose of HAVING music on the iPad in the first place. OR, another option could be to have the browser have a button or switch or slider on it that allows you to route all audio (until this switch is unswitched or untoggled, or whatever,) straight and directly to /dev/nul. Let the null device play the stupid ADVERTISEMENT’S stupid audio, just so long as I don’t have to hear it.

Feh. Apple. You guys make me wish Android was a usable OS so I could use a tablet and not have to put up with iOS annoyances.

PEE ESS, BEE TEE DOUBLE-U: *** The iPad will never (in my book) be a REAL goddamned computer, not withstanding Apple’s “What’s a computer?” BS rhetoric, until it has, as a minimum, a TERMINAL app, (as a minimum, plus a graphical file manager, (a real one, not the joke that is “Files”,) that has access to the actual iPad, ACTUAL file system,) until then, it’s just a *TOY*. ***

 

[jonnyb098]

Again I'm delighted to read this. Apple has grown so large that too many stupid bugs continue to go unfixed. Glad the article mentions the iMessages out of order bug. Ive done a number of fixes that temporarily correct the problem only for it to come back a couple days later. For me Messages is a hot mess of an app since 11.2.

 

[iHeadPhoneJack]

I mean do people still use animojis for anything???

 

[tennisproha]

Siri. Fix Siri.

So, they will focus on more Emojis and will highlight the weakest feature of the current ecosystem -- Siri.

Sounds like a winner...

You're kidding right. Better Siri or Privacy. Pick one. Siri is not Alexa or Ok Google, it's not meant to be.

 

[fhall1]

oooohhh - FaceTime animojis - THERE'S a feature everyone I know with an iPhone has been clamoring for.

 

[Abazigal]

Epic tweet storm by Steven sinofsky on this matter.

https://twitter.com/stevesi/status/963142502604779520

In short, Apple has always been doing a great job, will continue to do an excellent job, and there is nothing to worry about. As usual, the criticisms often come from people who don’t understand business in general, and who don’t understand Apple.

 

[tennisproha]

☝️Exactly. But otherwise, this is good. It means more meaningful and high quality updates. One year cycles just feed the media circus.

 

[fairuz]

You’re kidding right? iOS Yawn. These $1k+ phones and tablets and we can’t even get exciting updates once a year.

Can you not encourage them? I just want my phone to work and not spawn a nest of bugs every 12 months. That was the reason I didn't use Android, but all of a sudden my iPhone is behaving like those early-gen Android phones my friends used to recommend despite them constantly dealing with problems.
[doublepost=1518476979][/doublepost]

LOL what a joke apple has become. And I am the guy waited in line 2007 for an iphone. Zero excitement with their releases. Still focusing on failed emojis for 12 yr olds... SMH!

Brand new iPhone vs iPhone 10. Of course the new one and the first few will be way more exciting. At this point they're just keeping up with the times.

 

[Love Divine]

Sounds boring as hell, literally not looking forward to any of those things at all.

That said, I'd take rock-solid performance and no battery life hits over new, rushed features.

 

[Royksöpp]

iOS 12 is still expected to include some significant new features, including Animoji in FaceTime, which will enable people to place virtual faces over themselves during video calls.

Ugly people rejoice! Our time has come!

 

[r_mack]

I'll add my opinion to the fire. Personally, shifting away from an aggressive annual OS upgrade will allow appropriate time to polish new features and core functionality, including optimizing for all compatible devices, not just the latest models. While looking forward excitedly to WWDC and the iOS and Mac OS reveal is an annual ritual, it's not gonna hurt anyone if we have to wait for an 18-month or 24-month release cycle.