iOS 18 Potentially 'Biggest' Software Update in iPhone's History

[MacRumors]

Apple has big plans for iOS 18, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

In the subscriber-only Q&A section of his Power On newsletter today, Gurman said iOS 18 has the potential to be the "biggest" software update in the iPhone's history.

"I'm told that the new operating system is seen within the company as one of the biggest iOS updates — if not the biggest — in the company's history," he wrote.

Gurman said he plans to share more details about specific iOS 18 features and changes that are planned in the future, but we already know about two new features that are likely to be included in the update, as outlined below.

iOS 18 will be released in September, and the first beta for developers will come out during Apple's annual developers conference WWDC in June.

RCS Support

In November 2023, Apple announced that it would support the cross-platform messaging standard RCS in the Messages app on the iPhone starting "later" in 2024, so it will likely be an iOS 18 feature based on that timeframe.

RCS support should result in the following improvements to the default messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices:

• Higher-resolution photos and videos
• Audio messages
• Typing indicators
• Read receipts
• Wi-Fi messaging between iPhones and Android devices
• Improved group chats, including the ability for iPhone users to leave a conversation that includes Android users
• Improved encryption compared to SMS

These modern features are already available for iPhone-to-iPhone conversations with blue bubbles, via iMessage, and many of the features are also available in third-party messaging apps, such as WhatsApp and Telegram. RCS support on the iPhone will extend the features to green bubbles in the Messages app.

Smarter Siri

Gurman expects iOS 18 to feature generative AI technology that "should improve how both Siri and the Messages app can field questions and auto-complete sentences." He said Apple has also explored generative AI features for other apps across its platforms, including Apple Music, Pages, Keynote, and Xcode.

The Information reported that Apple plans to incorporate large language models into Siri to let users automate complex tasks, a feature that would involve deeper integration with the Shortcuts app. The report said this feature is expected to be released in an iPhone software update coming in 2024, which would likely be iOS 18.

Generative AI surged in popularity in 2022 when OpenAI released ChatGPT, a chatbot that can respond to questions and other prompts. Google and Microsoft released similar chatbots last year, as more companies race into the space. The chatbots are trained on large language models, allowing them to respond like a human.

Article Link: iOS 18 Potentially 'Biggest' Software Update in iPhone's History

 

[Legendary---]

I’ll believe when I see it

 

[everybodylovesramen]

please for the love of god take the camera shortcut off the lockscreen / or at very least let us disable it without having to root the phone.

 

[abatabia]

I’m already worried about the bugs.

 

[Karma*Police]

Doesn’t sound like much of an upgrade to me if those are the headlining features. How about fixing the keyboard first… when I try to edit my comment here and I tap in between words, half the time it inserts the text cursor and the other half it selects an entire word. So frustrating.

 

[acblue94]

Breaking new innovative updates. More emojis.

 

[ja']

all i want is SiriOS, powered entirely by Siri. everything is customizable because Siri just does it.

please for the love of god take the camera shortcut off the lockscreen / or at very least let us disable it without having to root the phone.

and yes, it's absurd that you can't customize this yet.

 

[cigz]

Yeah, sure. Let's be real... they literally been telling this every single year.

 

[DMG35]

I really hope its true. As much of an Apple fanboy I am the S24 Ultra look pretty amazing.

 

[vegetassj4]

Apple finally telling the truth? Oh wait, they said biggest. I read that as something else.
🐞

 

[Apple$]

Does this mean I can finally put the "Hey Siri, OK Google" Siri shortcut to rest?

 

[krspkbl]

Yeah sure… lol

And no doubt the buggiest. I’ll be waiting for 18.3 before upgrading then lol.

 

[Ferc Kast]

I’ll agree to disagree about AI popularity surging in 2022. It didn’t really seem to gain significant popularity until only last year.

 

[ricketysquire]

I used to be excited about these updates, but now I get nervous.

My first thought is what devices are they dropping support for next? I mean Apple is the best when it comes to updating old OSes, I mean they had an update for IOS 12 last year. But still it essentially means those devices are still being left behind. It would help if Apple clearly laid out what support they will over devices over time like other manufacturers do. I don't care about new features on old devices, security is what's important to me.

Then it's just more bloat and unnecessary crap being tacked on to the new OSes. I don't need a dedicated journaling app. again Apple is different from other manufacturers (looking at you Samsung) that they let us remove these apps.

I just wish Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc. all these software companies take a break from constantly putting out new releases. We don't need a major update every damn year. Focus on security, bug fixes and performance improvements. This is ridiculous. This is endemic across the tech industry, where you have a culture of constantly wanting to push out new code and releases, regardless if it's good or bad for the end users. For example, You have banking websites where they change the entire UI for no reason one day and you're spending time dealing with weird jankiness when you're just trying to pay your bills.

 

[Premium1]

IF RCS and actually making siri not suck are the features to make it the "biggest" update in history, that is pretty weak. Not to mention can't wait for all the bugs since IOS17 was supposed to be a bug fixer/squasher update and the bugs are still through the roof.

 

[Premium1]

Breaking new innovative updates. More emojis.

And more stickers in messages. #Courage

 

[krspkbl]

And more stickers in messages. #Courage

Don’t forgot new wallpapers!

 

[tweaknmod]

all i want is SiriOS, powered entirely by Siri. everything is customizable because Siri just does it.


and yes, it's absurd that you can't customize this yet.

Was that satirical? ‘Cause Siri can’t consistently do anything but add reminders and set timers… no way I want it in charge of an entire UX…

 

[Octavius8]

Even the phone dial app is super lacking, the way to edit text is super no-friendly (compared to Android), so, “smart features” available for the messaging app used mostly in USA is to useless for me. Definelty my last iPhone, I will keep my iPad and IMac off course, but iPhones are super deficient in soooo many aspects now that is Joke (hardware and SW).

 

[AF_APPLETALK]

I don’t usually put betas on my phone, but there’s a good chance I will just to get RCS sooner

 

[rjw1678]

Most likely iOS 18 will not support iPhone Xs, Xs Max and Xr. So since I am still using an iPhone Xs Max, I will not care about what Apple has planned for iOS 18. I am planning on waiting for an iPhone 17 Pro.

 

[icanhazmac]

Meh on both. Could care less about the texting experience of green bubbles and I very rarely use siri.

Edit: A bit more context... none of my green bubble friends have ever complained about their texting experience or requested I use another service. Also, I don't use siri much because I don't leave it open, as in listening all the time, so by the time I grab my phone or hit the watch I could just do, in apps, what I wanted siri to do which is mostly homekit stuff with lights anyway. Siri could be the greatest assistant ever but I don't see myself ever leaving it listening all the time for its wake-up command.

 

[EugW]

RCS support is huge. That’s a really big deal.

Too bad the kid’s XR won’t get it.

 

[ohthehorror]

I’m waiting for iOS 36. Now that’s an update.

 

[AlexJaye]

"Smarter Siri" isn't hard to do when Siri barely left the warehouse with a single braincell and hasn't improved much since.