iOS 18 Rumored to Add New Features to These 16 Apps on Your iPhone

[MacRumors]

Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others.

Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, and others:

• Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are expected on iOS 18, including custom routes and topographic maps. Custom routes would allow users to choose specific roads to travel on while navigating, while topographic maps include details such as trails, contour lines, elevation, and points of interest for hiking. Topographic maps were added to the Apple Watch with watchOS 10.
• Apple Music: With iOS 18, Apple Music will reportedly be able to auto-generate playlists.
• Calculator: iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 are rumored to feature a revamped Calculator app with several new features, including a sidebar that lists recent calculations, an improved interface for converting units, integration with the Notes app, and more. That means the Calculator app will finally be available on iPads.
• Calendar: Two other apps rumored to be integrated on iOS 18 are Calendar and Reminders.
• Freeform: iOS 18 is rumored to add a new "Scenes" option to Apple's drawing app Freeform. This feature would allow users to select specific sections ("scenes") on the canvas for easier navigation.
• Health: Apple is reportedly planning new AI-powered features for its Health app, but no specific details are known yet.
• Keynote, Numbers, and Pages: Alongside iOS 18, Apple reportedly plans to update its iWork suite of productivity apps with new generative AI features for auto-generating slides in Keynote, writing faster in Pages, and more.
• Mail, Photos, and Fitness: These apps will reportedly be "overhauled" with iOS 18, but no specific details are known yet.
• Messages: iOS 18 is expected to add RCS support to the Messages app, which will improve the messaging experience between iPhones and Android devices by allowing for higher-resolution photos and videos, audio messages, typing indicators, read receipts, Wi-Fi messaging, and more. It has also been rumored that the Messages app will use generative AI to auto-complete sentences more effectively.
• Notes: With iOS 18, the Notes app is expected to be able to display mathematical notation, allowing users to include more types of algebraic equations and formulas in notes. The app is also rumored to gain a built-in audio recording tool, eliminating the need to switch over to the Voice Memos app.
• Safari: iOS 18 is likely to add a browsing assistant to Safari, which could summarize web pages and more. A new "Web Eraser" feature that would allow users to remove certain elements from web pages has also been rumored.
• Shortcuts: With iOS 18, users will reportedly be able to automate complex tasks more easily with the Shortcuts app.

While they are not dedicated apps, it has also been rumored that generative AI technology will allow the iPhone's virtual assistant Siri and built-in search tool Spotlight to respond to more complex questions and search queries.

For even more rumors, read our iOS 18 roundup.

Article Link: iOS 18 Rumored to Add New Features to These 16 Apps on Your iPhone

 

[reubs]

I had the Music app create a station from a song I was listening to this AM, and then three songs later, it played the song I had started the station from, so I heard the same song twice in 15 minutes; not a huge deal, but I'm not optimistic about Music getting any better.

 

[jz0309]

An updated fitness and Health app would be nice, and RCS too though I don’t communicate multimedia with anyone not on an iPhone right now.
The rest, meh
And all this AI “stuff” - don’t see the benefit for me

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

awesome! but can they fix automatic updates on apps yet? Oh they've moved on from that..? cool, I love manually updating them every hour.

 

[Kylo83]

We need calendar app changed to get rid of the dot so we can see what we have per day

 

[KurtWilde]

Just let Siri live on the Dynamic Island and not take over the screen

 

[icanhazmac]

Why offer any new features? The EU will just start complaining about taking bread off the table of calculator app devs.

 

[MallardDuck]

If web eraser stops autoplay of video and audio I'm going to dance for joy

 

[Supermallet]

AI to improve autocomplete sentences makes me all the more determined to leave that "feature" turned off permanently.

 

[gsmornot]

Finally, a calculator. Ha. Over time, I have had several with ads and well, ready to be done with that.

 

[iHorseHead]

I wish Safari had better translation options too. I can't even translate from Lithuanian to English and have to use Edge / Chrome for that.

 

[bigjnyc]

For the first time in a very very looong time I am genuinely excited about an iOS release. Can't wait for June.

 

[Slix]

• Apple Music: With iOS 18, Apple Music will reportedly be able to auto-generate playlists.

All I want is to be able to see and edit Smart Playlists on iOS. The fact that iOS still doesn't have this feature yet (though sometimes they seem to sync and update on the fly alright from syncing on the Mac/Windows), but computers from 1998 could do this is insane.

Also please, just let us add the Playlists/Artists/Songs tabs to the bottom tab bar again. Please. Drilling down into like 5 menus to get to the artists list is so bad, and it resets randomly when the app closes.

 

[kevinws]

If Apple does not figure out how to have RCS with encryption they are just half-assing it.

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

6 weeks ish B1 will be available

 

[louis^]

Gurmanrumors again and again😴

 

[Supermallet]

If Apple does not figure out how to have RCS with encryption they are just half-assing it.

Where do you see Apple is implementing RCS without encryption?

 

[now i see it]

Will iOS 18 be the most maligned version of iOS in history?
The rumored features list looks gawdawful

 

[iAppleOrchard]

I can't wait to see WWDC's reaction to the calculator app finally coming to iPad.
I hear they cheered Very loudly when the weather app came to iPad.

 

[MrGimper]

I’m hoping these depend on features of the new OS, otherwise these could just be pushed out via App Updates. But of course pushing updates of their own apps out via App Store instead of needing to lord them as OS “features” is a bit mind-bending for them.

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

Will it be the buggiest iOS yet as well

 

[PsykX]

I hope the Fitness app will receive a major update for tvOS, because I've always seen it as an MVP. So much lost potential.

 

[gaggle]

What CAN they do?

I can only imagine AI having a chance of being truly new: ChatGPT voice mode can be super smooth, and more times than not can carry a really vibrant, informative voice interaction mode back and forth. It's amazing when it doesn't speak nonsense. So if I imagine Apple getting that? Some persistent, globally aware assistant. Have the new Siri or whatever say "Hello" on stage, and carry a conversation? Yeah that'd be interesting.

But if not that, then literally what else could be interesting? I don't mean to trash topological maps, I'm sure they'll be... topological, but c'mon, it can't be the headline news, right?

 

[Realityck]

No mention of Classical and CarPlay

 

[ChrisA]

What CAN they do?

I can only imagine AI having a chance of being truly new: ChatGPT voice mode can be super smooth, and more times than not can carry a really vibrant, informative voice interaction mode back and forth. It's amazing when it doesn't speak nonsense. So if I imagine Apple getting that? Some persistent, globally aware assistant. Have the new Siri or whatever say "Hello" on stage, and carry a conversation? Yeah that'd be interesting.

But if not that, then literally what else could be interesting? I don't mean to trash topological maps, I'm sure they'll be... topological, but c'mon, it can't be the headline news, right?

I'd be happy if Suiri was as smart as the AI assistant built into the Opera web browser. Opra can search the web, summarize the results, and offer links to the sources used.

That is what I want from a search, a summary bit with all the sources cited. Opera can do this today, so maybe Siri can in 6 months?