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iOS 18 Speculation Thread
- Thread starter Kylo83
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What? Just because the features in iOS 19 haven’t been announced yet doesn’t mean they can’t say “coming in the next major iOS update”, or “coming in iOS 19”. We all know iOS 19 is coming, that isn’t the part that’s a “secret”, the features are. Besides, if I recall correctly, Apple said RCS was coming in iOS 18 before iOS 18 was announced. They could at the very least say something like “coming in 2026”. But they haven’t done any of those things, so a later 18 update is still a possibility. 👍🏻
Wrong. It is very unlike Apple to talk about any unannounced product.
But they did with RCS in iOS 18 before iOS 18 was announced. And like I said, if they were expecting that long of a delay, they could always say “coming in 2026”, “coming in the following year”, or something like that. But they haven’t, they still say “in coming months”. Which still leaves a possibility open for a late iOS 18 release.
So there’s maybe an exception….doesn't disprove what I said. I think you are over analyzing things to be honest.
Not a product. Also, they had to implement RCS to sell phones in China, so announcing they were going to get around to it that year was about saving their stake in that market. It's working too. For once, Apple is leading market share in that country (though their growth is not as high as Vivo).
Mobile Vendor Market Share China | Statcounter Global Stats
This graph shows the market share of mobile vendors in China based on over 5 billion monthly page views.
gs.statcounter.com
Canalys Newsroom - Mainland China’s smartphone market records 4% full-year growth in 2024, led by vivo
Find the latest press releases, channels and tech analysis available
For RCS they didn't specifically mention iOS 18, a lot of people were hoping for it in an iOS 17 update.
Apple to Adopt RCS Messaging Standard for Better Interoperability With Android Devices
After years of persuading from Google, Apple plans to adopt the Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard. An Apple spokesperson told TechRadar and...
www.macrumors.com
You're right that they could say it differently. All I was saying is that iOS 19 wouldn't be mentioned by name, even if it seems obvious that it's coming to us.
All I’m saying is that we don’t know what we don’t know yet. Either way it ends up panning out I’m fine. I just find it odd that if they knew it was going to be delayed into iOS 19 that they wouldn’t say something like “next year” or “coming in 2026” or something. My guess is they’re not entirely sure about how long it will take to get up and going, so they’re preparing for the worst, but we still could end up seeing a release in a later 18 update if things end up correcting faster than they’re anticipating. The way I read this is they were most of the way through developing the features, but then major problems cropped up that caused them to have to delay the release until they can work out the issues. My guess is it’s probably a security/privacy related issue/vulnerability they discovered that will require some extensive work to fix. And so they are unsure about how long it will take to fix, and so they’re warning people about the delay and preparing for it to take a while. That’s all just my opinion, so don’t take it as anything more than that, but that’s the way I see it. If there are security or privacy threats they’re trying to work out, I would much rather a delayed release into iOS 19 than a rushed release for iOS 18 that doesn’t fix the issues. So I’m fine either way here with Apple taking their time to work things out. I just don’t think we can write off a late iOS 18 release because I don’t think Apple has even written that off yet.
I think I read somewhere the Craig or Tim were testing it and the features just weren’t working like advertised.
Sure, I don’t know if they would specifically say iOS 19 (on another thought, maybe the next iOS version won’t be called iOS 19? 🤔), I just think it would be odd if they knew it was going to take that long to get things fixed and ready that they wouldn’t say “coming next year”, or “coming in 2026”, or something like that, that’s all. 👍🏻For RCS they didn't specifically mention iOS 18, a lot of people were hoping for it in an iOS 17 update.
Apple to Adopt RCS Messaging Standard for Better Interoperability With Android Devices
After years of persuading from Google, Apple plans to adopt the Rich Communication Services (RCS) standard. An Apple spokesperson told TechRadar and...
You're right that they could say it differently. All I was saying is that iOS 19 wouldn't be mentioned by name, even if it seems obvious that it's coming to us.
And to clarify, I think it’s very possible the features have been delayed to iOS 19. I just think it’s also possible they could crop up in a later iOS 18 update since we don’t have any evidence excluding that possibility yet, and judging from what I’ve heard, it seems to me like Apple isn’t even completely sure about how long it will take them to fix and prepare the features, so I think that’s probably why they’re leaving it open and vague. 👍🏻
You will not like my theory, but possibly, they are not specifically saying it will come with iOS 19, because they are not sure it maybe delayed until iOS 20 or even later? 
I have heard some of that as well. Many of the articles I’ve read about it seem to think it’s a combo of both. So perhaps Gurman’s original reports about it being delayed to 18.5 were due to the features not working well, and then they discovered further security or privacy issues that caused them to need to delay it more, and so with both issues, they were unsure about how long it would take to fix. That’s at least the way I read it, I could be wrong. 👍🏻
That’s possible, but I haven’t read any sources indicating that. We’ll see, but I definitely don’t think that’s as likely as 18 or 19.You will not like my theory, but possibly, they are not specifically saying it will come with iOS 19, because they are not sure it maybe delayed until iOS 20 or even later?
I think it will come to iOS 19, but it will be less functional than people anticipated and might not come fully into shape until iOS 20. It's a work in progress and the goal line keeps moving, so keeping dates and version numbers out of the conversation is a good thing (for Apple).
lol I said this earlier like word for word.You will not like my theory, but possibly, they are not specifically saying it will come with iOS 19, because they are not sure it maybe delayed until iOS 20 or even later?
Looks like more evidence that the Siri stuff will be in 19 not 18.x.
www.macrumors.com
Everything Rumored for iOS 19 So Far
We're not going to get a first look at iOS 19 until the June Worldwide Developers Conference, but as work picks up on the operating system at...
www.macrumors.com
They didn’t cite any sources for that claim though. I think it’s very possible that things have been delayed to 19, I’d even go so far as to say it’s probably likely, but we don’t have anything concrete yet, and it seems the author of this article is merely stating their opinion on the matter. 👍🏻Looks like more evidence that the Siri stuff will be in 19 not 18.x.
Everything Rumored for iOS 19 So Far
We're not going to get a first look at iOS 19 until the June Worldwide Developers Conference, but as work picks up on the operating system at...
If you have been following Apple for any length of time you should know you will never have anything "concrete" until the day it happens. So have to rely on other technical sources (including Gurman
) to get a pretty solid idea of things to come.Sure, I’m just saying I don’t think even Gurman’s said that yet. I could be wrong, maybe I missed something. 👍🏻If you have been following Apple for any length of time you should know you will never have anything "concrete" until the day it happens. So have to rely on other technical sources (including Gurman
I’m going with content aware Siri is a long way off, years rather than months if ever.
As John Gruber says in his article, Apple haven’t shown it working to journalists or anyone, not even behind closed doors.
That’s not something they almost have ready to beta test, that’s vapourware.
As John Gruber says in his article, Apple haven’t shown it working to journalists or anyone, not even behind closed doors.
That’s not something they almost have ready to beta test, that’s vapourware.
Steve Jobs showed an iPhone that didn't even have apps on it. Just icons and screenshots for the most part.
They don’t normally demonstrate unreleased features to journalists, so that’s a completely unreasonable expectation. There is no reason to assume the features don’t exist, Gurman reported that issues arose with the features, not that the features never existed. So much melodrama…
If these features never get released, that opens the door to class action lawsuits. I think Apple is going to try everything in their power to avoid that. Delays, fine. But airing a commercial with specific features and never releasing them, they have to pay up.
But if every iPhone 16 purchase between Sept-Feb gets a $25 payout as part of a class action, they can drop the whole thing. That is still an option they could choose to take if the difficulty of the effort outweighs the cost of the check they would need to write. See swelling batteries on Apple Watches, performance throttling in Canda, Siri privacy concerns, Apple Store bag checks, etc. Apple does not mind writing big checks to solve problems.