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The first iOS 19 beta is less than two months away, and there are already a handful of new features that are expected with the update.

iOS-19-Roundup-Feature.jpg

Apple should release the first iOS 19 beta to developers immediately following the WWDC 2025 keynote, which is scheduled for Monday, June 9. Following beta testing, the update should be released to the general public in September.

Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors so far.

New Design With Floating Tab Bar

iOS 19 is expected to introduce a new design that looks more like the visionOS operating system on the Apple Vision Pro headset.

Alleged-iOS-19-Tab-Bar-Front-Page-Tech.jpg

According to Front Page Tech's Jon Prosser, iOS 19 will have a glass-like appearance, with added translucency for menus, buttons, and other user interface elements. He also expects rounder app icons, and a new floating tab bar in Apple apps.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman also expects iOS 19 to have a visionOS-like design, and he believes the design changes will be the biggest since iOS 7.

End-to-End Encryption for RCS

Last month, Apple said that it plans to add support for end-to-end encrypted RCS messages to the Messages app in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS software updates. That likely means iOS 19, macOS 16, and other corresponding updates.

RCS-Feature-1.jpg

Apple promising end-to-end encryption for RCS messages indirectly confirms that it will be adopting the RCS Universal Profile 3.0 specification, which also includes several iMessage-like enhancements that were originally introduced in version 2.7 of the specification. iOS 18 supports RCS Universal Profile 2.4.

Here are five new capabilities to expect for RCS conversations on iOS 19:

  • End-to-end encryption, which will prevent Apple and any other third party from being able to read messages and attachments while they are being sent between devices
  • In-line replies
  • Edit messages
  • Unsend messages
  • Full-fledged Tapback support for RCS messages, ensuring they always work
iMessage conversations with blue bubbles have supported end-to-end encryption by default since iOS 5. In addition, iMessage has supported in-line replies since iOS 14, while the options to edit and unsend iMessages were introduced with iOS 16.

Apple has not indicated which iOS version will upgrade RCS, but iOS 19 or a follow-up update like iOS 19.1 or iOS 19.2 seems like a safe bet.

Live Translate With AirPods

At least some AirPods models will be getting a new live translation feature with iOS 19 and an accompanying firmware update, according to Gurman.

airpods-pro-purple.jpg

Here is how that feature will work, according to his report last month:
The capability will work like this: If an English speaker is hearing someone talk in Spanish, the iPhone will translate the speech and relay it to the user's AirPods in English. The English speaker's words, meanwhile, will be translated into Spanish and played back by the iPhone.
Google already offers a similar Live Translate feature.

He also said iOS 19 will have bolstered translation capabilities, which likely means improvements are coming to the Apple Translate app.

Revamped Health App With Coaching Feature

A revamped Health app is expected to debut as early as iOS 19.4 next year.

Apple-Health-Icon.png

Apple plans to offer a new AI-powered health coaching feature that offers personalized health recommendations, according to Gurman. The information provided by the coaching feature would be accompanied by videos from health experts that inform users about various health conditions and ways to make lifestyle improvements. For example, if the Apple Watch tracks poor heart-rate trends, a video could explain the risks of heart disease.

Food tracking will be another big part of the revamped Health app, which could compete with the MyFitnessPal app, according to Gurman.

Personalized Siri

Apple recently delayed the more personalized version of Siri that it previewed at WWDC last year. The company said it anticipates rolling out the Siri upgrades at some point "in the coming year," so the features could launch as part of iOS 19 later this year, although they could also arrive as part of a later update, such as iOS 19.1 through iOS 19.4.

iOS-18-Siri-Personal-Context.jpg

Whenever they launch, the Siri upgrades will include understanding of a user's personal context, on-screen awareness, and deeper per-app controls. For example, during its WWDC 2024 keynote, Apple showed an iPhone user asking Siri about their mother's flight and lunch reservation plans based on info from the Mail and Messages apps.

The more personalized Siri features will require an iPhone model that supports Apple Intelligence, so you will need an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, any iPhone 16 model, or any iPhone 17 model launching later this year.

EU Changes

The European Commission last month announced a long list of changes that Apple is legally required to implement in future iOS 19 and iOS 20 updates.

iOS-19-Roundup-Feature.jpg

The announcement clarifies interoperability requirements that Apple is required to adhere to in the EU, under t... Click here to read rest of article

Article Link: iOS 19 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone
 
I wonder what this means for the iPad tab bar.

Currently, I think it's maybe the worst bit of UI in the entire ecosystem.

Translucency for menus and floating tab bar sound really bad. I hope they give us the option to disable those. Sounds like a visual nightmare.

Apple’s always been good about “reduced transparency” and “reduced motion” options in Accessibility.
 
Apple products are doing more than what I need today. The accidental touches launching a currently not-needed option is becoming more than annoying. Now how do I get back to what I was doing? Grrr.
 
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My problem with RCS on iPhone is that it keeps switching replies back to text, breaking them out into a separate conversation with the same people from the iPhone point of view, while it stays in one group on Android. I've searched and found no way around this, so me and my friends just reverted back to Whatsapp as much as we didn't want to.

I hope they fix that and make group chats good.
 
Didn’t the tech articles state this is gonna be the biggest visual for iOS when this hardly any changes? No one is calling them out on that, even iOS 7 was a bigger visual design change than the iOS 19 rumors with circle icons? That’s the big change ?
 
Let me guess, upgraded Siri will get delayed until iOS 20.

And iCloud Mail notification badges still won’t auto sync between macOS and iOS.
And you will claim that notification badges do not auto sync between macOS and iOS till iOS 25 even though they already do for some time in iOS 18.
 
Translate would be good, but Apple's languages are so limited compared to Google Translate. I'm sure it will be a main feature, and I understand they will focus on popular languages but sometimes it's the less popular ones langues that would be nice to translate more .
 
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Didn’t the tech articles state this is gonna be the biggest visual for iOS when this hardly any changes? No one is calling them out on that, even iOS 7 was a bigger visual design change than the iOS 19 rumors with circle icons? That’s the big change ?
You can’t call them out on something that hasn’t been announced yet. Until then everything is speculation.
 
My number one hope each year is finally for Smart Folders to come to iOS Photos. Worried with the Pixelmator purchase this may be pushed off a few more years. Ability to archive messages and bump messages and custom backgrounds in Apple Messages too. CarPlay Dashboard getting improved support so one can stay there rather than having to go back and forth when getting directions or marking traffic incidents. Being able to organize App Library and single icon size Home Screen widgets would be a plus. Worried we won't see concrete improvements like this, and rather a focus on UI updates, which while I would welcome would much prefer real future improvements.
 
Competition drives Innovation. Otherwise you would still be sitting on your 3GB RAM Iphone 16 and a missing calculator app on the Ipad.

I just hope they will not decrease software quality with the 3rd party integrations.
Sorry they will
 
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