There are still several months left until the presentation of iOS 18which barring surprises will be held at WWDC24 in June. In the meantime, however, rumors are starting to circulate about the new features that Apple could present, and about their importance in terms of improved user experience.
The usual thing to reveal some details on the matter Mark Gurman. In the “questions and answers” section reserved for users who subscribe to your newsletter Power Onthe journalist of Bloomberg he explained that – based on what he heard – iOS 18 could be the biggest software update in iPhone history. «I’m told that the new OS is seen within the company as one of the biggest iOS updates, if not the biggest of all.Gurman said.
More information will be shared in the future (Gurman rightly does not want to play all his cards in January), but two practically certain innovations are already known: the support of the standard RCS for messages and a version of Siri definitely smarter.
iOS 18 will be a revolutionary or almost revolutionary major update: the first details known
In November 2023 Apple announced the RCS support in the Messages app on iPhone starting from 2024. It is difficult to think that Apple’s statement, despite not having explicitly indicated it, does not refer to iOS 18.
Support for this standard will have positive consequences on the messaging experience between iOS and Android devices: high resolution photos and videos, audio messages, ability to exchange messages over Wi-Fi, improved group chats, more reliable encryption and so on.
As many probably already know, those just mentioned are features already available in iMessage, the platform with the “blue bubbles” that millions of iPhone users use to exchange messages. Precisely the “closure” of iMessage represents today a problem (especially in the United States, where Apple’s service is widely used, because – considering all the limitations – cuts out all Android users.
Siri and artificial intelligence
Gurman has very few doubts about it: the version of Siri he will debut with iOS 18 it will be enhanced with generative artificial intelligence. With AI, Siri should become much more intelligent, versatile and precise, thus catching up on more than fierce competition.
Compared to rival companies, mainly Google and Microsoft, Apple seems to be quite behind when it comes to artificial intelligence. Chatbots like Copilot and Bard are trained on large language models and are able to respond to requests comprehensively and in a human-like manner and tone.
In Cupertino, however, again everything’s quiet. And it is a rather worrying silence according to some, given the weight of the company led by Tim Cook.