We’ve been hearing a lot about iOS 18 ahead of WWDC 2024, which is scheduled to begin on June 10. New features, AI rumors and all sorts of changes to expect from the next version of Apple’s mobile operating system. Now Mark Gurman from Bloomberg has revealed a bunch of things we might see in iOS 18, including what kind of AI features we should expect.

According to Gurman, Apple’s AI strategy is to ”appeal to a user’s practical side” and offer features they will be able to use day to day. The other “whiz-bang features” will apparently be left to other companies.  That means new features for existing core apps, including Safari, Photos, Notes and Siri.

AI features reportedly on the way include photo retouching, voice memo transcription, suggestions on how to reply to emails and messages, improved search in Safari and Spotlight, auto-generated emojis made with generative AI, recaps of notifications and messages, summaries of documents and web pages, as well as more advanced capabilities for Siri.

Siri’s upgrades include the ability to have more natural conversations with the virtual assistant — something that’s been rumored for some time. Gurman also claims that there will be a more advanced version of Siri built for the Apple Watch, which is supposed to have been designed to handle “on-the-go tasks”.

The emoji-generation feature sounds the most interesting to me, though. Apparently this will use generative AI to create brand new emojis based on the contents of your message. So you won’t be restricted to the confines of the existing emoji catalog.

Gurman also revealed that iOS 18 will be letting users change the color of app icons, as part of a revamped home screen. While not related to AI, the idea here is that your apps can be color-coordinated. So finance can be green, social media can be blue and so on. Those apps won’t need to be placed into the standard home screen grid either, potentially giving people the option to better personalize their devices.

We’ve already heard that Apple will be marketing these AI features as “previews” in the iOS 18 beta. While it’s unclear whether this label will continue into the public version, it will emphasize the point that this technology isn’t completely foolproof just yet.

No doubt we’ll be hearing more about that, and iOS 18’s AI capabilities at WWDC in a couple of weeks time. So be sure to check out our WWDC 2024 and iOS 18 hubs for all the latest news and updates.

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