I can't believe it either, but WWDC is only days away! Let's roundup all the rumors as of yet! As a reminder, it's on Monday at 10 AM Pacific (1 PM Eastern), and can be watched on apple.com, the Apple TV app, and YouTube (plus the Apple Developer app/website if you're an Apple developer).
First and easiest, all the new accessibility features have already been revealed by Apple in mid-May (see my post at https://www.seeds-of-apple.com/post/apple-announces-new-ios-18-accessibility-features). Plus, Apple already announced in November that RCS is coming to iMessage. Next, AI (to be marketed as “Apple Intelligence” and come as an opt-in beta) is no doubt going to be the focus of this "relatively groundbreaking" update, with rumors dating all the way back to the very first last year saying so. Apple is even throwing away big bucks for research on it, although Apple's not making a chatbot (although it's has made deals with OpenAI for ChatGPT inside iOS) but only scattering AI around in all its apps. Apple is apparently making AI-generated Apple Music playlists and message content-based emojis, plus better photo editing, a better Safari search, AI recaps of unseen notifications and single Safari pages, documents, articles, iMessages and notes, suggested replies for Mail and Messages, special effects for single words in messages, and finally text transcriptions of voice memos. Phew! And this might not even be all of the features coming this year: a "significantly" boosted Neural Engine for the iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max might bring more exclusive features. Plus, Apple's vision for this category goes far beyond this year's announcements.
...And here's the feature we've been waiting for for a decade now! BETTER SIRI!!!!!!!!!!! More specifically, BETTER SIRI!!!!!!!! (with LLMs like ChatGPT's) Details: because of the LLM integration, Siri will feel more like you're conversing with a very helpful someone named Siri (and less like you are asking a dummy who doesn't know which version of U2's "No Line on the Horizon" you want), and help more within apps (it will also have more references to answer questions). Long iMessages will be able to be summarized with Siri, and the different voices for Siri will sound more human. There are also other unknown features to come. Apparently, however, patience will be of the essence with this new Siri, with it expected in an update to iOS 18 next year. The Apple Watch's Siri will also be improved, along with Spotlight.
iOS 18 is getting a few design changes as well (although the update won't be completely redesigned to be like visionOS, it willl borrow some features). In fact, the Home Screen will get the biggest update since iOS 14 in 2020, with the option to create blank spaces (although the grid will stay). The color of app icons (whether the app is proprietary or not) will also be open to be changed by a user (with the option to turn the apps into dark mode colors).
Many apps (which will be able to be locked with Face ID) will be updated (although for some of the updates, we don't have a lot of information even this close to WWDC). Note that much of this is a continuation of the AI paragraph. Maps will be updated with iPhone support for topographic maps and user-created routes. Tapbacks in Messages will be able to be emojis, and the existing icons will become more colorful. Reminders will become part of Calendar, and Notes will get more types of calculation. Speaking of Notes, you will be able to record voice memos in Notes and embed previous recordings in notes, plus auto-generated voice memo transcripts and summaries of voice memos and notes themselves. Settings will be upgraded on the design and search (on the Mac too! (Settings on Mac is known to be bad)), and Pages users will get AI-generated text. Apple Music will get better crossfade (although inprovements are unclear), and Freeform will get a new Scenes feature for moving between different parts of a board. Out of apps, Control Center will get multiple pages, a drag-and-drop UI, better HomeKit controls and a new Music widget, watchOS will get better data management for blood pressure (building up to Series 10 rumors of blood pressure detection!) for the Series 10 and its 2024 buddies, and the latest AirPods Pro will get a "hearing aid mode" (although the mode won't be for those who are impaired). There will be a new Passwords app so you don't have to go through Settings for your passwords, with PC and 3rd-party import support. Saving the best for last, the Calculator app is finally coming to the iPad!!! Speaking of Calculator, the iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps will become the same in design and feature set.
visionOS 2 might get a lot of features previously not there, like several apps and Live Captions. New features will include a new breathing tracking feature in Mindfulness and Apple Pencil Pro support.
New Apple wallpapers for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac will be built into the new software, showing "old-school icons and slogans". Compatibility should be the same as for iOS/iPadOS 18, although the 6/7th-gen iPads and 10.5"/12.9" 2nd-gen won't be supported. For macOS 15 (???: trademarked & unused names include Shasta, Diablo (can't wait if that's the name!), Pacific, Miramar, Mammoth, Rincon, Redwood, Farallon, Grizzly, Condor, and Sequoia, but Apple could and has not put a trademarked name in (I really wanted Diablo!)), it's just guesswork as of now, but it's reasonable to say that 2018 Macs will be dropped. For watchOS 11, the Series 4 might be dropped from the supported list. About release, as normal, the developer beta is going to come hours after WWDC, the public beta will be released in July, and the release will come a few days after the September event, on the day of the release of the new iPhone 16/16 Pro (/16 Ultra?).
No hardware is expected on Monday.
Phew! That was a lot! Bye, and can't wait for WWDC!
By Leo
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