“It’s glowtime” is this year’s theme for Apple’s annual new hardware event on Monday.
Apple CEO Tim Cook debuted the iPhone 16, the first-ever iPhone designed to power generative artificial intelligence — the same technology that enables ChatGPT to respond to more nuanced commands from users.
With a new iPhone comes the “biggest ever” software update. First introduced to the world back in June, iOS 18 was officially unveiled at the event in tandem with the new iPhone 16, Plus, Pro and ProMax.
The iPhone 16 employs a wide range of iOS18’s new generative AI capabilities, which they’ve dubbed Apple Intelligence.
Here are some of the key iOS 18 features that were highlighted at today’s event:
Better green bubble texting
As part of the update, RCS Support — Rich Communication Services, the successor to SMS and MMS — is coming to text messaging on the iPhone 16.
The RCS Support will introduce several iMessage features that are already available for blue bubble users to texts between iPhone and Android users, including messaging through Wi-Fi, improved encryption compared to SMS, sharing location inside text threads, and higher-resolution photos and videos.
More exciting, iPhone users texting non-iPhone users will now be able to get read receipts and typing indicators from the other person, as well as voice audio messages. There are also improved group chats, including the opportunity to iPhone users to leave a chat that has Android users in it.
Users can will be able to send messages via satellite to stay connected off the grid when cellular and Wi-Fi aren’t available.
Make your own emojis
There are also updates coming to emojis. Now, you can send AI-generated custom emojis.
Advanced emergency response
In an upgrade to safety features, iPhone users can now share live video with 911 dispatchers using iOS 18 through Emergency SOS.
Siri just got smarter
“Apple intelligence marks the start of a new era for Siri and makes it more natural, more contextually relevant and more personal to you with richer language understanding,” Craig Federighi, Apple’s SVP of software engineering, said during the event.
Siri can also now pull from friends’ text messages and remind you of recommendations sent to you, such as an album someone told you to listen to or a TV show you promised you’d watch.
Siri can read information from across multiple apps in order to help you prepare for anything. For example, if you have an important meeting coming up, it can get the time and location information from your calendar, summarize the important information in your email, and tell you the weather so you know what to wear.
Pro-level photos
If you want to quickly send someone a batch of photos from an event, Siri can help do that easily.
“You’ll be able to simply say, ‘Send Erica the photos from Saturday’s barbecue,’ and Siri will dig up the photos and send them right off,” Federighi explained.
The redesigned photo app can automatically organize your photos into collections. The iOS 18 photo gallery also allows for customizable, pinnable collections.
Say it better
Using Apple Intelligence, Siri can also help when it comes to texting and messaging. Writing tools that can help draft texts and emails come with the phone.
These writing tools will help rewrite simple notes into an invite, or adjust the tone of your Slack messages to your boss.
Command with one look
iOS 18 will allow users to control their iPhone with their eyes.
iPhone Eye Tracking will allow you to navigate your screen, open apps and perform tasks without touching your screen.
To enable the feature, you’ll have to go to the Accessibility settings and toggle on “Eye Tracking.” The phone will then have you go through a calibration process to learn your eye movements.
For your eyes only apps
The new iOS will allow users to “lock” certain apps so they can only be opened using Face ID, Touch ID or passcode.
Users can also “hide” apps, meaning they won’t show up on the home screen and no media will appear elsewhere across the system.
Save every word
iPhone users will be able to record and transcribe their calls in real-time with iOS 18 — right within the Phone app.
All parties will be notified when the call is being recorded.
