On Monday, Apple announced new features on the way at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.
Our mobile phones have become one of the primary ways we talk to each other, and iPhone features are coming soon for iOS 18 that give users more ways to express how they’re feeling, organize their thoughts, and stay in touch with their families. Here’s how:
1. On iPhones, you will be able to schedule a message in advance.
For Gmail fans feature You’re in luck when it comes to scheduling emails to be sent later –– Apple is rolling out a similar feature for iMessage. Gone are the days of worrying about waking up in time to send the birthday message or early morning reminder to the group chat.
Users will have the ability to cancel or edit the message at any time, Apple said in the press release. You will also be able to see when your message is scheduled.
2. It will be much easier to record and read transcripts of phone calls.
Being able to quickly glance at a transcribed conversation is a huge time saver. And if you’re currently using a third-party service to transcribe phone conversations (looking at you, fellow journalists), you might be pleased to learn that Apple is announcing its own feature soon.
After the iOS update, people using the Phone app will be able to record calls and read transcriptions and AI-powered summaries of the conversation. Apple calls its AI features “Apple Intelligence” and announced they will be released in beta this fall for iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.
At the developer conference, Apple said that the person on the other line will receive an automatic alert that the person on the other line has been recorded first.
3. There are more ways to express how you feel in texts, including emoji reactions and stylized text.
Formatting your words with a playful, bold-faced phrase can help convey your meaning in more than just text. After the new iMessages app update, iPhone users will be able to underline, bold, strikethrough and italicize texts.
You’ll also be able to respond to messages with any emoji instead of just thumbs up, exclamation point, and other limited options we currently have.
You can even create your own emoji with the artificial intelligence-supported feature that Apple calls “Genmoji”. In Genmoji, users can type “Labrador with red glasses” into the iMessage emoji search bar and get an AI version of what that would look like as an example.
4. You can ask Siri for help to remember this photo or text.
Apple’s virtual assistant Siri will have new abilities and be able to answer more questions in the iOS 18 update. In the new Siri, you can ask text-based questions as well as voice questions.
Don’t remember when you took this photo and in which album you put it? According to Apple, you’ll be able to ask Siri to open photos, links, and PDFs, as well as edit images or move items between various apps.
As an example, Apple shared that Siri can take a photo of your driver’s license, copy and paste the number into a form, or view an old link your friend shared with you.
5. You’ll be able to send messages even when you don’t have cell service.
Apple is developing the Emergency SOS feature and will allow iPhone iOS 18 users to send SMS messages via satellite. This way, you can send messages or share videos with your loved one even when you don’t have cell service or Wi-Fi connection.
6. You can have artificial intelligence rewrite your emails.
At WWDC, Justin Titi, Apple’s director of intelligent systems experience engineering, announced a system-wide Rewrite feature for Mail, Notes, Pages, third-party apps, and macOS Sequoia.
In the demo, we see Rewrite being used in the Mail app, where a woman follows up on a networking conversation in email. Using the Rewrite options allows the user to switch between “professional,” “friendly,” and “concise” versions of that email. There will also be a new proofreading service that can give grammar and sentence structure suggestions in your messages.
7. You can make it difficult for other people to randomly access applications.
If you handed over your phone, is there a dating app or photo that you would be ashamed of if someone else saw it? Apple is making it a little harder for outsiders to hack and access sensitive information.
Under the new iOS update, you will be able to lock certain apps on your iPhone; so you’ll only be able to access these apps through authentication features like Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode. Once you select this feature, information from these apps won’t appear in your search bar, notifications, or Siri suggestions.
What else is coming?
Beyond these specific iPhone features, there are other updates that can make your life a little easier.
Following the new macOS Sequoia update, people will be able to mirror and control their iPhone screens directly on their Mac. In this way, you can click on your phone on your Mac device without using a touch screen. However, when using mirroring on your Mac, the iPhone temporarily locks itself so no one else can access your iPhone.
And new security options are becoming available. Similar to existing password managers like LastPass and 1Password, Apple offers its own password app that will access your credentials, generate complex passwords, and store them all securely in one place. Apple said the new Passwords app will soon be available via iCloud on Mac, iPad, iPhone, Vision Pro and Windows.
Talk about upgrades.