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Mark Gurman’s latest Power On newsletter is in, and he seems to be hyping up Apple’s next update for iPhones. Based on what he said, iOS 18 could be the biggest update for iPhone since its inception.
iOS 18 could prove to be one of the “biggest” iOS updates to date, if not the biggest one
To be more accurate, he said it could be “one of the biggest iOS updates — if not the biggest — in the company’s history”. He also added that he plans to share more information about that in the near future.
That being said, iOS 18 is mostly a mystery thus far. We do know of a couple of features, but considering the hype behind this update, we’re expecting many more features and changes to be included.
As MacRumors pointed out, we already know two major changes that are coming with iOS 18. The first one is RCS support. Apple confirmed that RCS support is coming “later in 2024”, so it’s safe to assume it’ll arrive with iOS 18.
RCS support is coming, along with generative AI tech
That will finally make it possible for iPhone users to communicate with Android users without the need for third-party apps. This will basically be baked into iMessage on iPhone, even though iMessage messages will still be presented as blue bubbles, while RCS messages will not.
This will enable users to share not only text messages via the Internet, but also audio messages, images, videos, and more. It remains to be seen if all the expected features will be available from the get-go, though.
The second major change that is expected is Siri improvements. It’’s not exactly a secret that Siri is trailing behind at this point. Gurman does expect iOS 18 to feature generative AI tech, and that should improve Siri quite a bit.
As a reminder, iOS 18 is expected to drop in September. Well, its final build will. The very first beta for developers is expected to arrive in June.