“It’s glowtime” is the theme of Apple’s annual hardware launch event on Monday.
Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced the iPhone 16, the first ever iPhone designed to power generative artificial intelligence — the same technology that allows ChatGPT to respond to more nuanced user commands.
With a new iPhone comes the “biggest software update ever.” First introduced to the world in June, iOS 18 was officially unveiled at the event alongside the new iPhone 16, Plus, Pro, and ProMax.
The iPhone 16 uses a wide range of new generative AI capabilities from iOS18, which they have dubbed Apple Intelligence.
Here are some of the key iOS 18 features that were highlighted at today’s event:
Better texting with a green bubble
As part of the update, RCS (Rich Communication Services, the successor to SMS and MMS) support is coming to iPhone 16 text messaging.
RCS support will introduce several iMessage features already available to Blue Bubble users for texts between iPhone and Android users, including messaging over Wi-Fi, improved encryption over SMS, location sharing in message threads, and high-resolution photos and videos.
More interestingly, iPhone users who text non-iPhone users will now be able to get read receipts and typing indicators from the other party, as well as voice audio messages. Group chats have also been improved, including the ability for iPhone users to leave a chat that includes Android users.
Users will be able to send messages via satellite to stay connected off-grid when cellular and Wi-Fi are not available.
Create your own emojis
Updates are also coming to emojis. You can now send custom emojis generated by AI.
Advanced Emergency Response
As part of an upgrade to safety features, iPhone users can now share live video with 911 dispatchers using iOS 18 via Emergency SOS.
Siri is now smarter
“Apple Intelligence marks a new era for Siri, making it more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal to you with richer language understanding,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering, at the event.
Siri can now also pull up text messages from your friends and remind you of recommendations that have been sent to you, like an album someone told you to listen to or a TV show you promised to watch.
Siri can read information from multiple apps to help you prepare for any eventuality. For example, if you have an important meeting coming up, Siri can pull the time and location information from your calendar, summarize important information in your email, and tell you the weather so you know what to wear.
Professional level photos
If you want to quickly send someone a batch of photos from an event, Siri can help you do it easily.
“You can simply say, ‘Send Erica the photos from Saturday’s barbecue,’ and Siri will grab the photos and send them right away,” Federighi explained.
The redesigned Photos app can automatically organize your photos into collections. iOS 18 Photo Gallery also lets you create customizable, pinnable collections.
Say it better
With Apple Intelligence, Siri can also help you send texts and messages. Writing tools for composing texts and emails come with the phone.
These writing tools will help you rewrite simple notes in an invitation or adjust the tone of your Slack messages to your boss.
Order at a glance
iOS 18 will allow users to control their iPhone with their eyes.
iPhone Eye Tracking will let you navigate your screen, open apps, and perform tasks without touching your screen.
To enable this feature, you need to go to the accessibility settings and enable “Eye tracking”. The phone will then ask you to go through a calibration process to learn your eye movements.
Apps just for your eyes
The new iOS will allow users to “lock” certain apps so that they can only be opened using Face ID, Touch ID, or a password.
Users can also “hide” apps, meaning they won’t appear on the home screen and no media will appear anywhere else in 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 recorded.
