As I finished watching the latest WWDC, it was clear that Apple finally gave us a ton of cool features we’d been waiting to see on the iPhone for a long time.
However, I can’t help but feel that iOS 18 was missing this one major feature that everyone keeps talking about (for one reason or another). And when I say “major” feature, I don’t necessarily mean a feature that Apple has decided to promote more actively.
Going back to iOS 17, the fan-favorite new feature was probably StandBy mode, which turns your iPhone into a desk or nightstand clock – simple but practical.
And I know this isn’t tied to any iOS version, but the iPhone 14 Pro launch blew everyone away with the “Dynamic Island” and how cool Apple made the punch-hole feel like it was part of the iOS 16 experience. A great example of how Apple can use software to create something exciting that no one else has done.
Did Apple copy Google and Samsung’s iOS 18 work without trying too hard?
iPhone 15 Pro users search for whatever’s on their screen. – Apple was pressured to give people AI: Is iOS 18 a disaster waiting to happen?” class=”lazy” data-id=”417205″ haswatermark=”” loading=”lazy”>iPhone 15 Pro users search for whatever’s on their screen. – Apple was pressured to give people AI: Is iOS 18 a disaster waiting to happen?”>
You may or may not be able to use Circle, but iOS 18 will let iPhone 15 Pro users search for whatever’s on their screen.
So while I think iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 certainly did enough to justify hitting the “update” button, I don’t necessarily find them exciting, and that might be because Apple isn’t innovating this time around. We saw features like:
- Apple’s version of Google’s writing styles, called Writing Tools, will rewrite, polish, correct, and summarize your text for you.
- The picture game feature, which allows users to generate images from prompts, appears to produce cartoonish images, perhaps because Apple doesn’t want them to be “too realistic” and used for “malicious purposes.”
The exception to the above is the Picture Wand feature that Apple briefly talked about. This is supposed to take a rough sketch (made by you) and turn it into a more usable image. For the record, Microsoft has already introduced an identical feature as part of MS Paint on Windows laptops running CoPilot.
- “Genmoji,” or the ability to create your own custom emoji, ranks right up there with “Animoji” and “Slofie” on my list of “dumb iPhone features,” so let’s leave it at that…
- Then there’s “Clean up,” Apple’s version of Google’s magic eraser, which is very welcome on my iPhone, but again, there’s nothing groundbreaking here.
- While this is pretty subjective, I find the new Photos app to be a bit too cluttered looking and generally confusing, plus swiping through photos now feels unnecessarily animated (because it is). Let me know what you think about it.
Overall, iOS 18 seems to be missing that special “apple sauce”: the moment when Apple does it “later but better.”
And aside from deeper AI integration (more on that below), I didn’t see Tim Cook and company putting an interesting spin on any of the “AI” features that Google, Samsung, and even Microsoft have already introduced.
Not to mention the disappointing home screen customization options, which seem to only let you pick a universal shade for all your icons, making third-party apps look questionable. There’s a new dark mode for the home screen, which is super basic… In general, it’s very rare for Apple to show a lack of attention to detail, but here we are, at least in the iOS 18 beta.
Apple Intelligence’s most impressive features won’t arrive until 2025; some won’t be coming to Europe until further notice; ‘Apple Intelligence’ exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro
Apple Intelligence is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro, and that must be a crime. Somewhere. But not in this universe.
And then we get to the Apple Intelligence part, which gave me mixed feelings.
First, the big problem is that only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max come with the best and most advanced “Apple Intelligence” features.
I’ve talked about this in more detail before, but I’ll just say that despite Apple’s recent excuse about “low-powered iPhones, which wouldn’t run Apple Intelligence as fast as we’d like,” I still believe this was an intentional omission on Apple’s part.
Ultimately, Apple always knew that phones like the iPhone 15 and iPhone 14 Pro were expected to have the latest and greatest AI, but it decided a while back to give them just 6GB of RAM and Apple chips with fewer Neural Engine cores.
Anyway… To give credit where credit is due, Apple did indeed do it “the Apple way” by implementing AI within the entire system experience rather than just in select apps. This deserves praise, as it’s exactly what could end up putting the iPhone ahead of the competition in the area of on-device AI.
However, right off the bat, several of iOS 18’s advanced features will be delayed “until 2025.” Unsurprisingly, these are the most impressive:
- Personal context: Siri will be able to look at your photos, emails, messages, calendar events, and more to help you with more specific tasks—well, not until 2025.
- App control: Whenever you need to open a document, move a file, or share a web link, Siri will be able to handle specific tasks within your apps—but not until 2025
- Thanks to “On-screen Awareness,” Siri will be able to see what’s on your screen and therefore know exactly what you’re talking about when you ask a specific question. It’s pretty impressive, but it won’t be arriving until 2025.
- Additional languages: For now, Siri only speaks American English, but don’t worry: Apple says “more languages will be available in 2025.”
It’s also worth noting that at launch, Siri will only support US English, with other languages coming “sometime in 2025.” The cherry on top, however, is that the entire suite of “Apple Intelligence” tricks (as well as features like iPhone Mirroring) won’t be coming to Europe, at least until further notice, which is very disappointing for Europeans… like me (hi!).
Tim Cook and company hate ‘rushing things’, but Apple felt pressured to give people ‘AI’ – could this result in a messy iOS 18 launch?
Spoiler alert: iOS 18 is already a messy rollout. Well, at least for the early betas running on my iPhone 15 Pro Max.
In the end, aside from lacking that “fancy feature,” iOS 18 feels a bit rushed.
As I mentioned, the most powerful features of Apple Intelligence won’t arrive until 2025, meaning the iPhone 15 Pro and the New iPhone 16 series will be running what is essentially a “beta version” of Apple’s on-device AI.
Since it’s part of the deeper Siri integration, it also remains to be seen whether ChatGPT will arrive in time for the public release of iOS 18 and iPhone 16.
ChatGPT will play a major role in Apple’s version of Google’s amazing “Circle to Search” feature, which lets you search for anything on your screen. And of course, it will do all the other ChatGPT functions you’d expect it to do (at least when Siri can’t).
With the delayed launch of the best new AI features; iPhone 15 Pro exclusivity; questionable European availability and a sprinkling of sloppiness, I’m not entirely sure iOS 18 will be Apple’s smoothest iOS launch yet.
It’s clear that Tim Cook and company felt pressured to deliver “something” in the area of artificial intelligence, but was Apple prepared?
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