Apple is not expected to introduce its most significant Apple Intelligence features in September when iOS 18 sees a public release. Instead, many will come alongside a Siri overhaul in a future iOS 18 update that's set to be introduced in 2025.
That doesn't mean Siri will not have any improvements when iOS 18 initially launches. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Siri in iOS 18 will still have some "new bells and whistles" come September, including a new interface that glows a light around the edge of the screen, richer natural language capabilities that will allow Siri to understand you even if you stumble over your words, a greater knowledge of Apple products to power on-device support, and a Type to Siri option for entering queries via text.
But according to Gurman, we will have to wait until next year to see Apple's most significant enhancements to Siri. An iOS 18 update in 2025 should bring with it the following improvements to Apple's virtual assistant:
- Personal Context: Siri will have the ability to draw from your photos, calendar events, Messages, and other apps to inform responses to queries. Apple gave an example of a person asking when their mom's flight is landing, which Siri figured out based on recent text conversations and emails.
- Semantic indexing: Apple Intelligence creates an on-device semantic index to store data retrieved from your emails, images, websites you visit, and apps you use.
- App Control: Siri will be able to control all individual features in apps for the first time, expanding the range of functions the personal assistant can perform. Siri will be able to do things like open specific documents, move a note from one folder to another, delete an email, summarize an article, email a web link, and open a particular news site in Apple News.
- On-screen awareness: With onscreen awareness, Siri will be able to understand and take action with users' content in more apps over time. For example, if a friend texts a user their new address in Messages, the receiver can say, "Add this address to his contact card."
Like these Siri improvements, Apple Intelligence features will initially only support American English, and support for additional languages and regions won't arrive until 2025.
AI Updates Coming Later in 2024
Gurman notes that some of the Mail app's new AI features won't be ready until "later in 2024." These include a redesign that can group emails in categories like newsletters, announcements and shopping. Swift Assist, a new programming companion for Xcode that uses cloud-based AI models, is similarly not expected to arrive until later in the year. Siri integration with ChatGPT may also miss the initial release, though Gurman thinks it should be ready later in 2024, based on language Apple has used in its marketing materials.
Going on past release timelines, these features are likely to arrive in an iOS 18.1 or iOS 18.2 update around October or December.
Despite the missing enhancements, the initial version of Apple Intelligence will still offer a plethora of features, according to Gurman. It will leverage AI to prioritize notifications and provide quick recaps of your alerts and text messages. The software will also have the capability to summarize webpages, voice memos, meeting notes, and emails. Additionally, it will introduce new writing tools, image generation, and custom AI-generated emojis called Genmoji.
