Today, Apple announced the biggest release of its iOS 18, featuring more customization options, the largest redesign ever for the Photos app, new ways to manage incoming messages in the Mail app, satellite messaging, and much more. Most importantly, iOS 18 introduces Apple Intelligence, a personal intelligence system for iPhone, iPad, and Mac that harnesses the power of generative models in a personal context to offer an astonishing level of utility and relevance.
In the presence of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Apple revealed at a developer conference the surprise integration of ChatGPT into Siri, allowing for text commands instead of voice commands.
The developer beta version of iOS 18 is available today through the Apple Developer Program at developer.apple.com, with a public beta available next month through the Apple Beta Software Program at beta.apple.com. iOS 18 will be available this fall as a free software update for iPhone Xs and newer devices. The Apple Intelligence system will be available in its beta version on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad, and Macs with M1 chips and newer, with Siri set up and the device language in English as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall.
The deeply integrated Apple Intelligence system in iOS 18 is designed with privacy at its core, offering new ways for users to enhance their writing and communication more effectively. With completely new system-wide writing tools integrated into iOS 18, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text wherever they want, including in Mail, Notes, and Pages, as well as in third-party applications.
Thanks to the great power of Apple Intelligence, Siri’s capabilities have evolved significantly, appearing more natural and providing more personalized contextually relevant suggestions. Users can write to Siri and switch between text and voice communication according to their preference at the moment.
Apple claims to be setting a new standard for privacy in the AI world with Private Cloud Compute, offering the computational power required between on-device processing and larger models based on dedicated servers operating on Apple silicon chips. When directing requests to Private Cloud Compute, data is not stored, and Apple cannot access it; it is only used to meet user requests, allowing independent experts to verify this privacy.
Additionally, access to ChatGPT has been integrated into Siri and writing tools at the system level across Apple platforms, enabling users to leverage its capabilities in understanding images and documents without needing to switch between tools.
#### Enhanced Communication Experience with iMessage
iMessage now includes entirely new text effects that bring conversations to life by amplifying any letter, word, phrase, or emoji with dynamic animated appearances. Users can also better express texts by adding formats such as bold, underline, italic, and strikethrough. The feature for interactive replies now includes any emoji or sticker, and users can now create messages and schedule them for later sending.
When messaging contacts who do not have Apple devices, the Messages app now supports RCS for richer media and more reliable group messaging compared to SMS and MMS texts.
iOS 18 introduces the satellite messaging feature when cellular and Wi-Fi connections are unavailable. The satellite messaging app uses unprecedented satellite technology built into iPhone itself, allowing users to automatically connect to the nearest satellite directly from the app to send and receive texts, emojis, and interactive replies via iMessage and SMS. Through Dynamic Island, users can always know their satellite connection status. And since the iMessage app is designed to protect user privacy, messages sent via satellite are fully encrypted.
