Futuristic Apple Wishlist: Our Specialists’ Hopes for iOS 18 at WWDC 2024

We’re nonetheless a few months away from Apple’s Worldwide Builders Convention the place the subsequent main model of the iPhone’s software program, probably referred to as iOS 18, will debut. We’ve got a number of concepts for options and fixes that Apple ought to embrace in its subsequent main replace to the iPhone.

For seven months, most of us have lived with iOS 17. There have been excessive factors just like the introduction of StandBy Mode, Test-In and iMessage stickers. There have additionally been low factors just like the overheating software program bug that hit iPhones working iOS 17, which has since been resolved. For months we have Journaled, NameDropped and casually sworn in Messages with out the worry of being Autocorrected.

What’s subsequent for the iPhone? What’s going to my iPhone be like this fall? Now that the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional is out will it change issues?

I do not know.

Certain there are rumors about iOS 18 and the way it’ll be a large deal, perhaps even a larger deal than the iPhone 16. Like different cellphone makers, Apple will probably flex its hype muscular tissues and attempt to impress us with some AI magic.

Neglect all that. As a substitute of getting to guess what Apple will do subsequent to our iPhones, I assumed I might assemble a few of CNET’s greatest iOS-ers and iPhone customers to inform Apple what we wish in iOS 18.
— Patrick Holland

Extra multitasking for the iPhone Professional Max

The Dynamic Island is a good begin, however I want Apple would discover extra methods to make the most of the Professional Max’s giant display screen particularly. As I’ve written up to now, I might like to see a model of Apple’s Slide Over function optimized for its larger-size iPhone.

Slide Over enables you to view a second app in a floating panel alongside the facet of the display screen. This feels extra helpful on a smartphone-size display screen in contrast with a cut up view. If Slide Over have been out there on the iPhone Professional Max, you’d be capable to dedicate a lot of the display screen to a single app, whereas checking one other. I may see this being helpful for looking via my electronic mail inbox whereas preserving a watch out for brand new Slack messages, for instance.

— Lisa Eadicicco 

Let the Motion button assist a number of shortcuts

One of many new options on the iPhone 15 Professional and 15 Professional Max is the Motion button, which changed the silent/ring slider button discovered on each prior iPhone mannequin because it debuted in 2007. In its present setup, I can set the Motion button to set off one shortcut at a time. By default, it does precisely the identical factor because the mute slider did earlier than it: it could toggle between turning on the ringer and placing your iPhone into silent mode. There are a few different choices for it, like opening the Digital camera app and take a photograph. You may even have it run a particular shortcut/automation within the Shortcuts app. Maybe my favourite use is somebody who makes use of their location to alter what the Motion button does like flip it into an order now set off for a Starbucks latte.
The Motion button works with a single lengthy press, it doesn’t matter what you select for the button to do. At present, you both want to alter what the Motion button does to get extra use out of it or make some elaborate automations within the Shortcuts app.
I really feel there may be much more the Motion button may do if Apple would let it assist a number of enter clicks. I may nonetheless have or not it’s a toggle for ringer/silent mode with a single lengthy press, however do one thing else (like activate/off the flashlight) with a double-long press. I feel this might add a lot performance to the button and because of this, open it as much as much more individuals taking extra benefit of it.

— Patrick Holland

Extra StandBy Mode capabilities, please

StandBy Mode was one among my favourite new options Apple launched with iOS 17. I take advantage of the function on my work desk day by day, and it is good having quick access to the climate, time and podcasts. However I would like Apple to develop this function extra.

For starters, I might like Messages and Mail to make the most of StandBy Mode. Proper now, in case your iPhone will get a textual content whereas it is in StandBy Mode, you get a notification, and in the event you faucet the notification in time, you see a preview of the message. In any other case, it’s a must to take away your iPhone from StandBy Mode to learn the complete message and reply.

It could be nice if Apple developed a StandBy Mode widget for Messages that allows you to see full messages and reply to them with out exiting StandBy Mode. It could even be good if there was a Mail widget for StandBy Mode that allows you to learn emails (like newsletters) and exhibits you new messages. That manner you may keep watch over your inbox and know if it’s essential reply to an electronic mail instantly or in case your newest electronic mail is simply spam.

— Zach McAuliffe

Make Siri extra succesful

As a working mother, I virtually all the time have a protracted to-do checklist, and a better Siri would actually assist make my life simpler. Proper now, I flip to Siri for assist with fundamental duties equivalent to setting an alarm, making a reminder or checking the climate. With rumors of giant language mannequin integration in Siri, I discover myself envisioning a future during which an iPhone can get extra advanced duties performed. Issues like reminding me to purchase blueberries once I’m close to a grocery store or finding close by eating places in Hong Kong which can be each kid-friendly and dog-friendly.

Fortunate for me, this does not appear to be far-fetched. Giant language fashions mustn’t solely permit Siri to grasp extra advanced and nuanced questions but in addition allow it to reply these questions extra precisely.

— Sareena Dayaram

Detect language in Messages and translate, por favor

Bilingual households might share my concern of Siri needing to do a greater job of routinely detecting which language is being spoken. Proper now the iPhone will spit out gibberish, turning Spanish dictation into English, or English into Spanish, in the event you neglect to modify your keyboard. 

If a voicemail message is left in Spanish, the system cannot acknowledge that it is not English and tries to provide an English preview that appears like nonsense. Possibly these rumored AI smarts will help Siri know what language is being spoken.

My Español no es bueno, so it could be useful if my iPhone supplied an English translation of textual content or voice messages despatched to me in Spanish. The Duolingo chook could be mad at me for not needing to follow my Spanish classes anymore, however Duo is all the time mad at me anyway.

— Bridget Carey

Test-in for group chats

Certainly one of my favourite iOS 17 options is Test In, which helps you to share with a pal or member of the family that you simply’re heading to a particular location (like perhaps coming dwelling from a late dinner). Your pal or member of the family will get a ping letting them know you are on the transfer and when try to be dwelling. They get notified when you make it to your vacation spot or in the event you make an surprising cease alongside the way in which. If one thing occurs to you and you do not get dwelling, your pal receives a message that additionally contains knowledge like your final location and battery degree in your iPhone.
I might like iOS 18 to let me ship a Test-In to a gaggle of individuals, not only a single particular person. Proper now, with the ability to begin a Test In with only one particular person is sweet, however there are a lot of instances I need to share a Test In with extra members of the family or a gaggle of mates all on the identical time.

— Patrick Holland

Schedule texts in Messages

With the ability to schedule texts in Messages could be an enormous plus. Texting family and friends in numerous time zones is all the time a sport of math as a result of I do not need to textual content them when they’re nonetheless sleeping. Yeah, I could be texting them at 8 a.m. ET, however they’re nonetheless asleep because it’s 5 a.m. PT for them. I additionally used to work the third shift, and there have been instances once I’d need to textual content a pal and ask them a query or simply to speak, however who needs to be awoken to a textual content message at 5 a.m.? Only a few individuals, as I got here to search out out.

Scheduling texts to ship in Messages would assist alleviate these points. Different messaging apps already allow you to schedule messages to ship later, together with Android, so it is time for Apple to rise up to hurry with others. Some individuals would possibly say that there is a Shortcut you may allow in your iPhone to ship messages at a later time, however I might argue that if it’s a must to use a workaround to get one thing to work, it is not really working. Apple ought to take a cue from Android and let individuals schedule messages to ship at a later time. Individuals who dwell in numerous time zones than their family and friends or work bizarre shifts will thanks.

— Zach McAuliffe

Add a professional digital camera app

It is time for Apple to revisit the iPhone’s Digital camera app. For years, it was the gold commonplace of simplicity, providing a “see what you get” preview for photographs, movies and results with minimal, easy-to-navigate controls and modes. As Apple has added extra performance, particularly for ProRaw photographs, ProRes video recording and spatial movies, the Digital camera app has began to really feel cramped. It tries to stay a one-size-fits-all app on the expense of higher-end options like handbook digital camera controls.

I might like Apple to make a separate professional digital camera app, alongside the traces of the way it created a standalone app for classical music. Apple Music Classical tackles the particular problem of categorizing, looking for, and discovering classical music, one thing the default Apple Music app is not geared towards. Equally, the professional digital camera app could possibly be a spot for inventive sorts to entry digital camera controls, settings and options past these within the fundamental digital camera app. Sony has been fairly profitable with this kind of strategy in its Xperia 1 and 5 sequence telephones, and Samsung has a separate Professional Uncooked app to enhance its major one.

Now it is Apple’s flip.

— Patrick Holland