Dreaming Large: Our Specialists’ iOS 18 Want Listing for Apple’s WWDC 2024

Apple gave us an official date for this 12 months’s 2024 the place the subsequent main model of the iPhone’s software program, doubtless referred to as iOS 18, will debut. We’ve a couple 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, Examine In and iMessage stickers. And there have been low factors like the entire overheating software program bug that hit iPhones operating iOS 17, which has since been resolved. For months we have Journal-ed, NameDrop-ed and casually sworn in Messages with out the concern of being Autocorrect-ed.

So what’s subsequent for the iPhone? What is 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.

Positive there are rumors about iOS 18 and the way it’ll be a huge deal, possibly even a larger deal than the iPhone 16. And yeah, Apple, like different telephone makers, will doubtless flex its hype muscle tissues and attempt to impress us with some AI magic.

Overlook all that. As an alternative of us attempting to guess what Apple will do subsequent to our iPhones, I assumed I might assemble a few of CNET’s finest iOS-ers and iPhone-nitians 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 massive display particularly. As I’ve written previously, I might like to see a model of Apple’s Slide Over function optimized for its larger-size iPhone.

Slide Over permits you to view a second app in a floating panel alongside the facet of the display. This feels extra helpful on a smartphone-size display in contrast with break up view. If Slide Over had been out there on the iPhone Professional Max, you’d be capable to dedicate a lot of the display to a single app, whereas checking one other. I might see this being helpful for shopping by way of my electronic mail inbox whereas preserving an eye fixed 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 will possibly toggle between turning on the ringer and placing your iPhone into silent mode. There are a variety of different choices for it like with the ability to use it to open the Digital camera app and take a photograph. You possibly can even have it run a selected shortcut/automation within the Shortcuts app. Maybe my favourite use is somebody who makes use of their location to vary 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. Presently, you both want to vary what the Motion button does to get extra use out of it or make some elaborate automations within the Shortcuts app.
However I really feel there’s much more that the Motion button might do if Apple would let it assist a number of enter clicks. Like, I might 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 is able to add a lot performance to the button and consequently open it as much as much more individuals taking extra benefit of it.

— Patrick Holland

Extra StandBy Mode capabilities please

StandBy Mode was certainly one of my favourite new options Apple launched with iOS 17. I take advantage of the function on my work desk every 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 when you faucet the notification in time, you see a preview of the message. In any other case, you must take away your iPhone from StandBy Mode to learn the complete message and reply.

It might 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 might even be good if there was a Mail widget for StandBy Mode that allows you to learn emails (like newsletters) and reveals you new messages. That manner you may keep watch over your inbox and know if you have to 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 at all times have an extended to-do listing, and a wiser Siri would actually assist make my life simpler. Proper now, I flip to Siri for assist with primary duties equivalent to setting an alarm, making a reminder or checking the climate. However with rumors of massive language mannequin integration in Siri, I discover myself envisioning a future during which an iPhone can get extra advanced duties finished. Issues like reminding me to purchase blueberries after I’m close to a grocery store or find close by eating places in Hong Kong which are each kid-friendly and dog-friendly.

Fortunate for me, this does not appear to be far-fetched. Giant language fashions mustn’t solely enable Siri to know 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 could share my problem of Siri needing to do a greater job of routinely detecting which language is being spoken. As a result of proper now the iPhone will spit out gibberish, turning Spanish dictation into English, or English into Spanish, when you overlook to change your keyboard. 

If a voice mail message is left in Spanish, the system cannot acknowledge that it isn’t English and tries to provide an English preview that appears like nonsense. Possibly these rumored AI smarts may also help Siri know what language is being spoken.

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

— Bridget Carey

Examine-in for group chats

Considered one of my favourite iOS 17 options is Examine In, which helps you to share with a buddy or member of the family that you just’re heading to a selected location (like possibly coming house from a late dinner). Your buddy or member of the family will get a ping letting them know you are on the transfer and when try to be house. They get notified when you make it to your vacation spot or when you make an sudden cease alongside the best way. If one thing occurs to you and you aren’t getting house, your buddy receives a message that additionally contains knowledge like your final location and battery stage in your iPhone.
I might like iOS 18 to let me ship a Examine-In to a bunch of individuals, not only a single particular person. Proper now, with the ability to begin a Examine In with only one particular person is nice, however there are a lot of instances I need to share a Examine In with extra relations or a bunch of pals all on the identical time.

— Patrick Holland

Schedule texts in Messages

Having the ability to schedule texts in Messages could be an enormous plus. Texting family and friends in several time zones is at all times 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 third shift, and there have been instances after I’d need to textual content a buddy and ask them a query or simply to speak. However alas, 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 stand up to hurry with others. Some individuals may 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 you must use a workaround to get one thing to work, it isn’t 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 several time zones than their family and friends or work bizarre shifts will thanks.

— Zach McAuliffe

Add a professional digicam 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 pictures, movies and results with minimal, easy-to-navigate controls and modes. However as Apple has added extra performance, particularly for ProRaw pictures, 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 guide digicam controls.

I might like Apple to make a separate professional digicam app, alongside the strains of the way it created a standalone app for classical music. Apple Music Classical tackles the particular problem of categorizing, trying to find, and discovering classical music, one thing the default Apple Music app is not geared towards. Equally, the professional digicam app might be a spot for inventive varieties to entry digicam controls, settings and options past these within the primary digicam app. Sony has been fairly profitable with this kind of method in its Xperia 1 and 5 collection telephones, and Samsung has a separate Professional Uncooked app to enhance its essential one.

Now it is Apple’s flip.

— Patrick Holland