iOS 18 Want Record: All the pieces We Need Apple to Add to the iPhone at WWDC

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 have now a couple of concepts for options and fixes that Apple ought to embody 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. And there have been low factors like the entire overheating software program bug that hit iPhones working iOS 17, which has since been resolved. For months we have Journal-ed, NameDrop-ed and casually sworn in Messages with out the worry 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 don’t know.

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

Overlook all that. As a substitute of us attempting 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-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 giant display particularly. As I’ve written prior to now, I might like to see a model of Apple’s Slide Over function optimized for its larger-size iPhone.

Slide Over helps 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 of dedicate a lot of the display to a single app, whereas checking one other. I might see this being helpful for shopping via my e mail inbox whereas preserving a watch out for brand spanking 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 might probably toggle between turning on the ringer and placing your iPhone into silent mode. There are a variety of different choices for it like having the ability to use it to open the Digicam app and take a photograph. You may 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. At the moment, 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 may be 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 because of this open it as much as much more folks taking extra benefit of it.

— Patrick Holland

Extra StandBy Mode capabilities please

StandBy Mode was considered one of 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 if you happen to 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 permits 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 permits you to learn emails (like newsletters) and exhibits you new messages. That means you’ll be able to regulate your inbox and know if that you must reply to an e mail instantly or in case your newest e 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 primary duties similar to setting an alarm, making a reminder or checking the climate. However with rumors of giant language mannequin integration in Siri, I discover myself envisioning a future wherein an iPhone can get extra complicated 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 might be each kid-friendly and dog-friendly.

Fortunate for me, this does not appear to be far-fetched. Giant language fashions shouldn’t solely enable Siri to grasp extra complicated 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 mechanically 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, if you happen to overlook to modify your keyboard. 

If a voice mail message is left in Spanish, the system cannot acknowledge that it is not English and tries to present an English preview that appears like nonsense. Perhaps these rumored AI smarts may 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 apply my Spanish classes anymore, however Duo is all the time mad at me anyway.

— Bridget Carey

Test-in for group chats

One in all my favourite iOS 17 options is Test 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 dwelling 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 you need to be dwelling. They get notified when you make it to your vacation spot or if you happen to make an surprising cease alongside the way in which. If one thing occurs to you and you do not get dwelling, your buddy receives a message that additionally consists of knowledge like your final location and battery stage in your iPhone.
I might like iOS 18 to let me ship a Test-In to a bunch of individuals, not only a single individual. Proper now, having the ability to begin a Test In with only one individual is sweet, however there are lots of occasions I wish to share a Test In with extra relations or a bunch of associates all on the similar 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 all the time a sport of math as a result of I do not wish 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 occasions after I’d wish to textual content a buddy and ask them a query or simply to speak. However alas, who desires to be awoken to a textual content message at 5 a.m.? Only a few folks, as I got here to seek 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 folks would possibly say that there is a Shortcut you’ll be able to 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 truly working. Apple ought to take a cue from Android and let folks schedule messages to ship at a later time. Individuals who stay 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 Digicam 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. However as Apple has added extra performance, particularly for ProRaw photographs, ProRes video recording and spatial movies, the Digicam 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 may very well 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 type of strategy in its Xperia 1 and 5 sequence telephones, and Samsung has a separate Skilled Uncooked app to enrich its major one.

Now it is Apple’s flip.

— Patrick Holland