iOS 18: When’s It Coming and What Will It Do?

RCS Is Coming to Your iPhone

RCS, also known as Rich Communication Services, is a standard messaging system that expands traditional SMS/MMS texting to work more like iMessage. Meaning that you can text, make phone calls, and send high-definition videos and pictures to nearly anyone with a relatively modern smartphone.

The thing about RCS, though, is that up until this point, Apple hasn’t supported it on the iPhone. This makes chatting with Android devices feel old and even a bit annoying, especially when you compare it to chatting with another iPhone user via iMessage.

Fortunately, it’s been confirmed by Apple that the company will finally bring RCS to the iPhone in 2024. That means we’ll likely see it appear when Apple debuts iOS 18 in June, although it may not be fully functional until the public release later this year.

Having RCS support will basically turn the regular Messages app into an instant messaging app like WhatsApp. You’ll be able to chat with your Android friends, as well as send them pictures and voice messages, and even create group chats.

Get Ready for Apple’s Generative Artificial Intelligence

AI has been incredibly popular recently, and it’s definitely changed the way we use our computers and iPhones. And because of how accessible and popular it’s become, more tech companies are getting their phones ready with AI support.

Samsung is a great example. The company’s latest Samsung Galaxy S24 models show how AI can help you with everyday tasks, like editing pictures, getting more information about anything that’s on your screen, and even summarizing your notes for you.

With this huge AI trend, Apple doesn’t want to be left behind. According to Mark Gurman, a well-known Apple analyst from Bloomberg, Apple is already working on generative artificial intelligence.

While we don’t know exactly how this is going to work, we already know that Apple will add AI support for Siri — which we’ll talk about in a moment — as well as other apps like Messages and Apple Music.

For instance, you might be able to use AI to help you write an important essay or get a presentation ready with the help of Apple’s Pages app. You could also get personalized playlists in Apple Music without having to do any work yourself.

Siri Is (Finally) Getting Smarter

With the addition of artificial intelligence, it’s rumored Apple also has plans to make Siri smarter.

Granted, Siri is great for some basic tasks, but if you’ve used Apple’s virtual assistant before, you know it’s far from perfect.

Fortunately, with AI, Siri could become what we’ve always wanted: an intelligent and useful virtual assistant.

Rumor has it that Siri in iOS 18 could feel like using ChatGPT. This means that instead of just dictating a message for Siri to write, you could give Siri a prompt and it would write the complete message for you.

Moreover, Siri could also be better at suggesting which apps you might want to use during the day. For instance, Siri could not only suggest that you write how your day went on the journal app but also write the journal entry for you.

Granted, we’ll still need to see how intelligent Siri will turn out to be, but these rumors definitely make us excited about the future of everyone’s favorite virtual assistant.

Sideloading Will Be Available on Some iPhones

Another thing that iOS 18 might let you do once it hits your iPhone is sideloading.

If you’ve always been an iPhone user, you might not know much about sideloading, but what it does is let you install apps to your device without using the operating system’s official app store.

For instance, if you want to download Fortnite on your iPhone right now, you can’t find it in the App Store. With sideloading available, you could just go to Fortnite’s official website and download and install the app directly from there.

Android devices have been able to do this for quite some time now, although they still default to using Google’s Play Store, requiring users to take a few extra steps if they want to enable this feature. That’s because, while it’s great to be able to download apps from anywhere, it might also be risky because these apps aren’t checked by an official app store, so you could end up with viruses or malware installed on your device by accident.

Sideloading comes with its own benefits and drawbacks, but thanks to the EU, Apple has been forced to add sideloading support on iOS — at least in a limited fashion.

In fact, Apple is planning to add support for alternative app marketplaces in iOS 17.4 next month — but only in the 27 countries that make up the European Union, where it’s required to do so under the EU’s new Digital Markets Act.

That won’t be full sideloading, as you’ll still have to get your apps through third-party stores that are approved by Apple, but it does open the door at least a crack; it remains to be seen if the EU will agree with Apple’s approach or force it to go further.

Yes, Apple won’t go down without a fight, but we’ll need to wait and see if and when Apple finally releases full support for sideloading in the future.

Will iOS 18 Be Less Buggy This Time Around?

Whether it’s the iPhone or any other device, you’re bound to find some bugs and issues when a new software update is available.

However, when iOS 17 dropped last fall, there were so many bugs that Apple reportedly stopped iOS 18 development so its people could focus on fixing iOS 17’s issues.

Even though there aren’t many rumors about this, it’s highly likely that Apple is trying to make things more stable the next time around. This means that iOS 18 might be less buggy than previous software updates we’ve seen in recent years.

When Will iOS 18 Drop?

Apple hasn’t made any official announcements yet, but we already have a pretty clear idea as to when iOS 18 will be available.

For starters, Apple always releases a new software update’s first beta version around June, usually a few hours after it finishes introducing it during its WWDC keynote.

Launching this beta gives developers and fans alike the chance to try some of the new features before the public version of iOS 18 finally launches. However, early developer betas are often extremely buggy — they’re intended for developers, after all. Apple typically releases its first public beta in early July, giving eager early adopters an opportunity to try out a more stable pre-release version.

Apple usually launches both the iPhone and the iOS software update around the same time, so we’re expecting to see the public version of iOS 18 sometime around September 2024, right after Apple launches the iPhone 16 lineup.