2024-01-29 08:52:00
Although there are at least 8 more months until the launch of Apple’s iOS 18, media outlets around the world are already starting to report major changes expected in it. According to Bloomberg’s Matt Gorman, Apple’s next operating system has the potential to be “the biggest update in Apple’s history.”
“I’m told the new operating system is seen within the company as one of the biggest — if not the biggest — iOS updates in the company’s history,” he wrote. Gorman said he plans to share more details about specific iOS 18 features and big changes planned in the future, but for now, there are already at least two updates that we know about.
In November 2023, Apple announced that it would support the cross-platform messaging standard, RCS, in the iPhone’s Messages app starting “at a later stage” in 2024. Apparently, this will be a feature in the iOS 18 operating system. RCS support should align the message experience that exists among iPhone users but this time also with Android users. Among other things, it will be possible to transfer high-quality files, audio messages, mark live typing, read confirmation, correspondence between platforms connected to a Wi-Fi network and better encryption.
Gorman expects iOS 18 to also include generative artificial intelligence technology that “should improve the way both Siri and the Messages app can pose questions and autocomplete sentences.” He said Apple was also testing generative AI features for other apps on its platforms, including Apple Music, Pages, Keynote and Xcode.
The Information website reported that Apple plans to incorporate broad language models into Siri to allow users to automate complex tasks, a feature that will include deeper integration with the Shortcuts app. According to the report, this feature is expected to be released in a software update for the iPhone that will arrive in 2024, most likely iOS 18.
The race for artificial intelligence in smartphones is already underway, with Google pioneering the Pixel and this month Samsung launching the The Galaxy S24, a device with a large number of artificial intelligence applications. If we look at the trend, we can assume that in the last quarter of 2024 we will see several more devices with integrated artificial intelligence, maybe even an iPhone 16.
These rumors come amid tense days at Apple, with just Friday the company announcing a series of changes to the App Store, Safari and iOS to align with tougher EU regulation. Among other things, users will now be able to download applications from third-party stores, that is, which are not the App Store, and external applications will gain access to the important NFC component. However, the technology giant is not ready to surrender without a fight and has announced a number of restrictions on the subject.
For example, every iOS application will have to go through a process of approval by Apple itself. In addition, the commissions on payments in apps that are distributed through the Appstore will decrease from 30% and 15% to 17% and 10% (depending on the type of transaction). Developers who choose to use Apple’s payment system will pay an additional 3% fee. On the other hand, developers who decide to distribute applications through third-party stores and use external payment systems, will have to pay Apple a fee of 50 euro cents per user per year after they pass the million user mark.
Apple, which apparently doesn’t like the change imposed on it by regulators, issued a warning that the changes put users at risk from “harm, fraud and deception, illegal and offensive content, and other threats to privacy and safety.”
The move did not pass without reactions from some of the major application developers, for example Spotify, whose people claim that Apple’s new plan to comply with the European Union’s digital markets law is a “complete farce”. In a post published on Spotify’s website, the company called Apple’s new app installation fee “extortion” and claimed that Apple is trying to force developers not to leave its store.
After sitting with our legal team to parse through the fine print of Apple’s DMA announcement (that took a while), which is, at best vague and misleading, I wanted to share my thoughts.
While Apple has behaved badly for years, what they did yesterday represents a new low, even…
— Daniel Ek (@eldsjal) January 26, 2024
The company also noted the 17 percent fee Apple will still take from developers who choose to use a third-party payment system. “This will make it difficult for developers to choose between the status quo and this new plan,” the streaming app added. In addition, Spotify this week unveiled a plan to launch its own in-app payment system in EU countries, but it doesn’t appear to be close to being implemented.
Apple is facing a wave of criticism for these changes. Many developers, both large and small, are frustrated by the high fees they will face if they decide to take their app outside of the App Store or add an alternative payment option. The EU Commission said it will publish a response to Apple’s changes when the regulations officially come into effect in March — and in the meantime, that will give developers plenty of time to choose how to deal with Apple’s changes.
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