Apple won’t wait until next year to make some improvements to the iOS 18 series

When iOS 18 arrives this fall, Siri may be able to do more than turn the edges of your iPhone into a bright rainbow. Apple Intelligence features won’t be available until 2025 for those who haven’t tested them in beta this year. However, Siri itself is said to get natural language updates and other key features before the end of the year.

He also wrote that Siri “will become more familiar with Apple products,” referring to device support features that Apple mentioned during its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote.

Another interesting tidbit: Currently, iOS 18 beta testers can change Siri’s wake word using a new accessibility feature called Vocal Shortcuts by going to Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts > Vocal Shortcuts > Siri (not “Siri Requests”). ), viz 9 to 5 Mac Written last week. You need to pause after saying the new wake word, otherwise your phone won’t recognize it and the change won’t be reflected on your HomePods. But more importantly, the new wake sound works even if you disable “Hey Siri” in the current developer beta. This is great news if you’re tired of waking up your iPhone trying to talk to your HomePod.

In addition to the direct Siri improvements, Apple also said that ChatGPT will be available for free in iOS 18 later this year, though Gurman writes that it may not be the first version of iOS 18. Siri will display requests that can be made without ChatGPT running GPT-4o, giving users the option to agree or decline (with an authenticity disclaimer).

We’ll only know if Siri actually gets better, but at least there are signs that we’re finally getting the digital assistant we’ve been waiting for. It’s not clear whether the updated Siri will also be available on HomePod or iPhones other than the iPhone 15 Pro, such as Apple Intelligence. Hopefully Siri’s improvements will stand out from the new generative AI features, and less powerful devices like the iPhone 15 and iPad that don’t have Apple’s M-series chips will get at least some of them.