With only days left until the announcement of the new features coming to iOS and iPadOS 18 at WWDC24, rumors are abuzz about AI. AI will likely be Apple’s main focus at the event, and Siri is likely to see a significant overhaul. But it isn’t the improvements to Apple’s chatbot/personal assistant that I’m most interested in, it’s the other ways that AI could potentially transform the functionality and user experience of the platforms, especially iPadOS.
At first glance, AI seems like a small change to many. I think this is mostly due to the common perception of AI as being synonymous with chatbots. After all, ChatGPT is the most popular AI product currently in use. But AI is not merely limited to answering questions and engaging in chit chat. Properly integrated, it could do much more.
Enhanced App Features
Rumors indicate that many of Apple’s first-party apps will see major new features built with AI. Photos is expected to gain new AI-based photo editing features such as an object removal tool similar to Google’s Magic Eraser, as well as a tool that could potentially insert elements into a photo, or even completely generate a photo based on prompts. It will definitely be interesting to see what Apple does in this space, as it could have the potential to bring the native Photos app close to on par with professional third party photo editing apps like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop in terms of some of their AI-powered features.
Other apps that are rumored to be receiving an AI-infused refresh are Calendar, Reminders, Safari, Mail, Messages, Health, the iWork suite, XCode, and even the Settings app. It seems nearly every Apple app will incorporate new AI-powered features. Most of these new features are rumored to be about improving everyday interactions with these apps, rather than adding extra gimmicks that few will use. This alone could revolutionize the experience on iOS and iPadOS. Photos could gain support for Smart Albums, a feature that Photos on the Mac already has, but has never found its way onto Apple’s other platforms. Files may gain Smart Folders. Lots of system apps that users interact with every day could see major feature improvements.
One thing that I’m particularly interested in is the AI-powered improvements rumored to be coming to XCode. XCode is Apple’s primary software development tool, and is used by developers to write apps for all of Apple’s platforms. One of the rumored features coming to XCode could potentially automatically swap code with different kinds of code, and auto-complete lines of code with something akin to predictive text for coders. These features could make a big difference in streamlining software developer’s workflow. And I wonder if this AI-powered code swapping tool could potentially make it faster and easier to port Mac apps to the rest of Apple’s ecosystem, including the Vision Pro and the iPad. Apple seems to be working towards a more unified app ecosystem across their device platforms. Perhaps Apple is ready to launch a toolkit akin to a Catalyst 2.0 that could bring more Mac apps to the rest of the ecosystem. Either way, these AI-based improvements to XCode are likely to speed up software development and make it easier for developers to create more amazing apps that can improve our workflows.
The rumored new AI features built into Apple’s own apps could definitely streamline workflows, from average users to software developers.
Enhanced System Integration and Access
Another rumor about Apple’s AI efforts in iOS and iPadOS indicates that the two platforms could also allow a deeper level of integration for third party AI assistants and softwares. Apple is rumored to be working on a system that can automatically trigger third party app features. This seems like a major improvement of the Shortcuts app’s current App Intents system, and unlike App Intents, wouldn’t require any additional work from developers to support it. Shortcuts already unlocks a lot of functionality in iOS and iPadOS, but this next-gen system could be revolutionary in comparison. And also unlike App Intents this new system is also rumored to be a system feature that third party apps could request access to, so this could potentially allow third party apps to work more seamlessly with each other. This could signal potential improvements to iOS and iPadOS app extensions abilities, which in other words, could allow third party apps to request access to more parts of the system like they currently can on macOS. Software like third-party clipboard managers may be easier to implement, for example, and many other such kinds of apps that require greater access to the system and other apps in order to provide their functionality. This could allow for more flexible software, and greater user customization. With rumored AI integration for third party AI services, this seems to indicate that iOS and iPadOS may be preparing to give more options for users to grant apps greater access to more aspects of the system akin to the way macOS does.
Another thing that could change to better accommodate third party AI services would be the ability to run background processes. Third Party AI assistants would benefit from this to be able to run in the background, so that they can be ready and available when you need them. This could mean that Apple will allow more apps to run for longer periods of time in the background in iOS and iPadOS, which would also potentially improve other multitasking issues currently experienced in iPadOS such as paused downloads and file transfers. It will be interesting to see what Apple will do in this area. If Apple does take this direction with greater integration options for third party apps, it could be completely transformative. We’ll have to see if these rumors pan out. For now I’m cautiously optimistic, and I’m definitely not holding my breath.
Enhanced Multitasking
One often overlooked benefit of deeper AI integration into the system is that it could enhance the multitasking experience. With the rumored system feature that could access individual features and functions of third party apps, this could make a big difference in efficiency for many workflows. Instead of having to go to a certain app to use one of its features, you could presumably just ask the AI assistant to perform these tasks, freeing you up to focus on other things. And if these new super-powers are also integrated into the Shortcuts app, you could create amazing automations that could save a lot of time and effort.
Conclusion
The integration of first-party AI features and third party AI services could revolutionize the way we work and interact with iOS and iPadOS. Beyond streamlining workflows with features like AI-generated summaries, AI photo editing features, and AI-powered organization tools, the integration of third-party AI services could also mean that more system resources could be opened up for certain apps to use, and could also provide more options for background processes, which could alone be revolutionary for iPadOS. This will be an interesting year for Apple’s ecosystem. The Keynote event at WWDC24 ought to be “action packed”, but it will also be interesting to see what system changes may be announced in the developer sessions.
Now I think I’ve typed “AI” more times in one sitting than I’ve ever cared to before. Get ready to hear “AI” a lot on June 10…