We are now only 24 hours away from Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference. At this year’s event, Apple will show off new updates to iOS, macOS, and watchOS. The Cupertino company hardly announces hardware products, but we are expecting to see something special from Apple this year.
Tech experts say that iOS 12 will take the center stage at this year’s event, thanks to its innovative features. Last year, Apple debuted iOS 11 at the event, with a lot of new things and changes, including Files app for iPad, Document scanning in Notes, and iPad multitasking.
Rumors regarding Apple’s next-generation iOS have been circulating around for months, hinting at the impressive changes coming in iOS 12, ranging from a much-improved ARKit to a better Siri.
In the section below, we have compiled a list of the best features we wish to see in iOS 12. For some background, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference will kick off on June 4 and run through June 6 in San Jose, California.
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Smarter Siri
Siri is one of the best personal assistants on the market. Apple has been improving its virtual helper since the launch day in order to offer a better user experience, adding new features and skills to take on Google Assistant and Alexa.
Last year, iOS 11 added several new skills to Siri, including the ability to translate phrases to better support for Apple Pay. Sources say that Apple will debut a revamped version of Siri at this year’s WWDC event. One of the most anticipated skills coming in Siri lies in a much-improved voice recognition.
A lot of iPhone owners recently reported that Siri fails to recognize their voice. Luckily, Apple has acknowledged the issue and promises to fix it in future updates. Besides, we are expecting to see Apple add support for more languages to Siri. In iOS 11, Siri can translate phrases from English to French, Chinese, German, Spanish, and Italia.
Some recent reports say that Apple will open up Siri to more third-party apps. In iOS 10, Apple’s virtual helper was redesigned to include third-party support for some apps. In iOS 11, Siri can control more third-party apps. Siri’s main rivals, Google Assistant and Alexa support a wide range of third-party services. This is definitely something we are expecting to see this year.
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A revamped iCloud
Apple has its own storage services, called iCloud storage which allows you to store almost everything. iCloud comes pre-loaded on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac, keeping your files up-to-date and accessible across all devices.
iCloud offers 5GB of free storage and multiple upgrade options. However, 5GB of free space is not enough as photos and videos tend to grow in both shapes and sizes. We wish to see an increase in free iCloud storage at this year’s WWDC event.
Besides, Apple really needs to improve its iCloud Photo Library to catch up with Google Photos. Google’s photo-storing service is getting better, which offers more options to secure your files. Google Photos gives users unlimited storage for photos and videos with a high level of security. This is something Apple needs to do this year.
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Better notification center
iOS 11 introduces a revamped notification center, offering easy ways to access notifications. In iOS 11, notification center is merged with the lock screen, allowing users to quickly interact with notifications. However, this is something missing that prevents it from getting the perfect score.
A number of iPhone owners have reported that they are struggling to remove notifications or group notifications. Apple needs to make the process much easier in iOS 12 this year to take on Android. In iOS 12, we are expecting to see the ability to group messages from one contract, something Android has been capable of doing for a while.
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Better control center
Last year, Apple redesigned its Control Center, making it more customizable and intuitive for users. You now can add more toggles to control center for quick access or quickly turn on/off the flashlight.
Control Center in iOS 11 received mostly positive reviews from users worldwide at launch. However, customization options are still limited. Apple really needs to add support for more third-party services in Control Center.
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Picture-in-picture
Picture-in-picture has been available for iPad since the days of iOS 9, allowing users to watch videos while dealing with other tasks at the same. This is the feature we have been dying for an iPhone release.
Apple is rumored to launch a 6.5 inch iPhone model at this year’s September event, so it’s great to see picture-in-picture mode on a bigger iPhone model this year.
Also read: How to downgrade iOS 11.4 back to iOS 11.3.1
Got any questions? Let us know in the comments below.