Apple iOS 18.2: All new AI features launching next month
What's the story
Apple will release its latest software update, iOS 18.2, for iPhones in the first week of December, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports in his latest Power On newsletter.
The upcoming update will bring a host of new features tailored for the iPhone 15 Pro series and all iPhone 16 models.
These include Genmoji for creating custom emojis, Image Playground for generating cartoon-like images, and Image Wand which turns sketches into full images in the Notes app.
Siri upgrade
Enhanced Siri with ChatGPT integration
The iOS 18.2 update will also integrate ChatGPT into Siri, making the virtual assistant even more capable.
It will also expand Apple Intelligence-branded features to localized English in countries like the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
This expansion will solve the current problem where Indian users have to change their language settings to English (US) for Apple Intelligence features.
More enhancements
Additional features of iOS 18.2
Beyond Apple Intelligence, the iOS 18.2 update will bring a new "Default Apps" section in the Settings app and daily Sudoku puzzles for Apple News+ subscribers in the US.
It will also offer an option to report explicit images in iMessages. The feature is currently accesible in beta update and it will be rolled out in Australia next month.
Gurman expects iOS 18.4, scheduled for April release, to further enhance Siri with personal context and on-screen awareness capabilities.
Release anticipation
Potential release date and future language support
Gurman says that unless there are any unexpected delays, the iOS 18.2 update could be launched as early as December 2.
This would be a few weeks earlier than previous releases, with iOS 17.2 released on December 11 and iOS 16.2 on December 13.
Apple has also confirmed plans to add support for localized versions of English in a few countries and other languages through a software update in April.