The main new features that iMessage will bring to iPhones with iOS 18, including powerful artificial intelligence functionalities
Although in countries like Spain we find a clear dominance of WhatsApp for instant messaging, iMessage dominates messaging with an iron fist in the United States. If you don’t know it, iMessage is a native service included in all Apple devices through the ‘Messages’ app and that is about to add a handful of new features with iOS 18.
This next version for iPhone will be presented next Monday at WWDC 2024 and apart from bringing many artificial intelligence functions, particular developments are also expected for iMessage. Many have been leaked and others have already been confirmed by Apple months ago.
Everything new that will come to iMessage in iOS 18
The first beta of iOS 18 is scheduled to arrive next Monday after its presentation and launch in mid-late September. It is not known if everything they announce about iMessage will arrive in those first versions or if we will have to wait for an intermediate update. In any case, the most reliable sources confirm that all of this news will eventually arrive:
- RCS messages as Apple confirmed last year and that, although they will not directly affect iMessage, they will affect the sending of messages between iPhone and Android. This standard belongs to Google and allows you to have a more advanced messaging system than classic SMS by allowing you to share images and videos without restrictions, send messages over the Internet without needing coverage or create group chats.
- New effects that will be added to those we have already had for years and that would allow different views to be obtained depending on the texts with which they are sent.
- Answer suggestions based on AI with a more advanced system than the one we have now, being able to analyze the entire conversation and our preferences in order to get it completely right even with the language we use.
- Custom emojis that will be created with AI for those situations in which we do not find (or do not exist) a predetermined emoji to express the emotion or situation of the moment.
- Smart chat summaries, ideal for those groups in which we get lost for a moment and dozens of messages appear. It is expected to be a system feature and could also be present for WhatsApp, Telegram and other messaging apps apart from iMessage.
- New classic reactions that will join the classic “haha” or questions.
Obviously, the issue of WhatsApp being the majority in many countries will not change so easily due to these developments. In any case, if we take into account the strong security measures of iMessage and other incentives, it is clear that Apple wants to continue betting on improving its service compared to its main competitors.
Cover image | Alexander Shatov on Unsplash
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