iOS 12 release date & new features rumours

Release date
iOS 12 will launch in September 2018, but we will see a preview of the new operating system for iPhones and iPads at WWDC on 4 June 2018.

Apple is a creature of habit when it comes to OS updates, and past behaviour strongly points to iOS 12 (along with macOS 10.14, tvOS 12 and watchOS 5) being announced and demoed at WWDC 2018, before rolling out as a series of beta testing versions, first for developers and then as part of a public beta.

The final public version of iOS 12.0 will be launched in autumn 2018; probably in September, alongside new iPhones.

Possible changes coming to iOS 12
Here you will find details of patents Apple has filed, that may indicate new features coming soon to iOS. We have also listed some of the changes we are hoping to see in the operating system based on the biggest frustrations right now.

Possible: Personalised responses from Siri
The next version of iOS could offer users a way of personalising the response to a call that can’t be taken.

Currently if the phone rings you can choose to answer or reject it, but in the future it may be possible to automatically send a text message to the caller, explaining the reason for the call being declined (e.g. I’m driving).

The patent application details an “Intelligent Digital Assistant for Declining an Incoming Call”. It explains a way in which Siri could work our why the call can’t be accepted based on contextual information, via Apple Insider.

Siri could perhaps use data to determine that the user is working out because they are using a fitness monitoring app. Or if the user is in transit and receives a call from their partner, a text could automatically be sent saying not only that they are driving home, but also when they are likely to arrive.

If the user had CarPlay integration in their car, they would be able to see multiple message options, including the details of their location if they were driving home, as shown in the image below.

Possible: Improved Emoji search
It’s not just new Emoji that people could get excited about, but improved search when it comes to finding the best emoji you want to use.

Jeremy Burge, Chief Emoji Officer and creator of World Emoji Day, is calling for Apple to improve emoji search. In his blog he explains how bad Emoji search it currently.

The problem seems to be that search is limited, if you were trying to search for the emoji shown below, and you typed Plate, or Knife into the Emoji search bar, you wouldn’t see that emoji as an option, even though it clearly contains a plate and a knife. If you search for fork, or dinner (which is what we searched for) you will see that result.
Possible: Horizontal Face ID (including on iPad)
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has predicted that iOS 12 will allow Face ID to work when a device is in landscape mode, and that this signals that the feature is coming to the iPad line-up. It will work on the (suitably equipped) iPhones too, he adds.

We assume this is a feature that will be exclusive to the Pro models, especially since Pencil compatibility has at last leaked into the standard iPad range.

Possible: AirPlay 2
AirPlay 2 is an important update to Apple's AirPlay tech because it allows for multi-room audio (a key feature for the HomePod).

Support for AirPlay 2 was included in the first couple of betas of iOS 11.3, but it had vanished in the third beta, which has led some to speculate that it might have been delayed until iOS 12. Then it appeared again in a beta of iOS 11.4!

Clearly AirPlay 2 is close to release, but we're still unsure of whether it will be slipped in with a point update or delayed until iOS 12.

Possible: Multi-user FaceTime calls
The Verifier has predicted that Apple will introduce a feature long requested by iOS users: the ability to make group calls via FaceTime video in a similar way to services like Skype. The site adds that Apple is considering making the FaceTime app more of a social experience by adding filters similar to apps like Snapchat and MSQRD that have had huge success off the back of the filters.

It's worth noting that Apple snapped up Faceshift in late 2015, a company whose technology can capture a user's facial expressions and transform the face into a 3D avatar in real-time. Could this technology be integral in Apple's planned overhaul in iOS 12? We can only wait and see. It's also worth noting that The Verifier, despite the name, has a non-existent track record with Apple rumours and thus, should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Also coming to FaceTime is the ability to screen share, according to reports. Screen sharing will be a useful feature if you are trying to help troubleshoot an iOS device remotely.

iOS 12 release date & new features: FaceTime
Possible: Multiple user accounts
The iPhone might be overwhelmingly a personal device but many iPads are not; some performing a second duty as child pacifier, others being shared with house guests or used by multiple members of staff in retail. And iOS users have been asking for user accounts for years.

Possible: New Messages features
A Bloomberg report refers to improvements to Apple's social features that are designed to "more effectively connect users with their contacts". Apple wants to offer a means to consolidate communications between users into single panels. For example, two friends could be able to see all text messages, e-mails, and social network interactions between each other in a single window, according to Bloomberg's source.

We'd like to see support for read receipts in group iMessages - a feature available in WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

Possible: Smart Wi-Fi
The P9 is one of a number of Huawei phones to offer a feature called Wi-Fi+ (or Wi-Fi+ 2.0). This encompasses a number of elements, such as the prioritisation of stronger connections, but the one we like best is its ability to automatically turn Wi-Fi on or off depending on your location. It remembers the location of known networks and activates in order to join them, but when you leave the area it turns Wi-Fi off to save battery.

Given the iPhones' recent difficulty competing on battery life with the top-end Android devices, something along these lines would be a fine addition to iOS 12.

Possible: Ability to change video resolution in-app
All currently available iPhones can record video in full 4K resolution at 30fps, as well as the standard 1080p at 60fps or 30fps. The only issue we have is that there is no easy way to change between the resolutions from within the Camera app, and we have to exit the app, head to Settings > Camera to be able to change it.

Certain situations, such as filming in low light, require a lower frame rate (fewer frames = more light captured) and changing it manually takes around 10-15 seconds, which isn't ideal. We would love a way to quickly change the resolution and frame rate, possibly by tapping an icon in the Camera app. It's a simple change to make and would be largely appreciated by those that like to capture video on their iPhones.

While we're on the subject of photography, it would be nice if Apple allowed us to take and store photos in RAW format.

Possible: View Favourites in Contacts app
Another fairly simple change we'd like to see made in iOS 12 is the ability to view and edit the list of favourites, currently only found in the Phone app. It makes sense to be able to access your favourite contacts from within the Contacts app, and we're not quite sure why Apple hasn't yet added this functionality. Sometimes we want easy access to our contacts for other reasons, not just for calling!

Possible: Contact Availability Status
Apple has filed a patent that could be summarised as a system that detects where your friends are, and whether they're available and the operating status of their iPhone (such as silent or Airplane mode), and presents that information in the Contacts app.

The patent shows that Apple is considering a new feature that would enable iPhone users to view at a glance whether their contacts are available for a conversation, and where they are.

The abstract of the patent reads:

"A command is received at an operating system of a first mobile phone for displaying the contact information of a remote user having a mobile phone number of a second mobile phone. In response to the command, a request is transmitted to a remote server from the first mobile phone over a cellular network requesting an operating status of the second mobile phone.

"The operating status of the second mobile phone is received from the remote server over the cellular network. The operating status of the second mobile phone is displayed on a display of the first mobile phone as a part of contact information of the remote user associated with the second mobile phone, where the operating status includes current locality of the second mobile phone."

Which sounds complicated, but can be further summarised as a system that detects where your friends are, and whether they're available and the operating status of their iPhone (such as silent or Airplane mode), and presents that information in the Contacts app. If you're thinking that has the whiff of surveillance about it - well, it does, but only to the same extent as Find My Friends, and it would presumably be optional for both parties.

iOS 12 release date rumours: Patent

Possible: Finger-detecting dynamic keyboard
Apple has been granted a patent covering dynamic keyboard positioning on touchscreens, whereby the individual keys are placed in response to the detected position of the user's fingertips.

iOS 12 release date & new features: Finger-detecting keyboard patent
United States Patent 9,489,086, entitled Finger hover detection for improved typing, describes a concept whereby typing "is improved by dynamically and automatically positioning the desired home-row keys of an onscreen keyboard below the user's fingers while their fingers are hovering above the surface, thus reducing the need for the user to look at the onscreen keyboard while typing".

We wouldn't be surprised if the concept appears in the system-wide keyboard (albeit presumably as an option) in a future update of iOS, although it appears to be targeted at tablets only. This wouldn't be the first iOS feature to be restricted to iPad use, of course: the most famous example is probably the split-screen viewing modes added to the iPad with the launch of iOS 9.

While the granted patent was published in November 2016, this is in effect a ratification of Apple's acquisition of the patent when it bought Typesoft Technologies back in September 2014; Typesoft's Dryft virtual keyboard uses a similar principle in an effort to enable touchscreen touch-typing, as shown in the following video:

Finally, and quite aptly if we've got this right, there appears to be a typo in the introduction specifically where the patent is talking about making typos.

"While there have been numerous proposals for disambiguating error-prone user input," reads the last sentence of the introduction, "many such proposals rely heavily on linguistic context and are unable to resolve interchangeable alternatives (e.g., where a user strikes ambiguously between keys T and 'o' followed by 'n' leaving uncertainty whether "in" or "on" was intended)." (Surely that's meant to be 'i' and 'o', rather than T and 'o'? Although we are happy to be corrected.)

Possible: Slide to unlock
Does that sound familiar? It should, because it was the way we unlocked iPhones and iPads in iOS 9 and every previous version of iOS and iPhone OS. In its most recent incarnation, it looked a bit like the one on the left below:

iOS 12 release date rumours: Slide to unlock

In iOS 10 Apple got rid of slide to unlock, changing the interface so you just press the Home button (simultaneously triggering the Touch ID fingerprint scanner on reasonably up to date iDevices, so it made more sense, on the whole). But some people aren't happy about this development, and a petition has been formed to ask for slide to unlock to be brought back.

Will Apple give in to popular pressure (well, relatively popular pressure - there are just 1,549 signatories at time of writing, although we've heard this sentiment quite widely) and bring back slide to unlock? We don't think so. Apple fans have had issues with interfaces before, most controversially with iOS 7, but most of us got used to the new look in time.

Unlikely changes in iOS 12
There were rumours circulating that suggested that Apple was making changes in iOS 12 that would make it possible to run iOS apps on the Mac and Mac apps in iOS. As great as that sounds to us, it is looking more and more unlikley, as we examine below.

Unlikely: Merging of macOS and iOS
You might be able to run MacOS apps on the iPad and vice versa when it launches in the autumn. At least that's Apple's plan, according to reports from Axios and others.

Back in December 2017 Bloomberg wrote that Apple plans to combine iPhone, iPad and Mac apps as part of a secret project codenamed 'Marzipan'.

Bloomberg's sources said: "Developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad depending on whether it's running on the iPhone and iPad operating system or on Mac."

However, a report from Daring Fireball at the end of April 2018 predicted instead that this project will be held back until 2019. John Gruber, basing his comments on "a few things, from first- and second-hand sources. Mostly second-hand, to be honest", said he is "nearly certain this project is not debuting at WWDC 2018 in June, and [doubts] that 2018 was on the table in December. It's a 2019 thing, for macOS 10.15 and iOS 13."

In any case, Apple CEO Tim Cook has quashed the rumours that Apple is planing to unify macOS with iOS, restating his belief that mobile devices and computers should remain separate with their own operating systems.