Every year, Apple and Google announce major software updates that bring new features to smartphones, like a tweaked look for home screens, stronger privacy protections, and fun messaging tools. This year, the changes will feel even more radical as the companies work to reinvent the phone with artificial intelligence.
At its annual software developer conference on Monday, Apple unveiled a host of enhancements to its iOS 18 operating system, which will be released this fall. New tools includeImproved Siri voice assistantwhich is easier to communicate, and has an artificial intelligence system that can generate images, create summaries of web articles, and write responses to text messages and emails.
The move comes after Google released an Android operating system last month that includes an AI system that can automatically summarize audio recordings, detect whether phone conversations might be scams, and help students with homework.
Because AI technology is still new, it’s unclear whether these improvements will resonate with the public. The more immediate changes are related to what is known as “Green Bubbles” Apple said the new software will use a messaging standard that will let iPhone users send higher-quality messages to Android users, solving a problem that has made communication more difficult for more than a decade.
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Apple and Google will release free software updates for iOS and Android this fall. Here’s what you should know about the changes coming to your smartphones.
Siri to get an AI brain transplant
Apple said it completely revamped Siri, its 13-year-old virtual assistant.
The assistant will soon be powered by Apple’s own “large language model,” the company’s own AI technology that uses statistics and complex algorithms to guess which words belong together, similar to the autocomplete feature on your phone.OpenAI’s ChatGPTandGoogle’s GeminiThe underlying technology is the same as that used by chatbots like Facebook and Facebook. Apple says its system is more private than those of other companies because users’ data will remain on their iPhones.
The upgrade will enable Siri to process the context of a conversation, allowing users to talk to the virtual assistant more naturally. For example, you can say, “What’s the weather in Santa Cruz? Oh, wait, I meant San Francisco,” followed by, “Set me up for a coffee meeting there tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.”
Apple said the new, more powerful Siri will also be able to handle more complex tasks, such as searching your photo album for a photo of a driver’s license and extracting the ID code to paste into a form.
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In contrast, older versions of Siri could only respond to commands in a database and questions that the program had trained it to understand, such as “What’s the weather in San Francisco” and “Set up a coffee meeting in San Francisco.”
iPhone users will also be able to use Apple AI to automatically generate images in messages, Apple said. For example, if you wish a friend a happy birthday, the AI can find a photo of that friend in your photo album, and then it can generate an avatar of your friend with balloons.
This AI can also be used for writing in apps like Mail and Notes. Users can highlight text for proofreading or rewrite it in a different style. In the Safari web browser, users can also highlight articles to generate a short summary.
Apple said it partnered with OpenAI so that Siri can use ChatGPT for tasks like generating lists of recipe ideas.
(“New York Times”ProsecutionOpenAI and its partner Microsoft violated copyright in news content related to artificial intelligence systems.)
These AI features will only appear on the newest and fastest iPhone models released this fall, but that includes the previously launched iPhone 15 Pro.
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Google will completely transform Android with Gemini
onlyGoogle Pixel phone usersto use most of Google’s latest AI features; support for other Android devices is expected to follow later this year.
Over the past year, Google has let users test its new AI assistant, Gemini,Requires download of an app(Android phones will still load by default with Google Assistant, a virtual assistant similar to Amazon’s Alexa and older versions of Siri.) Similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Gemini acts like a chatbot that responds to any prompt posed to it, such as “Write a poem about dogs in San Francisco.”
Due to privacy concerns, the new version of Gemini, Nano, focuses on processing AI tasks directly on Pixel phones rather than processing requests on Google’s servers.
One feature that can detect scams involves using artificial intelligence to listen in on your phone calls. If the conversation matches a scam pattern, such as a scammer asking for your online banking password, the AI will send an alert to your phone.
Another feature is “circle search,” which lets users circle an image to ask Google for information. The feature has now been expanded to allow students to circle math or physics problems for help. Google’s artificial intelligence will then generate a series of steps to solve the problem.
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The Gemini Nano can also automatically generate text from audio recordings and create written summaries, which can be useful in meetings. Another tool, Magic Compose, can be used in Google’s Messages app to quickly rewrite messages in a different style.
Improvements to SMS functionality
For more than a decade, smartphone users around the world have faced the “green bubble” and “blue bubble” divide. When iPhone users send text messages to other iPhone users, the text messages appear blue and can use exclusive features such as fun emojis and animations. But if iPhone users send text messages to Android users, the bubble will turn green, many functions will be interrupted, and the quality of photos and videos will be reduced.
Apple is finally taking a step toward bridging the gap. The company said that in iOS 18, its Messages app will adopt Rich Communications Services, a standard that Google and others integrated into their apps years ago. Text messages sent between iPhones and Androids will remain green, but images and videos will be of higher quality.
The consequences could be far-reaching. Many iPhone and Android users say they are reluctant to send messages to each other because of poor image quality. The U.S. Department of Justice this yearAlleging that Apple imposes restrictions on its phones to maintain a monopolyand saw the SMS incompatibility as a pressure tactic to convince people to buy the iPhone.
Apple also said it would bring a feature to its iMessage app that might be considered long overdue: the ability to schedule messages to be sent later. This could help iPhone users respect each other’s boundaries, such as scheduling messages to be sent after the recipient gets off work.