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WWDC 2024: Apple Intelligence, iOS 18, macOS 15, and more

Apple went all in on AI during WWDC 2024. During its annual keynote, the company showed off Apple Intelligence, its take on an AI system that spans the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Some of the biggest AI-powered updates include the ability to manage notifications, automatically draft responses to emails, and summarize text.

Apple is also giving Siri a big AI upgrade that will give it more control over your apps and teased an upcoming ChatGPT integration. Other features enabled by Apple Intelligence, which is powered by both on-device processing and a “private” cloud computing system, include the ability to generate your own emoji and clean up the background of photos.

But WWDC wasn’t all about AI. Apple also announced that it’s rolling out a more customizable iPhone homescreen in iOS 18, RCS support for Messages, a Calculator app for the iPad, updates to visionOS, and a way to mirror your iPhone on your Mac in macOS 15.

Scroll down for all the news that came out of WWDC 2024.

  • Apple’s new AI features will reportedly miss the iOS 18 launch and wait for iOS 18.1.

    Mark Gurman reports for Bloomberg that “Apple Intelligence” features will be available for developers to beta test this week.

    However, he also says the first ones won’t be released publicly until weeks after Apple’s big September updates for iPhone / iPad / Mac, etc. Rollouts for others from its WWDC showcase, like upgraded Siri, could stretch into 2025.


  • Apple Intelligence and smarter Siri’s full iPhone rollout may arrive in the spring

    An outline of an iPhone with the multicolored Siri border and a web of lines and dots around the border of the screen.
    Better Siri might be here by the spring.
    Screenshot: YouTube

    Siri will finally get better in spring 2025 when Apple makes its Apple Intelligence AI system available to everyone via its iOS 18.4 update, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in the latest Power On newsletter. That’s more specific than Apple has been — so far, it’s only said the flagship AI features will be available next year.

    Apple regularly doles out its new features piecemeal, in point updates, across its operating systems. So it’s possible, for instance, that Siri will gain the ability (via Apple Intelligence) to do things on your behalf, like dig your ID out of your 20,000-photo-deep library in Photos and copy your driver’s license number to enter into an online form, but perhaps the AI-powered emoji generation or writing assistance features won’t be ready yet. Gurman doesn’t speak directly to that, but it’s good to keep in mind.

    Read Article >
  • Apple may delay AI features in the EU because of its big tech law

    Illustration of the Apple logo with a slice falling out of it, implying breaking up a monopoly.
    Illustration: Cath Virginia / The Verge

    Apple says upcoming features like its Apple Intelligence generative AI tools, iPhone mirroring, and SharePlay screen sharing may not be available in the European Union this year, as reported previously by Bloomberg.

    Why? The Digital Markets Act (DMA), says Apple, citing the EU law that puts strict requirements on the “gatekeepers” that control massive online platforms to block anticompetitive behavior. Recently, rumors have indicated that Apple and Meta could soon face charges over DMA violations.

    Read Article >
  • Here’s why Apple Intelligence is limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and Macs and iPads with M-series chips.

    John Giannandrea, Apple’s AI chief, speaking at John Gruber’s The Talk Show Live from WWDC 2024:

    The inference of large language models is incredibly computationally expensive. So it’s a combination of bandwidth in the device, it’s the size of the ANE [Apple Neural Engine], it’s the oomph in the device to actually do these models fast enough to be useful.

    You could in theory run these models on a very old device. but it would be so slow it would not be useful.

    Greg Joswiak, Apple’s marketing boss, also pushed back on the idea that Apple Intelligence is a scheme to sell new iPhones. “Otherwise, we would have been smart enough just to do recent iPads and Macs, too.”


  • Wes Davis

    Jun 16

    Wes Davis

    Apple won’t wait until next year for some Siri improvements

    Apple showing off Siri’s updated logo at WWDC 2024.
    Image: Apple

    Siri may do more than make the edges of your iPhone a glowy rainbow when iOS 18 drops this fall. Apple Intelligence features won’t be out until 2025 for anyone not testing them in beta this year, but reports suggest that Siri itself will still get natural language updates and other key features before the year is out.

    For instance, users will be able to type to Siri without diving into accessibility settings, and it will be more conversational, understanding you even when you trip over your words, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg.

    Read Article >
  • Wes Davis

    Jun 16

    Wes Davis

    “Hello, computer.”

    As seen in MacRumors, iOS 18 beta testers can set a new Siri wake word using Vocal Shortcuts, a new accessibility feature. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Vocal Shortcuts > Set Up Vocal Shortcuts, then find and tap “Siri” to try it.

    It won’t work with HomePods. And your iPhone won’t acknowledge it unless you pause after saying the word. That’s good; otherwise, you learn just how frequently you say a word like “computer.”


  • Wes Davis

    Jun 15

    Wes Davis

    Who says Macs aren’t for gaming?

    Apple’s long-included macOS Chess game has a new look in the first macOS Sequoia beta.

    Shiny as it is, it’s missing things like the “Grass” board and the style picker for the pieces, 9to5Mac writes. Here’s the current version (using “Fur” pieces on the Grass board, of course) compared to a screenshot posted to Reddit of its coming replacement.


    The current version with a grass board (top) versus the new version, which has shinier pieces that are reflected in the now-glossy board (bottom).
    Without a grass board and silly fur-covered pieces, is it even still Chess.app?
    Screenshots: Chess.app
  • Wes Davis

    Jun 15

    Wes Davis

    Rest in peace, Siri watchface.

    The Siri face no longer exists, at least in the watchOS 11 developer beta, according to AppleInsider. If it’s gone in the release version this fall, that may be the first watchface ever retired, the story notes.

    The Siri face debuted with the Apple Watch series 3. Its big idea was that it would surface info as you need it, but new Smart Stack features may make it redundant.


  • Emma Roth

    Jun 15

    Emma Roth

    Apple announced RCS with a whimper when it should have been a bang

    Illustration of an iPhone surrounded by green message bubbles.
    Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge

    Apple will finally adopt RCS in iOS 18, effectively ending a yearslong fight for feature parity between iMessage and Android. But the announcement wasn’t a celebration — you could’ve blinked and missed it. Instead of showing how RCS will make things better, Apple softly announced support for the standard and focused on all the great features coming to iMessage users — not RCS ones.

    Apple didn’t go over how RCS adoption will finally let iPhone and Android users send each other high-resolution pictures and videos. It didn’t even say how RCS will enable support for cross-platform read receipts and typing indicators. Apple only highlighted the flashy features coming to iMessage, including ways to bold and italicize text, improvements to Tapbacks, and the ability to schedule a text.

    Read Article >
  • Apple gives Apple Home users something they’ve been begging for

    A photo of the Apple TV 4K set on top of a brown wooden surface.
    With iOS 18, Apple Home users will finally be able to insist the smart home platform use their hardwired Apple TVs as the primary Home hub.
    Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

    While Apple barely mentioned its smart home platform during its WWDC 2024 keynote this week, Apple Home users can still rejoice over an update discovered in the first iOS 18 beta: they’re getting the option to choose a “Preferred Home Hub.” This fixes the problem of your smart home “deciding” to run over Wi-Fi through a HomePod when there’s a perfectly good Apple TV using ethernet sitting right there.

    Eagle-eyed Redditors on the HomeKit subreddit spotted that, in the iOS 18 beta, there’s a new option to select your preferred Home hub instead of relying on Apple’s automatic selection, the current choice.

    Read Article >
  • Did Apple just Sherlock our favorite password managers?

    Apple’s Craig Federighi presenting Apple’s new Passwords app at WWDC 2024.
    Image: Apple

    Password managers are essential. They keep track of your passwords, encourage better security practices, and generally help to manage your life across your devices. They’re the kind of feature that really should be built into every device — and Apple is massively expanding their reach with the launch of its new Passwords app, announced this week at WWDC.

    We have companies like 1Password and LastPass to thank for the popularity of today’s password managers. But an announcement like Apple’s puts them in a tough position: now that Apple has a free, built-in Passwords app, is there a future for the third-party apps that defined the space?

    Read Article >
  • The much-needed reinvention of the voice assistant is almost here

    Apple showing off Siri’s updated logo at WWDC 2024.
    Apple’s Siri voice assistant has a new look and a new brain.
    Image: Apple

    Voice assistants hold so much promise, but in the decade-plus since Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa first wormed their ways into our lives, their most compelling use is still setting timers. Competition from Google’s Assistant (and if we’re being charitable, Samsung’s Bixby) failed to light the spark of innovation in this space, and in many ways, voice control has regressed. These assistants regularly misunderstand, mishear, and sometimes just don’t listen at all. They’re a far cry from the proactive, actually smart digital assistants they were originally pitched as.

    Enter generative AI: the technology voice assistants need to transform them from novel to necessary. This week at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple announced plans to infuse its long-neglected assistant with the emerging tech, providing Siri with two crucial skills: context and conversation. It’s the recipe for delivering on that original promise, or at least getting us much closer.

    Read Article >
  • iOS 18 will let you use Apple Pay on desktop Chrome by scanning a code

    An image showing an Apple Pay code on a non-Safari browser and a non-Apple laptop.
    Image: Apple

    Apple is introducing a way to use Apple Pay on non-Safari desktop web browsers, as reported by MacRumors, meaning that you’ll soon be able to use Apple’s payment service to buy things on desktop Chrome, Firefox, and even on Windows PCs.

    Apple showed how it works in a WWDC 2024 video for developers. If you’re using a desktop browser that isn’t Safari and you see an Apple Pay button, you’ll be able to click that button to bring up a special code you can scan with an iPhone running iOS 18. If you scan the code, you’ll then be prompted to complete the transaction on your iPhone.

    Read Article >
  • Finally, the Apple Watch will let you rest

    Person wearing Apple Watch with rings that aren’t close to being closed.
    Breaking streaks no longer has to be something you worry about.
    Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

    When I had covid, I was miserable, hacking up my lungs and confined to bed for several days with horrible brain fog. I don’t remember much from that time. I do, however, remember waking up bleary-eyed and feverish to an Apple Watch notification. It said I hadn’t made much progress on my rings. I should take a brisk 27-minute walk. “You can still do it,” it said. No, I could not.

    It wasn’t my fault I’d gotten sick, but my 85-day streak was broken anyway. Since then, I’ve had nasty shin splints, migraines, and multiple cross-country flights that make it hard to hit exercise goals — all excellent reasons to prioritize rest or build some extra flexibility into my schedule. Despite knowing better, I still felt disappointed whenever I listened to my body and prioritized rest over an arbitrary streak.

    Read Article >
  • Wes Davis

    Jun 12

    Wes Davis

    The best small updates Apple didn’t mention at WWDC

    A screenshot of the redesigned Photos app in iOS 18.
    As usual, Apple left plenty of things out while presenting its next big software updates.
    Image: Apple

    Apple left out a lot of small updates at its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this year. It makes sense: the company had a lot to talk about, with a third of its presentation entirely devoted to new AI features. But that doesn’t make the features that didn’t get airtime any less worth talking about.

    From new bezel animations to better ways to manage widgets, there is plenty to discover in the first round of betas for iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more. Here are some of our favorites so far:

    Read Article >
  • MKBHD interviewed Tim Cook.

    Cook was, unsurprisingly, very on message, but he did acknowledge that AI can have its flaws (which he has said before).

    Also, Cook talks about how the introduction of the Magic Mouse was an “incredible moment.”


  • The AI upgrade cycle is here

    Blue iPhone 15 Pro and natural titanium iPhone 15 Pro Max leaning against a perforated metal background.
    Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

    The new Apple Intelligence features coming to iOS 18 could be the most impressive integrations of AI software and consumer hardware to date. Apple’s AI tools will be able to take actions based on what they know about you, manage your notifications, and rewrite text. They’re the kinds of things that could make day-to-day use of your iPhone a lot better. But they won’t be available unless you have one of Apple’s latest and most expensive iPhone models.

    AI has quickly become the latest entry in the tech industry’s never ending desire to drive an upgrade cycle. A few years ago, every smartphone maker raced to 5G; more than a decade ago, the TV industry pushed for 3D TVs. Right now, every tech company clearly sees an opportunity with AI and is adding AI features confined to their latest and greatest devices as a result. But like the race to 5G, the mad rush toward AI is happening quickly and before the tech has been proven useful and its problems ironed out.

    Read Article >
  • SharePlay is coming to Apple TV, HomePods, and Bluetooth speakers

    A close-up photo of animations on Apple’s second-gen HomePod.
    The Apple HomePod will soon support SharePlay with Apple Music.
    Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

    Apple’s SharePlay is expanding to include speakers in your home. Soon, the HomePod, HomePod Mini, Apple TV, and any Bluetooth speaker will work with SharePlay and Apple Music, meaning you can share control of the music in your home with friends and family. Apple’s music service is also getting Music Haptics to allow those with hearing difficulties to experience music on iPhone. Both new features were announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference this week and should arrive with the tvOS and iOS updates this fall.

    Similar to the way SharePlay works in Apple CarPlay, this new SharePlay ability will let you give other people access to what’s playing on the speakers in your home. It’s the same concept as Spotify Jams, which lets multiple people contribute to and control a Spotify playlist.

    Read Article >
  • Apple IDs are becoming Apple Accounts

    An illustration of the Apple logo.
    Illustration: The Verge

    Apple is rebranding Apple accounts from Apple ID to (the arguably more straightforward) Apple Account. “With the releases of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11, Apple ID is renamed to Apple Account for a consistent sign-in experience across Apple services and devices, and relies on a user’s existing credentials,” Apple wrote in a Tuesday post on its Newsroom.

    The change doesn’t come as a total surprise, as it was rumored earlier this year. And even though Apple IDs have been around for a very long time, I’m personally fine with the change — “Apple Account” feels a lot clearer to me than “Apple ID.”

    Read Article >
  • Wes Davis

    Jun 11

    Wes Davis

    Apple skipped over the best visionOS 2 updates

    Apple’s “bento box” showing several features coming to visionOS 2.
    Some of the best features just got hints in the feature breakdown at the end.
    Image: Apple

    Apple mentioned a few new features coming to the Vision Pro during its WWDC 2024 keynote presentation on Monday, such as the ability to turn your 2D photos into 3D ones and support for using the headset on trains. But the company glossed right over some of the most sorely needed features that it’s adding to visionOS — and those quieter changes make for a much more exciting update.

    After the update arrives this fall, you’ll be able to see a Magic Keyboard while you’re working in a virtual environment, use any Bluetooth mouse you want, and rearrange your homescreen icons — including putting iPad and iPhone apps where you want. These are all features that probably should have been there from the beginning, and they’ll improve the day-to-day experience of using the Vision Pro in meaningful ways.

    Read Article >
  • Emma Roth

    Jun 11

    Emma Roth

    Tim Cook is ‘not 100 percent’ sure Apple can stop AI hallucinations

    Photo illustration of Tim Cook.
    Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

    Even Apple CEO Tim Cook isn’t sure the company can fully stop AI hallucinations. In an interview with The Washington Post, Cook said he would “never claim” that its new Apple Intelligence system won’t generate false or misleading information with 100 percent confidence.

    “I think we have done everything that we know to do, including thinking very deeply about the readiness of the technology in the areas that we’re using it in,” Cook says. “So I am confident it will be very high quality. But I’d say in all honesty that’s short of 100 percent. I would never claim that it’s 100 percent.”

    Read Article >
  • Apple Intelligence, iPhones, and the rest of WWDC 2024

    A picture of the WWDC logo on top of The Vergecast logo.
    Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

    There were almost two different WWDCs this year. First, Apple did its classic platform whiparound, detailing all the new ways you can add stuff to your homescreen, share stuff with your friends, watch stuff on your TV, calculate stuff on your tablet, and more. In a normal year, that would have been the show. We would have talked about app icons for 45 minutes and gone home.

    The second act of WWDC was the Apple Intelligence show, in which Apple began to unveil its AI strategy. We saw a lot of features and ideas about how things might work — including a new and pretty exciting vision for Siri — but also got a sense of how Apple is planning to approach this potentially disruptive new category. We heard a lot of buzzwords! But also a lot of ideas.

    Read Article >
  • The new versions of iOS and macOS will let you rotate your Wi-Fi address to help reduce tracking.

    Here’s how Apple describes the feature, per MacRumors:

    A rotating Wi-Fi address helps reduce tracking by changing your Wi-Fi address at various times. Tracking can happen when your address always appears the same to other devices and people using the same network as you.

    It’s coming to iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia.


  • Can Apple Intelligence fix the iPhone’s broken notifications system?

    Apple has a new Focus mode.

    Reduce Interruptions uses the company’s new AI to review notifications and only show those that “might need immediate attention” — like a message telling you to pick your child up.

    As someone who is inundated with nuisance notifications and has failed to make Apple’s non-smart Focus Modes work for me, I’m looking forward to this one.


    Reduce Interruptions will use Apple Intelligence to filter your notifications.
    Reduce Interruptions will use Apple Intelligence to filter your notifications.
    Image: Apple
  • Siri warns you that ChatGPT might be lying.

    The words “ChatGPT · Check important info for mistakes” popped up under each demo of ChatGPT’s integration with Siri during Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote.

    That Apple put something it doesn’t entirely trust on its devices feels like a huge move for the company. Although, it’s clearly keeping its options open — Craig Federighi teased that Google could be a partner, too.


    Siri is adding a disclaimer to the ChatGPT results it surfaces.
    Siri is adding a disclaimer to the ChatGPT results it surfaces.
    Screenshot by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy