Apple WWDC 2024 is taking place on Monday, and we're expecting updates on all of the tech giant's main operating systems. We expect artificial intelligence to be high on the agenda, with AI-driven features predicted for iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and MacOS 15.
Last year's event set the bar high, giving us our first glimpse of Apple Vision Pro, the 15-inch MacBook Air, MacStudio M2 Ultra and MacPro M2 Ultra, as well as iOS 17, iPadOS 17, MacOS Sonoma and WatchOS 10 – see our WWDC 2023 report).
Since Apple recently launched new hardware in the form of the M4 iPad Pro and the iPad Air M2 just last month, most people aren't expecting hardware news this year, but we wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of news on an M4 Mac. That possible curveball aside, we've outlined our main predictions below.
How to watch the WWDC 2024 keynote
Apple will stream its WWDC 2024 keynote via YouTube as well as on Apple.com, the TV app on Apple TV and the Apple Developer app. Or you can just tune in using the player above once the presentation goes live on Monday 10 June at 10am PT.
Apple AI updates
Despite the slew of hardware announcements last year, WWDC is usually all about software. The illustration for this year's event, dubbed 'Coming in Swiftly', features the logo for Swift, Apple's programming language, with the bird depicted in neon colours flying downward, suggesting that Apple is going to focus on speed in some way.
Once thing we can almost say for sure is that there will be talk of AI at WWDC 2024. Lots of it. All major tech players are going in on artificial intelligence and it's been the main theme at events like Computex 2024 last week and in new product launches like that of Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs, which were designed to challenge the MacBook.
We expect AI announcements at WWDC to mainly be software-related. Based on Apple's usual annual schedule, we're expecting news on the next iterations of almost all its operating systems, and we expect many of these will have an AI focus.
Google launched Generative AI for Pixel 8 back in October 2023, Samsung added cloud and on-device Galaxy AI capabilities to the S24 in January and Microsoft has put its Copilot AI model at the heart of its new desktop devices. Apple's relatively late to the party. That means it's had the opportunity to watch and perhaps learn from its rivals mistakes, but we expect that its own approach to become much clearer at WWDC, with new AI-driven features for many of its systems.
iOS 18 and iPadOS 18
Sources: iOS 18 Lets Users Customize Layout of Home Screen App Icons https://t.co/VrIU9gytWz pic.twitter.com/ZupJB1mjBFMarch 24, 2024
Bloomberg's Apple correspondent Mark Gurman has said that based on the rumours he's picked up, iOS 18 will be the biggest update to the iPhone operating system yet. Many of the updates are expected to be AI-related. This could include tools for photo retouching, voice memo transcriptions, suggested replies for emails and messages, auto-generated custom emojis, smart recap for missed notifications, improve search experiences and auto-generated playlists in Apple Music.
It's also been reported that Pages will get AI-assisted writing in Pages, while Keynote will get AI-assisted slide deck creation and developers will get AI code writing in Xcode.
As for the UI, we're not expecting a complete design overhaul, but it's been reported that users will get more options for customization, with more control over the colours of icons and how app icons are arranged on the iOS 18 Home Screen. App icons are expected to remain locked to the invisible grid, but it's believed that Apple will add options to create spaces, rows, and columns, bringing iOS it more in line with Android's approach.
There have also been reports of a new Settings interface, a new music widget in the Control Center and possibly ChatGPT integration.
Other operating systems
It's likely that macOS 15 will get similar updates to iOS 18, and we're expecting Apple to stick to the tradition of using Californian geography for the name of the system. macOS Sequoia maybe? Or perhaps Miramar?
We're also expecting updates on the first upgrade for Apple’s Vision Pro's operating system, which will be visionOS 2.0, and watchOS 11 is expected to introduce a new Siri interface and redesigned Fitness app.
Siri 2.0
Apple's virtual assistant Siri will surely be the subject of AI upgrades using Apple's own large language model (LLM) in order to keep up with Google Assistant and Alexa, although it's not clear if it will be multimodal. Gurman has said that a revamped AI-driven Siri won't be lauched until 2025, so we might not see an imminent launch, but we expect Apple to at least inform developers and stakeholders about the direction it's taking.
Gurman has said that we won't see a fully fledged ChatGPT or Copilot competitor from Apple, but that LLM training will make using Siri feel more conversational. On iPhone, Siri would reportedly be auto-enabled based on what users are doing in order to provide help, from editing photos to summarising notifications or moving content.
What about iPhone 16? Apple usually holds a dedicated September event to launch the new iteration of its smartphone, and we expect that to be the same this year.
