iOS 12 Rumors: Siri Improvements, Animoji FaceTime, Do Not Disturb And More

Despite earlier rumors that Apple intends to focus primarily on improving quality and stability of its operating systems, a new round of rumors from Bloomberg suggests iOS 12 won’t be completely devoid of new features.

According to the report, Apple intends to introduce a number of new features in iOS 12, but won’t be pressured into pushing those features out to the public if they lack the necessary polish and functionality to make them worthwhile.

Apple’s software engineers will be given the ability to delay features that aren’t ready for the spotlight and will operate with a two-year roadmap for future iOS releases rather than being rushed into releasing as many features as possible in the upcoming update to Apple’s mobile operating system.

Even with the new, expanded time frame to work with, Apple apparently has a number of features that it is hoping to sneak into iOS 12 if possible—or at least have ready to go for future versions of OS for iPhones and iPads.

Of the features on the iOS roadmap, first and foremost is deeper Siri integration. With the push from Amazon and Google to get their voice-powered artificial intelligence assistants into every household, Apple is stuck playing catch up. The company aims to improve Siri’s usage, including integrating the assistant into search view.

Apple will also look to expand its Animoji feature that it first introduced in iOS 11. The company hopes to introduce new functionality that will allow users to use Animoji in FaceTime so they can control the animated faces that mirror their behaviors in real time while communicating with others.

Currently, Animoji is only available on the iPhone X and is enabled by the powerful facial recognition technology built into the device’s camera. Future versions of the iPhone are expected to make use of that technology, expanding the accessibility to the Animoji feature.

Piggybacking off of that expanded camera technology, Apple is reportedly working on multiplayer modes for augmented reality games that would allow multiple people to play the mixed reality games at the same time.

The Do Not Disturb feature is also reported to be getting an upgrade, with new improvements that will expand a user’s control over what notifications they want to receive and when. Users will be able to automatically reject phone calls and silence notifications that they would rather not receive while the mode is activated.

An update to the Stocks app, which provides details about stocks and other financial information, is also expected to find its way into iOS 12.

Other details about the future operating system remain unknown, and it’s possible that some features will be bumped back if they aren’t up to snuff. Given the troubles Apple has had with its latest versions of iOS, focus on the fundamentals likely wouldn’t hurt.

Apple is expected to reveal more details about iOS 12 and its other operating systems at WWDC 2018, set to be held in June.