Apple sending out a Save the Date reminder for its WWDC 2025 keynote on June 9 just drives home the realization that we're just weeks away from getting our first look at iOS 19 in the form of a preview at the annual developer conference. And this figures to be a more significant iPhone software reveal than most.
By all accounts, Apple is planning a major overhaul of how its iPhone software looks with iOS 19, marking the most significant change to the interface since iOS 7. On top of that, there's Apple's ongoing push to integrate more features powered by artificial intelligence into its products, so we can expect an Apple Intelligence update to come with iOS 19 as well.
Change can be unsettling, but it can also be exciting. And while we only have rumors to go by for now, these are the potential iOS 19 changes that I want to hear more about when Apple shows off this year's iOS update next month.
A new look for iOS 19
I like to compare OS updates to re-arranging the furniture in your house. You want changes that improve the flow of the room, and not ones that have you tripping over the ottoman.
Given the chatter around iOS 19, there's a risk that it could feature more of the latter kind of changes, as it sounds like Apple is really mixing things up with this update. That's not necessarily a bad thing, given that the goal is to apparently make the software running on your phone, tablet and Mac feel like a more seamless experience. As someone very immersed in the Apple ecosystem of products, I should benefit from that, even if there are a few growing pains.
And from the looks of the iOS 19 concepts that have surfaced in recent months, iOS 19 is going to take some getting used to. While there's some dispute over how accurately these screens reflect what Apple plans on releasing, we could be in for a big leap from iOS 18 to iOS 19.
I admit that it's hard for me to wrap my head around interface changes until they're actually on a phone screen in front of me, but so far, two potential iOS 19 interface updates stand out to me — the relocated search bar and translucent control panels.
In iOS 18, when you want to search for something in an app like Messages, Music or Settings, you'll find the search bar near the top of the screen. But Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech has posted iOS 19 mock-ups with the search bar at the bottom.
The move would make sense, as it puts the search bar down where you already do most of your typing, making it easier to operate your iPhone with one hand. It would also match a move Apple made a few iOSes ago that put the search bar in Safari at the bottom of the screen.
The rumor of translucent menus also comes from Prosser's mock-ups, specifically of the Camera app. The menus for the camera controls appear translucent, and that frees up more room for the view finder on the iPhone screen.
The thing I like about both of these rumored changes is that they would make using the iPhone feel more natural and more convenient. Those are the kind of interface enhancements I'm hoping to see in iOS 19, not just change for change's sake.
AI heath coaching
I use my iPhone to track my steps and how much I move each day — it's really helped me take charge of my health through a mixture of gamification and stats that show my slow and steady progress over time.
But, boy, is the Fitness app dumb.
Here's an example. The Fitness app likes to send out reminders each day, encouraging me to meet my daily move goal. Hey, fair enough — every bit of motivation helps. But last month, on a family vacation, I spent a day moving farther and for longer than I ever did before — we're talking a dozen miles in a single day.
The Fitness app's response? A notification the next morning urging me to do it again today.
That's not particularly encouraging, nor does it seem to recognize the concept of rest days. I'd like to see the way Apple deals with health and fitness on its mobile devices get more refined.
And I could get my wish in iOS 19. Reportedly, Apple is working on an AI health coaching feature for the software update that will be able to formulate more personalized recommendations on ways to bolster your health; there may also be a food-tracking component. It sounds as if the health coach feature would draw on data collected from an Apple Watch — a bummer for me since I'm not a watcher wearer. But I'll be interested to see if this feature, should it be part of the iOS 19 update, can lead to less generic exhortations to exercise more.
New iPhone conveniences
iOS 19 could bring about other improvements we'll file under the category of Improved Convenience. For starters, there's reports that iOS 19 will streamline the process of signing on to Wi-Fi networks by remembering details you fill in the first time you log on to a network and sharing them across your many Apple devices. That way, you don't have to go through the same rigamarole each time you join that network.
Another convenience booster, this one powered by AI, would improve battery management on your iPhone. According to reports, the feature would gather up user data on iPhone usage to figure out the apps that can be deprioritized. This would save power, helping your phone last longer.
Both sound like fine additions to me, and I hope that Apple doesn't stop there. If I were to fire up my Phone app right now and tap on the Recents tab, I'd see that eight of the last 10 calls to my number have been robocalls and spammers. The Send to Voicemail feature on iOS does a good job banishing some of those calls to the land of wind and ghosts, but I'd like to see Apple develop something like Google's Call Assist feature, where a digital assistant can give spammers the bum's rush, without me ever having to get involved.
A smarter Siri
Stop me if you've heard this before, but iOS 19 is going to give Siri an AI makeover, so that the digital assistant on your iPhone is not only smarter, but more proactive, as it will be able to recognize what's on your phone's screen and act upon it. It's part of making Siri more aware of your context, so that its recommendations are more personalized and its behavior more proactive.
Oh, wait — you did hear that before. You heard it when we were doing this a year ago with the iOS 18 preview, as a matter of fact.
Well, obviously that didn't come to pass with Apple acknowledging that whipping Siri into shape required more work than it anticipated. But apparently, iOS 19 will be the release that finally gets Siri moving toward a more AI-driven future, even if that doesn't happen at the precise moment that a full iOS 19 release is ready in the fall.
I'm eager to see if Apple provides a more definitive roadmap for Siri improvements — I think it owes iPhone users that much after its iOS 18 preview more or less suggested that these yet-to-occur changes were a done deal. And since WWDC 2025 is a developers conference, I'd like to hear more about the challenges Apple is facing with updating Siri and how it plans to overcome them.
An overall Apple Intelligence update
This year's WWDC keynote will mark the first anniversary of Apple's initial Apple Intelligence preview, which we learned about at WWDC 2024 prior to its rollout with the iOS 18.1 update in the fall. It's fair to say it's been a year of peaks and valleys for Apple's AI efforts, beyond even the delay with Siri improvements.
The fact of the matter is that apart from a few standout examples — I'm a fan of the email summaries feature and Visual Intelligence has been a nice addition — the early Apple Intelligence features haven't been game-changers. I don't ever turn to the Writing Assistant tools, and after early explorations of things like Memory Movies and Image Playground, I go long stretches without ever opening those apps.
Yet, I want to here about Act II for Apple Intelligence, which apparently involves Apple integrating AI into more apps on the iPhone. There's also talk that new developer tools will let app makers incorporate their own AI features.
Apple is going to be hard-pressed to catch up to the more polished AI features that Google and Samsung include on their phones. But WWDC 2025 and the iOS 19 preview are going to be the chance for the company to detail how it's going to try to close that gap.
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