5 exciting new features that might be coming in iOS 12

No gadget maker’s release diary is more stable than Apple’s. Every year we get a new iPhone, along with a new version of the software that lives inside the expensive little thing. In 2018 we’ll almost definitely see the unveiling of iOS 12 – the next big update set to grace your iPhone or iPad. Here’s what we know about the next version of iOS right now. Spoiler alert: there’s nothing officially confirmed here because, as usual, Apple hasn’t given us even a whiff of a tease yet.

1) AirPlay 2

This was part of one of the iOS 11 beta versions, but was chopped out of the current release. It’s a likely addition for the next big version, if not earlier. You may know already that AirPlay is Apple’s wireless streaming standard. AirPlay 2 takes it to the next Sonos-a-like level by letting it send music to more than one speaker at the same time for proper multi-room action. While we frankly can’t afford more than on HomePod, this is a must for the system if it wants to go up against the big names.

2) Group FaceTime video

Another neat future feature to show off is group FaceTime. Right now you can only video chat one-to-one on iOS, but reports suggest Apple plans to add group chat in iOS 12. This may sound tricky in a social sense, glancing between yammering faces on a pretty small screen. But other app developers have already proved it’s no technical Everest – and we’re eager to see the slick take Apple has on the concept.

3) Performance matters

iOS 11 has been one of the buggiest Apple releases in recent years: disappearing battery indicators, iMessage crashes, vanishing notifications, freezing Control Center buttons and connections issues aren’t very Apple. This is why many believe the rumoured redesign of the iOS home screen may not come with iOS 12, but will arrive later down the line – with the focus instead on improving performance, stability and reliability.

4) Advanced Animojs (and more of ‘em)

There’s another likely update that should please the millennials: you’ll be able to use Animojis in FaceTime, turning your talking face into a talking poo as you speak. This will be one for the iPhone X and the new iPhones only, though. Animojis use the camera tech built into the iPhone X’s notch, so they just wouldn’t work well enough with a normal iPhone 8. Well, according to Apple anyway. We’re likely to get some more animojis too, along with the new emoticons Unicode added to its line-up this year.

5) Power for parents

If you’re more generation X than Gen Z, you may also be interested in iOS 12’s rumoured new parental controls. This is one thing Apple has actually promised, vaguely, talking to the Wall Street Journal in January. Right now you can restrict apps with a passcode, but Apple may add, for example, multiple passcodes so you can give the kids access to different apps. Even better, Apple could allow varying profiles based on different TouchID fingerprints.