Called “ambitious and compelling” by Apple internally, macOS 15 is expected to be announced next week at WWDC 2024 with some very impressive new features. However, Apple has managed to keep its lips sealed on many of the biggest changes due to launch.
macOS Sonoma, which was announced at WWDC last year, proved to be a major update, with widgets on the desktop, faster Safari search, browsing profiles, a dedicated Game mode, and so much more. Though we only know a portion of what we are due to expect from macOS 15, it has to follow up a great OS update. Here are four of the most interesting changes we know are coming to macOS 15.
AI-powered Siri
The biggest one on our list, yet also the most secretive — Siri is set to go through a huge revamp this year and Apple is even hinting at this in its marketing materials. Siri is tipped to receive a super-powered boost of AI, allowing it to more accurately perform tasks and even create its own shortcuts. Recent reports suggest it will be capable of monitoring your behavior and streamlining the work you do with unique functions.
Eventually, this will roll out to all apps but, initially, these unique functions will only work for Apple’s own suite of applications. Expected to even get a built-in chatbot, you might be able to talk to Siri and request generated emojis, and more. If Apple AI is in line with its competition, this will be the feature worth watching out for.
Better Safari search
Tying into the new Siri upgrade, Apple is expected to announce a brand new feature for Safari. Leveraging Apple’s language-learning model (LLM), codenamed Ajax, Safari will be able to spot key phrases and topics on a page and summarize them to a reader, allowing someone to read big sections of text easily. Not only could this cut down reading time but it could be a good accessibility feature for those who require screen readers or have problems reading.
Naturally, this could end up condensing information too much and getting parts of its translation wrong, but AIs that use LLMs are constantly growing and learning from past uses.
Apple Music
Apple is currently testing some awesome new features for the next update to Apple Music, with perhaps the most interesting being the new crossfade function. You will now be able to set the number of seconds for a fade out and fade in when crossfading between songs, it is reported. This gives you a little more control over the atmosphere of your favorite playlists.
As well as this, reports are suggesting we will receive a new “Passthrough feature”, which is only available on “supported hardware”. We don’t quite know what this is just yet but it is being rumored to be the rebranding of Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos to a much more simple name.
Smarter Calculator
Code-named “GreyParrot", the new Calculator revamp is anticipated to make the app so much more useful. You will reportedly be able to use it directly in Notes, and can even access a history of previous sums, which is great for doing taxes, working out budgets, or even playing board games. If you plan on using it with money or ingredients, it is tipped to get the ability to make automatic conversions with up-to-date figures too.
It’s important to note that this isn’t just setting up the software for a better Calculator app but could allow room to combine Calculator with other apps and functions. It seems that, with the introduction of AI into the device, Shortcuts will become much more popular, and a consistent Calculator app to combine with those actions will make everyday use so much easier. Instead of having to use Siri to Google what a cup is in grams (it’s about 240g by the way), Apple devices could run that search on-device. Though we are expecting a lot more in the next macOS update yet, we know all these smaller changes will make for a better experience overall.
