Apple to launch India-specific features on iPhones with iOS 18

India’s multi-lingual identity will be the focus for Apple when they introduce a range of features on iPhone models with iOS 18 and customised for the country’s domestic market, the smartphone giant announced on Tuesday.

Most iOS 18 features, slated for a launch later in 2024, would be available in multiple Indian languages such as Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

Here are a few interesting features coming up, customised for the Indian market:

SIRI TO CHAT IN OVER 9 INDIAN LANGUAGES

Siri, the iOS virtual aide, could be used in nine Indian languages besides Indian English. These are Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu. Users of iPhone can converse with Siri by combining English with these Indian languages.

LIVE VOICEMAIL TRANSCRIPTION

Users would be able to use Indian English while operating Live Voicemail Transcription, which allows voicemail and the facility for a caller to leave a message. The feature also provides the transcript of a voicemail recording and the option to answer a call. Associated features include Live Caller ID, improved dialling, keypad search and smart call history search.

HINDI FOR TRANSLATE & SAFARI APPS

Apple is all set to provide several facilities in Hindi with the launch of iOS 18 in India. These include the Translate app, Safari browser and Notes.

MULTILINGUAL KEYBOARD

Users with iPhone12 or higher models would get the facility of multilingual keyboards. They can key in words using Latin characters in English and any two Indian languages, and the multilingual keyboard would be functional across the operating system.

The keyboard can switch to the Indian language in which a particular previous chat was been carried out, in case of several message threads in different languages. The languages in which the feature would be available are Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and English.

DYNAMIC ALPHABET KEYS

Users with iPhones having iOS 18 would be able to directly key in alphabet in 11 languages — namely, Hindi, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Keys pertaining to vowels and conjunctions would automatically change depending on user input.

IMPROVED LANGUAGE SEARCH

The feature would be available in Devanagari, Bangla, Assamese and Gujarati, and allow users to detect words with different spellings in the same language.

CUSTOMISED LOCK SCREEN

You would now be able to customise lock screen features including time display in 12 languages including Devanagari, Bangla, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Meitei, Odia, Ol Chiki, Telugu, Arabic and Arabic-indic.