Apple isn’t expected to announce the iOS 18 software update for the iPhone until next month and it won’t be available for download by the public until September, but the company has already previewed some of the accessibility features that we can look forward to using.
Accessibility has long been a focus for Apple and the company says that it’s going to bring new features designed to make it easier for everyone to use their devices.
At the top of the list is a new Eye Tracking feature that will work with both iPhones and iPad.
The feature will allow people to use their eyes to interact with the devices in a similar way to the Apple Vision Pro, with no need for any additional hardware.
Powered by artificial intelligence, Eye Tracking gives users a built-in option for navigating iPad and iPhone with just their eyes. Designed for users with physical disabilities, Eye Tracking uses the front-facing camera to set up and calibrate in seconds, and with on-device machine learning, all data used to set up and control this feature is kept securely on device, and isn’t shared with Apple.
Another interesting feature, and one that we suspect a lot of people will make use of, aims to make it easier for people to enjoy their iPhone and iPad while in a moving vehicle.
Apple says that people suffer from motion sickness when there is a sensory conflict between what they see and what they feel, and a new Vehicle Motion Clues feature could well help with that.
With Vehicle Motion Cues, animated dots on the edges of the screen represent changes in vehicle motion to help reduce sensory conflict without interfering with the main content. Using sensors built into iPhone and iPad, Vehicle Motion Cues recognizes when a user is in a moving vehicle and responds accordingly. The feature can be set to show automatically on iPhone, or can be turned on and off in Control Center.
Other notable additions include Music Haptics to make songs more accessible as well as an option to have CarPlay alert drivers when a siren or car horn is heard.
All of these features, and more, are expected to debut with iOS 18. The new software update is likely to be shown off in full at WWDC on June 10, including the much rumored AI upgrades.
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