Greetings from the era of artificial intelligence cellphones

Following Google’s Android improvements last month, which included an AI system capable of summarising audio transcripts, spotting possible phone frauds, and helping students with their schoolwork, Apple made its statement

Every year, major software upgrades are released by Apple and Google, adding new capabilities to our smartphones. These improvements might range from aesthetic adjustments to the home screen to improved privacy protections and fun messaging choices. This year, since the businesses are putting a high priority on integrating artificial intelligence to rethink our phones, the changes will feel especially revolutionary.

Every year, major software upgrades are released by Apple and Google, adding new capabilities to our smartphones. These improvements might range from aesthetic adjustments to the home screen to improved privacy protections and fun messaging choices. This year, since the businesses are putting a high priority on integrating artificial intelligence to rethink our phones, the changes will feel especially revolutionary.

Apple’s announcement comes after Google’s Android disclosures from the previous month. In those announcements, an AI system was unveiled that could help students with their schoolwork, identify possible scam calls, and automatically summarise audio transcripts.

It’s unclear whether the general public will find these improvements appealing because AI technology is still in its infancy. But there’s already a more noticeable shift with standard text messages, or what’s known as the “green bubble.” Apple said that its upcoming software will implement a messaging standard that will enable iPhone users to send better-quality texts to Android devices, fixing a problem with communication that has existed for more than ten years.

This autumn, Google and Apple will release their free software updates for Android and iOS. This is all the information you need to know about the future of cellphones.

AI is Redesigned for Siri

Apple revealed a comprehensive redesign for its 13-year-old virtual assistant, Siri. Apple Intelligence, a sophisticated language model technology, will now power Siri. Like the autocomplete function on your phone, this AI predicts word sequences using sophisticated algorithms and statistics. Chatbots like Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT are powered by the same technology. Since consumers’ data will stay on their iPhones, Apple stressed that privacy is given top priority in its system.

With the update, Siri will be able to comprehend the context of a discussion, facilitating more natural speech between humans and the virtual assistant. Saying something like, “How is the weather in Santa Cruz? Then, “Oh wait, I meant San Francisco,” and “Set up a coffee meeting there for tomorrow at nine in the morning.”

The upgraded Siri will also perform more sophisticated tasks, including scanning your photo album for an image of your driver’s license and retrieving the ID number to paste into a form, according to Apple. Siri’s prior iteration, on the other hand, was limited to answering a predetermined list of queries and commands, like “What’s the weather like in San Francisco?” and “When should we schedule a coffee meeting in San Francisco?”

Users of iPhones will also be able to automatically create photos within messages thanks to Apple Intelligence. If you wish a friend a happy birthday, for instance, the AI might look through your photo collection for a picture of that friend and then turn it into an avatar complete with balloons.

Google is using ‘Gemini’ to update Android

Owners of Pixel phones can presently access the majority of Google’s most recent AI features; support for other Android phones is planned for later this year.

The latest AI helper from Google, Gemini, requires the download of an app, but it has been available for customers to test for the past year. Android phones will still ship with Google Assistant preinstalled. This virtual assistant is comparable to Amazon’s Alexa and the previous iteration of Siri. Similar to ChatGPT from OpenAI, Gemini is a chatbot that responds to several stimuli, including “write a poem about dogs in San Francisco.”

Texting Has Improved

Smartphone users have been able to distinguish between green and blue bubbles for more than a decade. Texts sent by iPhone users to other iPhone users display blue, unlocking premium features like amusing animations and emoticons. Nevertheless, the bubble turns green when an Android user messages an iPhone user, which results in a loss of features and a drop in picture and video quality.

Apple is now tackling this division at last. It declared that Rich Communication Services, a feature that Google and other developers have long since incorporated into their apps, would be added to its Messages app in iOS 18. The quality of photos and videos will increase, but messages transferred between iPhones and Android devices will still seem green.

This modification is probably going to have a big effect. Many iPhone and Android users have complained about the poor quality of images when messaging one another. The texting incompatibility was viewed by the Justice Department, which has previously charged Apple with placing limitations on its phones in order to maintain a monopoly, as a tactic to encourage people to buy iPhones.