Apple's iOS 18 tipped to feature mystery 'Safari browsing assistant' feature

You don't need to have been following along with the iPhone rumor mill too much to know that Apple is strongly expected to launch a new iOS 18 software update this fall and it's anticipated that it'll bring with it some big new AI features. The software isn't expected to be announced for a while yet, but we're seeing more and more leaks the closer we get to the big date.

The latest of those leaks comes in the form of back-end code that has been discovered and found to reference an unknown Safari browsing assistant feature. It isn't yet known exactly what that feature will do, although the name might suggest a ChatGPT 4-like ability to have AI search the internet and then collect information and present data based on the results.

The same person who shared the details of the Safari browsing assistant feature also shared that Encrypted Visual Search is part of the back-end code, but again it isn't clear what that does. it's possible that it will be an expansion on the existing Visual Search feature that allows people to get information about the content of their photos.

As for the iOS 18 update itself, that's expected to be unveiled at the WWDC event that kicks off on June 10 before being made available to developers in early beta form on the same day. A months-long beta program is then expected to run before the update is made available to the public in September. That'll likely happen alongside the release fo the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro devices, too.