Apple’s iOS 18 will bring several ‘India-centric’ features to your iPhone later this year

iPhones running on iOS 18 will support more Indian languages than ever.

iOS 18 will be available for over 20 iPhones later this year (Express Photo)

Apple unveiled its first beta of iOS 18 with AI features at WWDC 2024, which will be coming to several iPhones later this year. While most of the new features attached to iOS 18 have been designed with every iPhone user in mind, the company has also baked in some India-specific features, including support for numerals in 12 different Indian languages, live voicemail transcription, and more control over dual SIM cards.

Also read | Apple releases iOS 18 beta 2 with RCS toggle and wireless iPhone screen mirroring on Mac

iPhones running on iOS 18 will allow users to customise contact posters and lock screens using numerals from Indian languages such as Arabic, Arabic Indic, Bangla, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Meitei, Odia, Ol Chiki, and Telugu. Additionally, iPhones can perform live voicemail transcription in Indian English, along with support for live caller ID.

Since the iPhone 11, Apple has supported dual SIM cards with a single physical SIM card slot and an eSIM. With iOS 18, Apple introduces a dedicated SIM switch button within the redesigned control center, enabling users to quickly switch between two phone numbers.

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Siri on iOS 18 can understand Indian English mixed with local languages such as Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. The new translate app now supports Hindi and can perform system-wide translation, including in the Safari web browser and the Notes app.

Apple has also added other minor features to iOS 18 with India in mind, including support for alphabetical layouts for 11 Indian languages — Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu — and enhanced language search in Assamese, Bangla, Devanagari, and Gujarati.