New AI Features Reportedly Coming to Safari in iOS 18

Safari will gain a series of AI-powered features and UI enhancements in iOS 18, AppleInsider reports.

Safari will apparently receive a range of visual tweaks alongside several new tools to improve the browsing experience, including:

• An "Intelligent Search" browser assistant tool that leverages Apple's on-device AI technology to identify key topics and phrases on webpages for summarization purposes.
• A "Web Eraser" tool that allows users to remove unwanted portions of webpages easily. Erasure is persistent, remaining even when revisiting a site unless changes are reverted.
• A new, quick-access menu emerging from the address bar that consolidates page tools, bringing over some functions that currently sit in the Share Sheet and placing them alongside the new tools.

The iPadOS and macOS versions of Safari are also expected to align further. These new features are purportedly undergoing evaluation alongside internal builds of iOS 18 and macOS 15 ahead of their unveiling at Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in June. Earlier this month, backend code on Apple's servers suggested that a new Safari browsing assistant is in the works, corroborating this report.

Farther in the future, Apple is said to be working on a more powerful version of Visual Look Up that allows users to obtain information on products when browsing through images. The feature is expected to be released sometime in 2025.

Last week, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 18 will "overhaul" many of Apple's built-in apps, including Notes, Mail, Photos, and Fitness. Apple's next-generation operating systems are almost certain to be previewed during Apple's WWDC keynote on June 10, and the updates should be widely released in the fall.