Apps

Apple adds support for new languages across lock screen, keyboard and search on iOS 18

Comment

Image Credits: Apple

Apple unveiled iOS 18 last month at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Since then, the company has released two developer betas in the last few weeks with extended support for multiple new languages across the lock screen, Siri, the keyboard, and search on iOS 18.

With the new update, you can now customize the lock screen to show time in different numerals with support for 12 languages: Arabic, Arabic Indic, Bangla, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Meitei, Odia, Ol Chiki, Telugu.

Image Credits: Apple

Keyboard on iOS gets a bunch of updates, including support for trilingual predictive typing across the system. You can see additional language scripts on the left and right of the suggestion field and can switch between them easily. Plus, you can type in Latin text and get suggestions for all three languages based on your input without switching.

Image Credits: Apple

In the Messages app, if you have multiple threads going on in different languages, the keyboard will remember the last language that you used for a particular thread. The trilingual keyboard supports English, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu. Additionally, the company has also added support for a Korean and English multiscript keyboard on iOS 18.

Also included in iOS 18 is improved language search, so users can search for different spellings of similar-sounding words in that language. For instance, they can search for both “चंद्र” and “चन्द्र” in Hindi. The new language search is available for Assamese, Bangla, Devanagari, and Gujarati.

Image Credits: Apple

Some other language-related updates with iOS 18 include the following:

  • The company has added support for live voicemail transcription in Indian English.
  • The translate app on iOS 18 gets support for Hindi.
  • The live text feature now supports Arabic.
  • New grammar engine for Hindi and Korean.
  • You can create contact posters using Indian languages and numerals.

Apple will release the public version of iOS 18 this fall for all users. The above-mentioned features will be available in beta versions of iOS 18, which might be buggy, and you might not want to install them on your primary device.

More TechCrunch

Featured Article

Faulty CrowdStrike update causes major global IT outage, taking out banks, airlines and businesses globally

Security giant CrowdStrike said the outage was not caused by a cyberattack, as businesses anticipate widespread disruption.

Faulty CrowdStrike update causes major global IT outage, taking out banks, airlines and businesses globally

CISA confirmed the CrowdStrike outage was not caused by a cyberattack, but urged caution as malicious hackers exploit the situation.

US cyber agency CISA says malicious hackers are ‘taking advantage’ of CrowdStrike outage

The global outage is a perfect reminder how much of the world relies on technological infrastructure.

These startups are trying to prevent another CrowdStrike-like outage, according to VCs

The CrowdStrike outage that hit early Friday morning and knocked out computers running Microsoft Windows has grounded flights globally. Major U.S. airlines including United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air…

CrowdStrike outage: How your plane, train and automobile travel may be affected

Prior to the ban, Trump’s team used his channel to broadcast some of his campaigns. With the ban now lifted, his channel can resume doing so.

Twitch reinstates Trump’s account ahead of the 2024 presidential election

This week, Google is in discussions to pay $23 billion for cloud security startup Wiz, SoftBank acquires Graphcore, and more.

M&A activity heats up with Wiz, Graphcore, etc.

CrowdStrike competes with a number of vendors, including SentinelOne and Palo Alto Networks but also Microsoft, Trellix, Trend Micro and Sophos, in the endpoint security market.

CrowdStrike’s rivals stand to benefit from its update fail debacle

The IT outage may have an unexpected effect on the climate: clearer skies and maybe lower temperatures this evening

CrowdStrike chaos leads to grounded aircraft — and maybe an unusual weather effect

There’s a man in Florida right now who wants to propose to his girlfriend while they’re on a beach vacation. He couldn’t get the engagement ring before he flew down…

The CrowdStrike outage is a plot point in a rom-com 

Here’s everything you need to know so far about the global outages caused by CrowdStrike’s buggy software update.

What we know about CrowdStrike’s update fail that’s causing global outages and travel chaos

This serves as an example for how easy it is to spread inaccurate information online during a time of immense global confusion and panic.

From the Sphere to false cyberattack claims, misinformation runs rampant amid CrowdStrike outage

Today is the final chance to save up to $800 on TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 tickets. Disrupt Deal Days event will end tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Don’t miss out on…

Last chance today: Secure major savings for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024!

Indian fintech Paytm’s struggles won’t seem to end. The company on Friday reported that its revenue declined by 36% and its loss more than doubled in the first quarter as…

Paytm loss widens and revenue shrinks as it grapples with regulatory clampdown

J. Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango and multiple other startups over his multi-decade career, died after falling from a Manhattan hotel, New York’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information tells…

Fandango founder dies in fall from Manhattan skyscraper

Venture capital giant a16z fixed a security vulnerability in one of the firm’s websites after being warned by a security researcher.

Researcher finds flaw in a16z website that exposed some company data

Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by…

Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more

Biden centering Musk in his campaign is a notable escalation, considering he spent most of his presidency seemingly pretending the billionaire didn’t exist.

Elon Musk is now a villain in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign

Waymo would need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved.

Waymo wants to bring robotaxis to SFO, emails show

When Tade Oyerinde first set out to fundraise for his startup, Campus, a fully accredited online community college, it was incredibly difficult. VCs have backed for-profit education companies in the…

Why it made sense for an online community college to raise venture capital

Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne paid $28.2 million for HeadSpin, a mobile app testing startup whose founder was sentenced for fraud earlier this year, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch.…

PE firm PartnerOne paid $28M for HeadSpin, a fraction of its $1.1B valuation set by ICONIQ and Dell Technologies Capital

Meta has suspended the use of its AI assistant after Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) banned the company from training its AI models on personal data from Brazilians. The…

Meta puts a halt to training its generative AI tools in Brazil 

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code…

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

The Mumbai-based firm said one of its multisig wallets had suffered a security breach, and it was temporarily pausing all withdrawals from the platform.

WazirX halts withdrawals after losing $230 million, nearly half its reserves

This week’s TechCrunch Mobility looks at Fisker scoring a win, an AV startup rebooting in Texas, why Elon is pushing the Tesla robotaxi reveal and more.

Fisker scores a win, an AV startup reboots in Texas, and why Elon pushed the Tesla robotaxi reveal

Apple Intelligence was designed to leverage things that generative AI already does well, like text and image generation, to improve upon existing features.

What is Apple Intelligence, when is it coming and who will get it?

The European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, was confirmed in the role for another five years Thursday after parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to re-elect her. The scale of her support…

The EU just re-elected its president for another five years — here’s what that means for tech

Olivia DeRamus is flipping the script: What if scrolling through social media didn’t make us miserable? What if, especially for women, social media could actually make us feel more supported?…

Communia bets social media can be good for you

TikTok is partnering with the music distribution service DistroKid to fast-track the creation of artist accounts for members. The ByteDance-owned short video platform introduced an Artist Account feature last year…

TikTok fast-tracks artist account creation for DistroKid members

Ford is still pushing forward on electrification, notably by increasing hybrid options.

Ford’s EV plans are in flux once again as it invests $3B into its biggest trucks

OpenAI introduced GPT-4o mini on Thursday, its latest small AI model. The company says GPT-4o mini, which is cheaper and faster than OpenAI’s current cutting-edge AI models, is being released…

OpenAI unveils GPT-4o mini, a smaller and cheaper AI model