iOS 18: Long-Requested Feature Finally Coming to iPhone

A long-requested feature for the Messages app might finally come to the iPhone with the release of Apple’s new iOS 18 operating system.

According to Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, iOS 18 will deliver at least two changes to Tapback in the Messages application and one is sure to delight iPhone users tired of adding a heart, thumbs up, thumbs down, HAHA, exclamation marks, and a question mark to messages from other users.

Gurman says these Tapback responses will look more colorful than they currently do on iOS 17. Their appearance is fairly basic right now.

However, the biggest news out of the report is that iOS 18’s version of Tapback will let users add any emoji they want to messages.

In-line emoji reactions are already live in popular apps like WhatsApp which means Apple will be playing catchup. Still, this should be a welcomed change.

It’s unclear if AI-generated emojis, a change coming in iOS 18, will work with the new Tapback system but that’s a question that will be answered soon.

Apple is set to announce iOS 18 and other software on June 10th at WWDC 2024. The keynote kicks off at 10 AM Pacific and should stretch over multiple hours as the company highlights all of its software changes coming later this year.