My Theory of Why Apple Put a “Search” Button on the iPhone’s Home Screen

• Don’t expect to see hardware at WWDC 2024, it will be an event focused on new software

In a past version of iOS, Apple added a “Search” button to the iPhone’s home screen. This button is a shortcut to the Spotlight, the search engine that all Apple devices have and with which you can search for anything, both inside and outside the iPhone. But the truth is, I don’t think this button was put there just to access the Spotlight faster.

Apple never does things for the sake of it. Always, or almost always, there is some reason behind it. And we always end up discovering it over the years. Personally, I think that button was put there so much in plain sight because it’s going to be directly related to some of the Artificial Intelligence features that we’ll see in iOS 18, whether it’s the Siri revamp or the chatbot powered by OpenAI’s tools.

A Search button that will be used to summon Siri or Apple’s chatbot

iOS 18 is rumored to arrive with a more conversational Siri, with which natural conversations can be had. And what better way for users to use the new assistant than with an accessible button in the middle and bottom of the home screen. It would be a very good way to interact easily and quickly.

Another of my theories is that, if an external chatbot ends up arriving, that could be the access button. At the end of the day, although the Spotlight sometimes fails, it’s a very good way to find everything, both elements that are on the device itself and outside, since by clicking on the different items that appear as results, you can go to Safari, for example.

Maybe I’m venturing too far, but that button, ever since the AI features started coming out in iOS 18, I can’t stop thinking that it’s been put there for some reason. And I also can’t help but think that, if Siri improves after many years of waiting, it would be the best way to show off its assistant by having such direct access to it. We’ll find out more at WWDC 2024 on June 10.

The new Artificial Intelligence features that we would see in iOS 18

At the moment, we are clear about ten of the new features that we would see in iOS 18. Below, we tell you about them in the form of a list so that you can read them easily:

1. Photo editing through Artificial Intelligence, which could improve the automatic editing option we have today.
2. Transcribe audio to text in the Voice Memos app.
3. Auto-generate replies for messages and emails.
4. A new tool capable of creating custom emojis based on the context of a conversation.
5. Improvements to Spotlight search results.
6. Search assistant in Safari to improve results.
7. Improvements to Siri that would make it more conversational and the ability to have conversations with it.
8. A version of Siri optimized for the Apple Watch.
9. Notification summaries.
10. Improvements to Xcode for developers.

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