According to the report, Safari 18, as the new version is known, is set to have several changes, including a small interface refresh. The feature is supposed to use AI on the device to generate a summary of a web page, allowing users to quickly get an overview of what they are reading.

Another feature being added to the next generation Safari is Web Eraser, which will remove specified parts of a web page, such as ads or images, and restore them when needed. These changes are remembered across sessions and are also flagged to the user when revisiting a page to which Web Eraser has been applied. This means that the user will no longer have to configure it every time he or she visits a particular site or forget that he or she has made changes.

Both appear to need to be enabled from the Page Controls menu. This is a revised version of the "AA" menu already found in Safari, which provides access to new tools as well as basic browser options such as text size and reader mode that were previously separated into separate menus.

While the report from AI focuses on iOS 18, these features will come to the Mac and iPad with the respective macOS 15 and iPadOS 18 updates. In other words, iPhone users are not the only ones who can play with Apple's upcoming AI toys.

AppleInsider also tells us about a feature expected in a future iOS update, probably in 2025: the iPhone's Visual Lookup feature is a powerful way to learn more about the contents of a photo, but Apple apparently planning an even more powerful version of this tool that will allow users to learn more about the "consumer product" in the photo. This image search feature could potentially be used for all images opened on the iPhone, not just those saved in the Gallery.

Apple's WWDC event, which begins on June 10, is typically the place to announce big new software updates for the coming year, and the keynote is expected to hear all about iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, etc. iOS18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15, and more are expected to be announced at the keynote. But if that is too far off, we could hear about some new software as part of Apple's expected hardware announcements at Let Loose next week on May 7.