I opened the App Store today to find an emulator I had read about, and a new prompt appeared below the search bar inviting me to “search for the way you speak.” I hadn’t seen the prompt before on my iPhone 13 Pro Max, and frankly, I missed it. About this iOS 18.1 update note.
As it describes, Apple’s Updated in October Added, “App Store search lets you more easily find what you’re looking for using natural language.” Besides photos, music and Apple TV, that’s not the only place Apple is adding natural language search with iOS 18.
While there was something else A splash screen is seen In October, I saw the same simple search prompts as before. When I asked around VergeMany others hadn’t seen it before, though closing the app and relaunching it showed the message in at least one case, and something Social media post have come From other people who are seeing it for the first time.
The prompt in the hint bubble suggested trying something like “Apps that help me work,” so of course, I tried it.
Screenshot: iOS App Store
How well does it work? When I searched for “emulators that feature multiple consoles,” the top result was the multi-console Delta app. cold “Apps that only emulate a single console” gave me the PS Remote Play, PlayStation, and Xbox apps – less well, but it follows them with Gamma, a PS1 emulator app. And when I asked for “video games that can help me work”, well…
Overall, it seems like an improvement to me. Twerk Race 3D isn’t an app that will help me work out, but the search engine seems to have worked in spirit. I never felt that App Store search was helpful for anything other than finding an app whose name I already knew. Also, searching with common one- or two-word terms might not give me the same variety as how I phrase a natural language prompt.
