Been There, Done That: Existing Android Features Apple Announced for iOS 18 in WWDC

Google's Android is always known to bring novel features for users, and sometimes, they get overlooked as it is the first one with them. With the latest WWDC 2024 from Apple, these features are not exactly new.

Many are celebrating Apple for its innovations, especially with Apple Intelligence, but several announcements may seem all too familiar, and this is because Android has these.

Existing Android Features Apple Announced for iOS 18 in WWDC

The competition between Android and Apple's iOS is stronger than ever, especially with the novel features that dropped to the iPhone. Surely, several Android fanboys raised an eyebrow at its announcements of new features, especially with the massive focus on Apple's Green Bubbles by the US DOJ last March.

That being said, here are Android features that were already available when Apple announced new features on iOS 18 via WWDC 2024.

RCS Support and Google Messages Features

It is known that Google has long promoted RCS use with its Google Messages, and it touted the feature as a better way to send messages to other users and high-quality media across different devices. With Screen Effects introduced here, Google recently celebrated 1 billion users who enjoyed its RCS features, similar to iMessage's message effects.

RCS has focused on interoperability and cross-platform. Google patronizes the new standard, and Apple will deliver it later this year alongside iOS 18.

Google Photos and Smart Features

Google Photos has proven to be one of the most important apps on Android. Despite having other built-in Gallery apps, this one from Mountain View offers a lot more. The recent Magic Editor brought AI to Google Photos, allowing easy editing, removing unwanted objects in the background, and more. iOS 18 also gets this through Apple Intelligence.

Moreover, Siri is also equipped to find numbers, cards, and more on iPhone's Photos, similar to Google Photos.

Gemini AI vs. Apple Intelligence

Apple may be releasing its first AI tech, Apple Intelligence, and its promise is a personal intelligence system, on-device AI, but Google's Android already has that for selected devices. Gemini's many multimodal models also offer on-device AI; even with Gemini Nano, its entry-level tier is also free.

On the other hand, Apple Intelligence is still an AI of its own, with Cupertino going all out with what it has to feature, and it is now rising as one of the most advanced there is.

Customizable Home Screen

There were massive requests from iPhone users that Apple has answered this WWDC 2024 with iOS 18, and that is with the customizable home screen experiences that will arrive soon. However, Android users already know this as Google's Material You, which offers significant personalization options like changing app icon colors similar to the home screen and more.

Apple's new take will allow users to add a tint or shade of the specific color they want across apps, one that will tie it together along with the home screen.