While Apple is embracing AI in iOS 18, it's also working to improve users' ability to get answers in a more traditional way: Spotlight search. Accessed by swiping down the center of the home screen, Spotlight search already helps iPhone users find information on their device and on the web. On the web, it replaces Google search. In iOS 18, Apple is using natural language, or “semantic,” queries to help users find content within apps.
Spotlight can already search content within developers' apps, but it only returns results if the search terms match exactly. The semantic search feature added this year will let users find content within apps using search terms that are similar in meaning, Apple told developers at WWDC 2024 this week.
The Core Spotlight framework allows developers to donate content they want to make searchable via Spotlight. This content is stored in a private index on the user's device that other apps cannot access. The new semantic capabilities greatly improve Spotlight's understanding of developers' content by empowering users to search content within apps in their own way. These types of search queries are powered by machine learning models that are downloaded to the device and run in the app's process, and can be loaded or unloaded at any time, Apple said.
Additionally, Spotlight Search allows developers to improve their app's search result ranking over time by sending a signal to Spotlight when an iPhone user interacts with one of the search results.
For example, if someone is searching for a specific local hiking trail, the semantic search feature can understand entities like the trail's location or specific keywords to find results that are relevant to the user's search query, even if the entities aren't in the trail's name or an exact match. Additionally, developers can optionally give a piece of content a higher priority, allowing actions such as marking a trail that a user has saved as a favorite so it will be ranked higher in search results.
The end result is that users will be able to search for specific trails using natural language queries in Spotlight, find the trail they want more easily through improved results, and tap on a result to go directly to the trail's page in the developer's Hiking Trails app. Apple notes that the update will also help Siri better understand app content.
While not as exciting as the AI-powered Siri or ChatGPT integration, under-the-hood updates like this improve the experience for iPhone users who rely on Spotlight to find information from within apps, and even those who use Spotlight as an alternative to web search.