Julie Clover
Apple Intelligence is what Apple is calling its suite of artificial intelligence features, unveiled at WWDC in June 2024. The first Apple Intelligence features launched in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with additional features coming in iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2. But that's not all, and the rest of the Apple Intelligence features are set to arrive in 2025.
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Apple Intelligence features available now
Writing tools
- Check your text for spelling and grammar errors, including word choice and sentence structure. You can accept all suggestions with one click, or review them one by one with explanations.
- Rewrite cleans up what you've written and changes the tone without affecting your content. Options include Friendly, Professional, and Brief.
- You can select text and get a summary of it using Apple Intelligence. You can create a paragraph, highlight key points, make a list, or create a table. Summaries are available in Mail, Messages, and other apps.
- Starting with iOS 18.2, there's an open Writing Tools option that lets you describe the changes you want to make to what you've written. You can choose any mood or writing style, with varying degrees of success.
- Also in iOS 18.2, Writing Tools has a “Compose” feature that uses Siri’s ChatGPT integration. With this option, Siri can use ChatGPT to compose text from scratch, rather than simply rewriting it.
You can select any text on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and use Apple Intelligence to access Writing Tools for summaries and other features.
- Apple Intelligence Writing Tools: All Features
Siri
- When Siri is activated, a new glow appears at the edges of the display, applicable to iPhone, iPad, and CarPlay. On Mac, the Siri window can be positioned anywhere. The light reacts to the sound of your voice, so you can tell if Siri is listening without distracting you from other activities.
- Double-tapping the bottom of the display opens the Type to Siri interface, so you can type your queries instead of speaking them. On a Mac, double-press the Command key to open Type to Siri. Type to Siri includes suggested queries to help you get answers to your questions faster.
- Siri can preserve context between queries, so you can ask a question and then refer to it in a second answer. If you ask about the temperature in Raleigh, for example, and then follow up with “What's the humidity?” Siri should understand what you mean in Raleigh.
- If you stumble while talking to Siri, or change what you're saying mid-sentence, Siri will follow you.
- Siri has a knowledge base and support for Apple products to answer questions about your device's features and settings, and can even look up a setting if you don't know the exact name using natural language search.
- There's a “Summarize” button to summarize any of your incoming emails, plus you'll see a short summary of the email in your inbox instead of the first few lines of the email.
- Mail shows urgent messages first when applicable, putting them at the top of your inbox so you can see what’s important at a glance.
- Smart Reply provides quick replies to messages sent to you, with contextual options based on what’s in the message.
- Multiple notifications from Mail will be summarized on the lock screen so you can see what’s in the message without opening the app.
Messages
- The Messages app has a Smart Reply feature for incoming text messages that analyzes the content of your messages and suggests what you might want to say.
- Notifications for multiple messages appear on the lock screen.
- You can use all the writing tools in the Messages app to review and refine what you plan to send.
Photos
- You can create a Memory movie using just a description, like “My cat in 2024” or “Orlando in the summer.” The feature automatically selects relevant photos and songs, but you can customize the Memory Mixes feature or choose a mood to set the direction of the audio. You can also add specific scenes and images you want to see in your Memory when creating a prompt.
- The Photos app offers natural language search, so you can simply describe what you’re looking for, like “Eric rollerskating in green.”
- Search can also find specific moments in video clips.
- Search offers intelligent, complete sentences to narrow down what you might want to find.
Clear
The Photos app also includes a Cleaner feature that lets you remove unwanted objects from your photos. The Cleanup tool in Photos can automatically detect unwanted objects in an image, but you can also tap, circle, or brush over an unwanted object to remove it.
Zooming in on an image can help you use your finger as a brush to remove small blemishes and problems in an image, and it’s smart enough not to remove part of a person even if a person or the main subject is selected.
The Cleanup feature works on all images in your Photos library, including older images and images taken with other devices like a compact camera or DSLR.
Transcription summaries
In Notes and other apps, you can record audio and get a transcript along with a summary of your transcript, which is useful for recording lectures and other audio materials. Transcription is not an Apple Intelligence feature, but summaries are.
Focus Modes
There's a dedicated focus mode called Reduce Distractions that shows only important notifications that require your attention, filtering out everything else.
When customizing an existing focus mode or creating a new one, there's a new toggle to turn on Intelligent Breakthrough and Mute. This option lets important notifications interrupt you while muting notifications that aren't important, which is the same thing the Reduce Distractions focus does. You can override notification settings for specific apps and people, just like it worked before iOS 18.1.
Notification summaries
Your incoming notifications are summarized so you can quickly see what's new for each app.
- Apple Intelligence: What you need to know about summaries and smart replies
Phone
Transcript summaries created from your phone calls are supported in iOS 18.1. The iOS 18.1 update adds the ability to record a phone call and get a transcription, which is not an Apple Intelligence feature. However, Apple Intelligence requires getting a summary from that transcript without reading the entire conversation.
Note that you can start recording by tapping the record button in the upper left corner of the display during a phone call. All participants will be notified that the call is being recorded before recording begins.
Recorded phone calls are saved in the Notes app, where you can tap to view the transcript and get a summary generated from that transcript.
Safari
When reading an article in Reader View, you have the option to have Apple Intelligence summarize the article for you.
Apple Intelligence Features Coming in iOS 18.2
The next set of Apple Intelligence features will arrive in iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, and that’s when Apple plans to release Image Playground, Genmoji, and ChatGPT Siri integration. These features are currently in beta testing.
Apple has a waitlist for Image Playground, Genmoji, and Image Wand, and these features will be rolling out to developers in the coming weeks so Apple can gather feedback and make improvements to the image generation capabilities before the public launch later this year.
Image Playground
Image Playground can be used to generate cartoon-style images using a text prompt. Apple has built-in suggestions and concepts for you to choose from, such as costumes, locations, items, and themes.
While Image Playground is a standalone app, it’s also integrated into the Messages and Notes apps. In those apps, Apple can use context from what you’ve typed to suggest images for you to create.
For inspiration, you can upload or take a photo and then get a cartoon version of it using AI, or you can use images of friends and family pulled from the People album in Photos.
You can start with a basic sentence or photo, then keep adding to it until you get what you want. You can delete suggestions at any time and save your favorite creations to use in other apps. Every time you create something with Image Playground, you’ll get multiple options to choose from.
For Image Playground, Only the Animation and Illustration styles are available, so there is no way to create photorealistic images.
- Everything you need to know about Image Playground
Image Wand
Image Wand is essentially the same as Image Playground, but in the Notes app. When you have notes, you can circle the blank space or text, and Image Wand will add a contextually relevant image.
So if you have notes about photosynthesis, you might add an image of a plant in the sun. Image Wand can't generate complex images, so if you want a photo of the internal structure of mitochondria, you're out of luck, but it can create a stylized image showing the organelle.
On iPad You can draw a rough sketch of what you want to add to your notes with Apple Pencil, then use the Image Wand to create something more polished.
- Apple Intelligence Image Wand: All the New Features in iOS 18.2
Genmoji
Genmoji are custom emoji symbols that you can create using a text description. If there's an emoji you can't find but want, like a duck eating a sandwich or an alligator riding a skateboard, Genmoji can make it for you.
Genmoji aren't too far off from the Image Playground images, but the generation system tends to want to add a person for many queries. You can choose yourself, a friend or family member, or just use a common emoji symbol as a base.
In Messages and other apps, Genmoji behave like emoji, but they won't display properly for anyone running an operating system earlier than iOS 18.1 or on an Android device. They work like emoji on iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2, but Genmoji display as an empty field and an accompanying full-sized image on other versions of iOS.
If you have iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2 and someone sends a Genmoji, you can long press on it and tap the Emoji Details button to see what query was used to create it, and you can also add it to your own Genmoji/stickers collection to use.
To create a Genmoji character, tap on the emoji keyboard and tap on the emoji with the “+” button next to the search bar. From there, you can enter your idea.
- Genmoji in iOS 18.2: Everything you need to know
Siri ChatGPT Integration
The Siri ChatGPT integration allows Siri to pass requests to OpenAI ChatGPT. ChatGPT is disabled by default, but you can enable it in the Apple Intelligence & Siri section of the Settings app.
With ChatGPT integration enabled, Siri will turn to ChatGPT for complex requests. Complex requests can include creating an image, generating text from scratch, generating recipe ideas based on what's in your fridge, describing what's in a photo, and more.
Siri will analyze each request to determine if it requires a response from ChatGPT, but you can also automatically invoke ChatGPT for a request using a request like “Ask ChatGPT to give me a chocolate chip cookie recipe.”
Siri will ask your permission before making a ChatGPT request, but there's an option to turn off this extra permission step by turning off “Approve ChatGPT requests” in the ChatGPT settings section.
You don't need an account to use ChatGPT and it's free, but if you have a paid account, you can sign in. If you are not signed in, OpenAI does not store your ChatGPT queries, and your information is not used to train ChatGPT. If you are signed in, ChatGPT may store a copy of your queries. Apple does not store ChatGPT queries.
ChatGPT can be used with Siri, but it also integrates with Writing Tools and Visual Intelligence. With Writing Tools, ChatGPT can generate text, and with Visual Intelligence, ChatGPT can answer questions about what the camera sees.
Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence is a feature of the iPhone 16 that uses the camera button. If you long press it, you enter Visual Intelligence mode, which can use the Camera app to determine what is around you.
If you point the camera at a store, for example, you will see ratings, opening hours, and other information. If you take a photo of an object, you can get more information about the object from ChatGPT, or use it with Google Search to find similar images. Google Search is a good way to search for products you want to find.
Other Visual Intelligence features include reading text aloud, detecting phone numbers and addresses to add to the Contacts app, copying text, and summarizing long passages of text.
Writing Tools
Writing Tools is in iOS 18.1, but in iOS 18.2, you can make more explicit edits to what you've written. You can come up with your own tone changes, so if you want something to be more flowery or complex, Writing Tools can do that. You can also ask to convert your text into another format, such as a poem.
Writing Tools also has ChatGPT integration in iOS 18.2, so if you want to generate text from scratch, you can do so with ChatGPT.
Additional Languages
In iOS 18.2, Apple Intelligence supports localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, and the United Kingdom in addition to US English.
Apple Intelligence Features Coming Later
There are additional Apple Intelligence features coming in iOS 18 updates in 2025.
Priority Notifications
Priority notifications will appear at the top of the notification stack so you can get to the most important ones first.
Siri
Some initial updates to Siri are available in iOS 18.1, like the new Siri glow that wraps around the edges of the display and ChatGPT integration in iOS 18.2, but we'll have to wait for iOS 18.3 and iOS 18.4 for additional Siri capabilities. Apple is working on on-screen recognition, personal context, and the ability to do more within and across apps.
On-screen recognition will allow Siri to take actions when you ask something about something on your display. If you're looking at a photo and want to send it to your friend Eric, you'll be able to say Siri “Send this photo to Eric,” and Siri will understand and do it.
Personal context will allow Siri to do more with your personal data, like your emails and messages. This is an on-device feature, and it will allow Siri to learn more about you, who you communicate with, and how you use your device. Personal context will allow you to do things like ask Siri find a specific message or remind you when you took the photo you're looking for.
The ability for Siri to do more within and between apps will dramatically improve the Siri experience. You'll be able to move files between apps and control app features with Siri like you never could before. It will work across third-party apps and Apple's own apps.
macOS Features
Memory Maker is available in iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, but not in macOS Sequoia 15.1. Genmoji available in iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2, but not in macOS Sequoia 15.2.
Apple plans to release Memory Maker and Genmoji for macOS Sequoia later.
When to Expect More Apple Intelligence Features
More Apple Intelligence features are coming to iOS 18.2, iOS 18.3, and iOS 18.4.
We'll Get iOS 18.2 in December, probably somewhere around the middle of the month. Apple is already testing iOS 18.2 with developers.
In late January or so we'll get iOS 18.3, which could potentially have some new Siri features. .
iOS 18.4, which isn't expected until March 2025, will have most of the features of Apple Intelligence's Siri. We also expect Apple to release support for additional languages in 2025.
Apple Intelligence Device Requirements
Apple Intelligence requires a device with one of Apple's latest silicon chips and 8GB of RAM. Eligible models are listed below.
- All iPhone 16 models
- iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
- All iPad models with Apple Silicon
- A17 Pro iPad mini
- All Mac models with Apple Silicon
Apple Intelligence Waitlist
When you first install iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, or macOS Sequoia 15.1, you'll need to go to the Settings app and join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist. Apple uses a waitlist mechanism to ensure that hidden downloads go smoothly and the system is not overloaded.
While on the waitlist, Apple devices download the necessary files to process on the device, and the waitlist should take no more than a few hours. The waitlist is account-based, so you only need to sign up for it on one device to get access on multiple devices.
Image Playground, Genmoji, and Image Wand require a second waitlist in iOS 18.2, but that's only relevant if you're using the iOS 18.2 developer beta. If you are, note that Apple will be making these features available in the coming weeks.
Apple Intelligence settings
In the Privacy & Security section of the Settings app, you can access the Apple Intelligence report, which allows you to export Apple Intelligence data as part of Apple's commitment to transparency around Apple Intelligence. Biometric authentication is required to access and export Apple Intelligence data.
You can also turn off Apple Intelligence by turning off the setting in the Apple Intelligence and Siri section in the Settings app.
Availability of Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence is currently only available in US English and is not available in the European Union (iPhone and iPad) or China. The device's region and language must be set to the United States.
iOS 18.2 supports localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom in addition to US English.
Apple plans to add support for additional languages in 2025, including Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese. Apple Intelligence will launch on the iPhone and iPad in the European Union in April 2025.
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