Julie Clover
Apple will soon release iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, and these updates will bring the first Apple Intelligence features to compatible iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Not all Apple Intelligence features Apple is working on will appear in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with Apple Intelligence capabilities coming in future iOS 18.2, iOS 18.3, and iOS 18.4 updates.
We’ve rounded up everything related to Apple Intelligence that will be included in the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates when the software launches later this month.
Please note that Apple Intelligence is still being refined and improved, and will be in beta when it launches.
Writing Tools
- Check your text for spelling and grammar errors, including word choice and sentence structure. You can accept all suggestions with one tap, 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 Concise.
- Select text and get a summary using Apple Intelligence. You can create a paragraph, highlight key points, make a list, or create a table. The summary is available in Mail, Messages, and other apps.
Select any text on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac and use Apple Intelligence to access Writing Tools for summaries and more.
Siri
- When you activate Siri, a new glow appears at the edges of the display, applicable to iPhone, iPad, and CarPlay. On a Mac, the Siri window can be positioned anywhere. The glow reacts to the sound of your voice, so you can tell if Siri is listening to you without distracting yourself from other activities.
- Double-clicking at the bottom of the display opens the Type to Siri interface, so you can type queries instead of speaking them. On a Mac, you need to double-click the Command key to open Type to Siri. Type to Siri includes suggested queries so you can 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 that you mean Raleigh.
- If you stutter while talking to Siri or change a phrase mid-sentence, Siri will follow suit.
- Siri has a knowledge base of Apple products and support to answer questions about your device's features and settings, and can even find settings if you don't know the exact name using natural language search.
- There's a Summarize button to summarize any email you receive, plus you'll see a 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 emails sent to you, with contextual options based on what's in the email.
- Multiple notifications from Mail will be summarized on the lock screen so you can see what's in the email without opening the app.
Messages
- The Messages app has a Smart Reply feature for incoming texts that analyzes the content of your messages and suggests things you might want to say.
- Multiple message notifications are displayed on the lock screen.
- You can use all the Writing Tools features 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 Mix feature or choose a mood to set the direction of the audio. When creating a suggestion, you can also add specific scenes and images that you want to remember.
- The Photos app has natural language search, so you can simply describe what you're looking for, like “Eric rollerblading in green.”
- Search can also find specific moments in video clips.
- Search offers smart, complete sentences to narrow down what you can find.
Clear
The Photos app also includes a Clean Up 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 with all images in your Photos library, including older images and images taken with other devices, like a compact camera or DSLR.
Transcription summary 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. Transcription isn't an Apple Intelligence feature, but summaries are.
Focus Modes
There's a dedicated focus mode called Reduce Interruptions that shows only the 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 Silencing. This setting lets important notifications interrupt you while silencing notifications that aren't important, which is the same as Focus Reduce Notifications. You can override notification settings for specific apps and people, just like how it worked before iOS 18.1.
Notification summaries
Your incoming notifications are summarized so you can quickly see what's new for each app.
Phone
Transcript summaries created during 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 that you get a summary of that transcription without reading the entire message.
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 to the Notes app, where you can tap to view the transcript and get a summary based on the transcript.
Safari
When reading an article in Reader Mode, you have the option to ask Apple Intelligence to generate a summary of the article for you.
App Store
The App Store supports natural language and descriptive app tags to help you find exactly what you're looking for.
Apple Intelligence Report
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. Face ID is required to access and export Apple Intelligence data.
Apple Intelligence Waitlist
When iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 are released, you'll need to go to the Settings app and join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist. Apple uses the waitlist mechanism to ensure that internal downloads go smoothly and the system isn't overloaded.
While you're on the waitlist, Apple devices are downloading the necessary files to process on the device, and the waitlist should take a few hours at most. The waitlist is account-based, so you only need to sign up for it on one device to get access on multiple devices.
Apple Intelligence Compatibility
The iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 betas are only available to registered developers with an eligible device. Devices that can't run Apple Intelligence will not see the update.
- All iPhone 16 models
- iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
- All iPad models with an Apple chip
- All Mac models with an Apple chip
Availability of Apple Intelligence
Currently, Apple Intelligence is only available in US English and is not available to developers in the European Union or China. The device region and language must be set to the United States.
Apple Intelligence launch date
iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 is expected to be released on Monday, October 28.
Apple Intelligence features are coming later
iOS 18.2, which we should get before the end of the year, is expected to bring support for ChatGPT integration with Siri, Image Playground, and Genmoji.
iOS 18.3, which will be released sometime in January, may bring some new Siri features, but that's not guaranteed yet.
iOS 18.4 is expected to have most of Apple Intelligence's Siri features, including support for screen awareness to respond to what's on your display, improved app controls and integration, and personal context for more personalized responses to queries. We'll likely get iOS 18.4 sometime in March.
Apple will also add support for additional languages in 2025.
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