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Apple Intelligence was initially scheduled to be available on Apple devices in September as part of the iOS 18 rollout and new range of iPhones.
Audiences were promised AI-enhanced Siri, generative AI features, and AI emojis called ‘GenMoji.’
Some of these features are currently available in iOS 18, which was released on September 16. But even with the iPhone 16 range now available, it is still unclear when Apple Intelligence will arrive.
We attempt to cut through the noise and determine whether artificial intelligence will deliver on its promise of transforming users’ interactions with iPhones, iPads, and Macs.
…Or will we be left with underwhelming tools and postponed significant features?
What is Apple Intelligence?
Personal Intelligence AI
Think of Apple Intelligence as a personal intelligence AI system for iPhones, iPads, and Macs. By leveraging generative AI, iOS 18 will have enhanced features around content creation and also a much-needed improvement to Apple’s Siri assistant.
Apple AI is different because it’s designed to be accessible to every Apple user regardless of age or technical ability. Built from the ground up with privacy in mind, it will also understand personal context and provide users with helpful assistance when needed.
That’s the vision we have been sold, but does it deliver?
When Will Apple Intelligence Be Released?
Expected release date: October 2024
Developers can test a selection of Apple Intelligence features in the iOS 18.1 developers beta. Everyone else will have to wait for the official release, and this is where things get complicated.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman claims that AI will not reach users until October, which means that iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 shipped without the features, with Apple Intelligence potentially landing a month later.
Apple has also warned that some features of Apple Intelligence, like iPhone Mirroring on the Mac and SharePlay Screen Sharing upgrades might not appear until 2025 for EU customers because of Apple’s skirmishes with the Digital Markets Act (DMA).
Apple Intelligence: Supported Devices
Latest Mac, iPad & iPhone releases
Apple Intelligence compatibility will be limited to newer Apple devices. For Apple users, the entry point will require an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, iPads with M1, M2, or M4 chips, and Macs with M1, M2, or M3 chips.
At launch, no other Apple devices will support the new technology, which means the Apple Watch and Apple Watch are not invited to the AI party.
One of the main reasons for the limited support is that the resource-hungry AI features will require the latest technology to run.
However, it also provides Apple a convenient opportunity to tempt its customers to upgrade their devices.
7 Features You Can Use in Apple Intelligence Beta
7. Writing Tools
Generative AI famously excels at condensing long documents or articles into concise summaries and generating written or visual content. But how could these talents assist you with daily tasks on any device in the Apple ecosystem?
Apple’s writing tools offer AI writing assistance across Mail, Notes, and Pages. Apple Intelligence will have your back if you want to check for mistakes quickly, rewrite content for a different audience, or grab a quick summary before heading into a meeting. The Notes app will allow you to turn audio into text and summarize notes, making it easier to improve corporate meetings.
Outside of Apple’s walled gardens, many will compare these features that are already available with Copilot in Windows. But this only further highlights why these features need to be added to Apple’s products to meet users’ rising expectations.
6. Mail App & AI
Slack failed to kill email, and reaching inbox zero still feels like a pipe dream, but Apple Intelligence aims to give you a fighting chance. One of the subtle yet most useful features of AI is in the Mail app. It will allow you to summarize your emails in the preview window rather than just displaying the first two lines of text.
The ability to condense messages into a snackable summary has dramatically shortened the time it takes me to act on, delete, or drag information emails to a subfolder. Time-sensitive messages that require a quicker response are fast-tracked to the top of your inbox and will also display on your lock screen.
This is the kind of integration no AI gadget or even chatbot could do. Apple Intelligence will put summaries instead of message previews in your Mail Inbox list, rewrite text in-line, and prioritize notifications based on their content, not just who they're from #WWDC24 pic.twitter.com/ON1j6sBnCH
— Stephen Robles (@stephenrobles) June 10, 2024
Finally, the Smart Reply option will quickly help with contextual responses to urgent emails. These tweaks mean I can manage my inbox like a boss and increase my chances of reaching the promised land of inbox zero.
5. Safari Digests
We are continuously bombarded with more content than we can digest. However, reading an article in Reader Mode in the Safari browser provides the option of a summary of any long-form content. This makes it easy to decide whether to read the entire article or just the essential information rather than wading through 4,000 words to get the information you need.
4. Improved Siri
Googling how to do something only to be faced with sponsored posts and irreverent information is beginning to feel like a long-winded way of getting the answers we need. AI is changing how we search online, and Apple has now made finding the answer to any Apple-related questions as easy as asking, “How to free up storage space on iPhone/iPad?”
Another welcome feature is that Siri understands you when you stumble over your words or alter the question mid-sentence. However, the fully AI-enhanced version of Siri is not expected until next year.
3. Call Recording & Transcriptions
Recording a call is as simple as hitting a button. Both parties will hear a short message informing them that the call is being recorded. Once the call has been completed, Apple Intelligence will store the recording in notes, which will also store an AI-generated transcript of the conversation.
2. Photos
Does your phone have over 10,000 images, steadily increasing with each iPhone? When something sparks a memory in a conversation, you find yourself endlessly scrolling, trying to find that one photo from a party in 2011. If this sounds familiar, Apple Intelligence will be able to solve this first-world problem once and for all.
The arrival of natural language search in Photos means you can search for exactly what you are looking for, such as “Eddie climbing Sydney Bridge.” You can even locate specific moments in video clips in the concert footage filmed from an iPhone 5 and 8-MP camera.
With Memories, Apple Intelligence enables users to select their favorite photos and videos to craft a unique storyline that can quickly be turned into a movie to quickly share with their friends or online.
1. Messages
The ability to quickly respond to new messages with AI suggestions will divide users. Although convenient for the sender, nothing cuts deeper than receiving a lifeless AI-generated response devoid of authentic personality or thought. However, summarized messages are a much more welcome feature that allows you to quickly get a summary of all your conversations from the Lock screen or Notifications shade.
If you ever find yourself sending the occasional angry or emotional iMessage, Apple Intelligence can step in to save you embarrassment by making your message sound more diplomatic.
Apple Intelligence helps me find a nicer way to say what I really want to say. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/9sSRnuEl0Q
— Brandon Butch (@BrandonButch) July 29, 2024
Looking Ahead: Apple’s AI Roadmap and Missing Pieces
In the rush to be part of the AI narrative, many keynotes and promo videos from big tech are often built on future promises. Predictably, implementation dates are often quietly changed away from the spotlight. For example, if Apple fans in the EU look beyond the big headlines surrounding Apple Intelligence, it is still unclear exactly when some features will arrive.
Many other AI features that were heavily promoted at WWDC, such as the “Clean up” tool in Photos, ChatGPT integration, and the AI-enhanced Siri, will be drip-fed in future releases, with the latter not expected until 2025.
The Bottom Line
If we look beyond gimmicks such as GenMoji and the hype surrounding this release, Apple is adopting a slow and steady approach to Apple Intelligence. It might be less exciting, but focusing on making AI useful and improving the user experience on its devices rather than gimmicks can only be a good thing.
There might be a few delays along the way, but I welcome safe and boring improvements that make my life easier than a rushed series of buggy features I would never use. When is the official Apple Intelligence release date, and when will I be able to access these AI features in the UK and across Europe? These should be among the easiest questions to answer. But sadly, this still seems clouded in mystery and uncertainty.
