Apple Intelligence Drops This Month: Here’s What to Expect
Apple’s upcoming suite of AI tools will be released with iOS 18.1 in October. The exact release date is still unclear, but insiders suggest mid-October.
Unfortunately, Apple Intelligence did not launch simultaneously with the iPhone 16 release on September 20th. Instead, Apple plans to slowly roll out AI features with subsequent updates, starting with iOS 18.1 this month.
If you want to know more about Apple Intelligence and its planned features for iOS 18.1 and beyond, keep reading.
What is Apple Intelligence?
In short, Apple Intelligence is the umbrella term for a slew of new AI features and tools that Apple plans to release soon. It’s similar to the AI systems you are familiar with, but all built to make Apple products and software more efficient and responsive.
Apple sums it up like this: “Harnessing the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks — all while protecting users’ privacy and security.”
Due to Apple Intelligence's hardware and software demands, it will only be available on iPhone 15 Pro models and up. It will also be available on iPads and Macs with M1 chips.
Apple Intelligence: The New Features You Can Expect
The upcoming Apple Intelligence update will introduce several new AI tools and features to help users. Here are the key ones:
Writing Tools
The first innovative feature is dubbed “Writing Tools.” Simply put, it lets users rewrite, proofread, and summarize text with just a few touches using AI.
For example, if you have a Notes page filled with an indecipherable mess of thoughts that you want to be cleaned up, Apple Intelligence can organize it in a way that’s easy to read and understand.
Enhanced Photos and Memories
With the Apple Intelligence update, users can visit their Photos library and type in a prompt to create a movie from their saved pictures and videos. They can also search for specific moments in a video by typing keywords.
Additionally, the new Clean Up tool allows Apple users to remove unwanted objects from photos.
Siri Gets Smarter
The last major AI upgrade coming to Apple devices is an all-around overhaul of Siri’s capabilities. It will understand languages, concepts, and context much better than in the past. Now, talking with Siri will be more fluid and intuitive.
More Apple Intelligence Features Coming in the Future
The features noted above are all on the horizon, coming in late 2024 or 2025. Apple has also announced other AI tools, such as Image Playground and Image Wand, but has yet to set a date. In typical secretive fashion, Apple isn’t announcing a set date ahead of time, much like they do with major releases like the next iPhone each year.
Image Wand allows users to draw a circle over an empty space—for example, the margin of a webpage. After, Image Wand creates an image in the circle based on the surrounding area like text, data, or pictures. And Image Playground lets users create fantastical AI images in seconds.
There will also be AI emojis, built-in ChatGPT, and enhanced privacy for Apple users across all of their devices.
All in all, Apple Intelligence is a potentially groundbreaking integration between Apple devices and AI. The AI tools offered appear to be both fun and valuable. You can expect some features to be rolled out with iOS 18.1 and others to follow shortly after.