Apple Intelligence was first announced over two months ago, but the features are still in beta testing for app developers.
Below, we have recapped some key facts about Apple Intelligence, including when it will be officially available on iPhones.
Apple Intelligence
Once available, the full suite of Apple Intelligence features will be able to generate and summarize text, show suggested replies in apps like Messages and Mail, prioritize notifications, generate custom emoji and images, record and transcribe phone calls, remove objects from the backgrounds of photos, and more.
Apple Intelligence will also power a smarter version of Siri with richer language understanding, deeper per-app controls, on-screen awareness, and more.
iOS 18.1
Apple Intelligence was initially expected to debut with iOS 18, but the first features ended up being pushed back to iOS 18.1, which is currently available in beta for Apple Developer Program members. There is no iOS 18.1 public beta yet.
The features available to test as of the second iOS 18.1 beta include writing tools for generating and summarizing text, suggested replies in the Messages app, email summarization, phone call recording and transcribing, and a few others.
The features that are not yet available to try include Image Playground for custom-generated images, Genmoji for custom-generated emoji, removing objects from the backgrounds of photos, and several enhancements to Siri, including ChatGPT integration, richer language understanding, deeper per-app controls, on-screen awareness, and personalized context.
iOS 18.1 will likely be released in late October, based on the timing of previous similar updates:
- iOS 17.1: October 25, 2023
- iOS 16.1: October 24, 2022
- iOS 15.1: October 25, 2021
- iOS 14.1: October 20, 2020
In other words, Apple Intelligence should officially launch in late October.
Apple Intelligence will initially be available in English only, with more languages to follow. The features will require an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18.1 or later, and it is rumored that Apple Intelligence will be compatible with the entire iPhone 16 lineup, which is expected to be announced at Apple's event on September 9.
The full suite of Apple Intelligence features is expected to be available on the iPhone by mid-2025.
