Apple Intelligence is set to become available with iOS 18.1 at the end of October, exclusively in U.S. English – so what do users in the UK need to know?
Apple Intelligence is Apple's upcoming artificial intelligence system that offers personalized, context-aware features, such as notification summaries, writing tools, image and emoji generation, Visual Lookup, and a revamped version of Siri that integrates ChatGPT and on-screen awareness and the ability to take action. With an in-depth understanding of your personal context, Apple Intelligence should significantly improve user experience and expand the capabilities of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
See our other guide to learn more about all of the Apple Intelligence tools currently available in the iOS 18.1 developer beta. Some Apple Intelligence features won't be coming until later, with the rollout continuing into next year.
How to Enable Apple Intelligence in the UK Now
Apple Intelligence is officially only currently available in beta to developers in the U.S., but it can be enabled on iPhones and iPads in the UK and most other countries, with the exception of the European Union and China.
The main reason Apple has limited access to Apple Intelligence is that it only supports U.S. English at this time, but if you can tolerate that, are not willing to wait until it is localized, and have a compatible device, then there is no technical reason why you can't start exploring the new AI features right away. Until the official release of iOS 18.1, you need to be running a beta version of iOS 18.1 to activate Apple Intelligence.
To run Apple Intelligence, iPhone users must have an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model. Only Apple silicon Macs and iPads powered by the A17 Pro or M1 chip or later are compatible. On the iPhone or iPad, follow these steps:
- Open Settings, then tap through to General ➝ Language & Region.
- Tap Add Language... and choose English (US).
- Return to the main Settings menu and tap Apple Intelligence & Siri.
- Tap Language and choose English (United States).
- You will now be able to join the Apple Intelligence waitlist, which in most cases gets accepted in just a few minutes. Under the Apple Intelligence header text, tap Join Waitlist.
- After what should be a short wait, the message will change to Turn On Apple Intelligence. Tap it, and a welcome message should appear, indicating you have successfully enabled Apple Intelligence on your device.
When Will Apple Intelligence Be Localized for the UK?
If you choose to enable Apple Intelligence in the UK at the current time, your device will be limited to U.S. English, which means autocorrect and other features will begin to spell words differently and use non-native phrases.
Apple has now announced that support for versions of English spoken in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the UK will be added in December 2024, and that support for Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish will be added next year. When this happens, you will be able to switch your device back to UK English. Alternatively, if you dislike the idea of setting your device to U.S. English to get access to Apple Intelligence sooner, you only need to wait until December to enable it natively.
