What is Apple Intelligence? Release date, features and how to get it

The tech buzzword for 2024 is most certainly AI. Most smartphone makers have opted to add artificial intelligence to their devices to try and give consumers new, exciting reasons to upgrade their phones. Apple has now joined the party with Apple Intelligence, its set of features available to select iPhone, iPad and Mac products via free software updates.

From rewriting texts to summarising emails or erasing people and objects from your photos, Apple Intelligence is now slowly rolling out to compatible Apple devices.

You might be unaware of what Apple Intelligence really is, what it can do, if it’s all hype, and if your Apple gadgets will be getting in. In this article we will answer all of those questions to help you decide if the AI revolution is for you, or if you’re perfectly happy to steer clear.

Apple Intelligence is Apple’s set of software features that use artificial intelligence (AI) to perform various tasks and functions on some of the company’s latest iPhone, iPad and Mac devices. These tools range from summarising notifications to helping you edit and rewrite messages, create a new kind of 3D emoji, and draw from data in all of your apps to improve the accuracy of answers digital voice assistant Siri can give you.

Some features of Apple Intelligence were initially made available in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1. The catch was that it was only technically out for users in the US, but you could get round that if you set your iPhone’s language to US English.

As of 11 December 2024, Apple has released iOS 18.2, which switches on Apple Intelligence for compatible devices running UK English in the UK.

It’s worth noting that not all the features and tools are currently available even if you have the latest software. Though Apple first announced the existence of Apple Intelligence at its WWDC event in June 2024, the firm is cautiously rolling out various features in stages.

Here’s the catch. Only the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are compatible with Apple Intelligence. That’s the latest generation of iPhone 16 and only the Pro models from the iPhone 15 range. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus don’t support it, and nor do any iPhones older than them.

On the iPad front, if you have an iPad Pro with M1 chip or later, an iPad Air with M1 chip or later or the latest iPad mini with A17 Pro chip, you’ll be getting Apple Intelligence.

The MacBook Air with M1 and later, MacBook Pro with M1 and later, iMac with M1 and later, Mac mini with M1 and later, Mac Studio with M1 Max and later and Mac Pro with M2 Ultra can all handle Apple Intelligence.

If you have a Mac with an Intel chip, you’re out of luck.

If you live in the UK and own a compatible Apple device, you can access select Apple Intelligence features now. All you have to do is download the latest iOS or macOS version onto your device. These latest versions are iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2.

You don’t necessarily need Apple Intelligence. It depends if you think the smarts it can deliver will be useful to you, and many are sceptical of its usefulness. 

The best way to currently decide is by reading the rest of this article, and reading about all the features of Apple Intelligence in detail on Apple’s website.

Though some tools may be useful, Apple is also playing catch up here with the rest of the smartphone industry, shown in its slow rollout of Apple Intelligence over several months. There is speculation that much of the trumpeting of the AI tools is to please shareholders, who were worried Apple was losing ground to its Android competitors and firms such as Google and OpenAI, the latter the maker of ChatGPT.

While Apple Intelligence promises many fun and interesting features, it can only currently do a few of these things. Several features have not been released yet. Here’s what Apple says you can currently do with Apple Intelligence.

If you find yourself struggling to write the perfect message, Apple Intelligence claims it can help you out. Supposedly a feature that will work in any app, you can ask the AI to rewrite, proofread or summarise any chunk of text. That means you could draft a message in Mail, Messages or WhatsApp, for instance, then ask Apple Intelligence to rewrite it for you in either a more friendly, professional, or concise way.

You can also summarise highlighted text, or condense it into key points, bullets, or a list.

Proofreading can check your grammar, word choice and sentence structure if you’re nervous before sending that important work email, and you can reject suggestions for edits if you don’t agree with them.

Siri, Apple’s voice assistant for iPhone, iPad and Mac is supposedly smarter with Apple Intelligence. It has been updated to be more conversational, so you should be able to have more of a natural natter to Siri rather than ask straightforward questions. It should also be able to remember the context of what you’ve already asked.

You’ll notice if you have the new Siri because the edges of your iPhone’s screen will light up now, rather than the amorphous Siri blob appearing at the bottom of your screen.

You can also now switch quickly between interacting with Siri via voice or by typing – you had to select one or the other before. Apple also says Siri has better knowledge of Apple settings so you can ask your devices how they work if you’re not sure how to do something. At the moment, it looks as though this will only work best if you use Apple apps for most things: Mail, Messages, Notes and Calendar.

If you prefer Gmail, WhatsApp and Fantasical, Apple can’t yet tap into those apps to cross-check your data, so Apple Intelligence won’t be as, well, intelligent.

You can now search your Photos app for specific images by typing in specific things, such as “pictures of Henry on the beach”, and it should work if you’ve attached names to the important people in your life in the app, as you can do thanks to facial recognition. This also works for videos.

Just like Google’s Magic Eraser tool, Photos now has a Clean Up tool that lets you erase unwanted objects in photos.

Add to that an improvement to the Memories feature that lets you create movies from your videos and photos by typing in a description, such as “last winter in Berlin”, and Apple Intelligence should do the rest.

Some of the features for priority messages only work if you use Apple apps, such as Mail and Messages. Gmail and WhatsApp stans could be out of luck, unless Apple lets third party developers in on the action.

Mail can now show you Priority Messages at the top of your inbox based on their context, such as emails that suggest you need to respond to them that day, or boarding passes, according to Apple. Emails are summarised so you don’t; have to open them if not necessary, and this works for long email threads to summarise a long conversation.

Smart Reply claims to be able to suggest quick responses you can tap or click on that are generated by checking the contents of the message you’re reading to identify appropriate quick responses.

You’ll also get notification summaries, which are a new features that Apple says can condense information from a stack of notifications from apps (for example twenty new WhatsApp pings from a group chat) and give you a quick overview of the contents in natural language, saving you from having to read it all. Though, you’ll probably have to go and read it all eventually.

A new Focus mode called Reduce Interruptions will also only ping you with the most important notifications if you’re trying to get stuff done.

Apple says more Apple Intelligence features will be available from December. This is also when we expect the tools to be available in UK English – remember, at present if you want to try any of the AI out you have to set your compatible devices to US English.

Apple is hyping up Genmoji, which presumably stands for ‘generative emoji’, where you can create unique emojis within messaging apps simply by typing any prompt: a pineapple with sunglasses, three cats singing the blues, a spanner with a face, you name it.

Image Playground will be a standalone app that offers you the chance to “turn descriptions, concepts or people from your photo library into original, fun images in three unique styles”, according to Apple. A tool called Image Wand will also be able to turn your sketches into more realistic images, similar to Samsung’s Sketch to Image function on its latest phones.

Apple says its writing tools will also expand with the ability to turn text into something specific such as a dinner invitation or poster for a party. As demonstrated in various product presentations, Apple will also add the option for Apple Intelligence devices to access ChatGPT within writing tools and Siri, but this appears to be something that you’ll have to tap to acknowledge and accept, as ChatGPT is a third-party service not controlled by Apple. Apple has been careful to make its users aware when you could be giving your data to other companies.

Finally, another one to look out for that’s due in December is built around the Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 series. Apple says tapping the button will get your iPhone’s camera to scan what it sees and give you information about it, for example a restaurant, tourist attraction or object. 

We’ll be updating this article as Apple releases new Apple Intelligence features.