Apple announced on Monday that its suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features — called Apple Intelligence — is now widely available for the iPhone, among other devices, following the iOS 18.1 update. The features were first previewed at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024 in June, but the Cupertino-based tech giant held them back from public release even after the introduction of iOS 18 in September. Apple’s latest iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates include additions like writing tools, clean up, and automatic movie creation.
Notably, this development comes after months of testing of Apple Intelligence features conducted by Apple through developer and public beta updates.
Apple Intelligence Compatible Models
According to Apple, Apple Intelligence is available on the entire iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Additionally, iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later models, and Mac with M1 and later devices are compatible with the Cupertino-based tech giant’s AI suite. It has been added as part of the iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates.
Apple Intelligence Features
One of the most notable features of the iOS 18.1 update with Apple Intelligence is writing tools. As the name suggests, this feature leverages AI to proofread documents with spelling and grammar checking, summarizing them, and rewriting text for different tones: concise, friendly, or professional. It can also present text in tabular or list format depending on the user’s preference. Writing tools can be used in a variety of first- and third-party apps on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and WhatsApp.
The Photos app on the iPhone has also been upgraded with Apple Intelligence capability related to automatic movie creation. Users can now take advantage of the Memory Movie option to automatically create movies related to their signals. Apart from the extensive visual overhaul of the app, it also gets natural language search which, as the name suggests, allows users to find media in simple language. Apple Intelligence brings a new clean up tool in the same app which is an object removal tool. The company says it can remove unwanted objects or people from images.
After the update, a new Siri UI that glows around the edges of the screen when the voice assistant is enabled has also been introduced. It also brings a type-to-Siri functionality where users can interact with the voice assistant through text, in addition to voice prompts. Apple says its understanding has increased and it can now answer questions related to device management.
The company also brings call recording feature to the phone app. Recorded calls can be found in the Notes app, along with the option to get a transcription.
Apple says more comprehensive Apple Intelligence features, like ChatGPT in Siri, visual intelligence with Image Playground, Image Wand, Genmoji, and camera controls, will be introduced in December.
