Apple on Monday announced that its set of artificial intelligence (AI) features — called Apple Intelligence — are now widely available for iPhones as well as other devices after the iOS 18.1 update. The features were first unveiled at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, but the Cupertino-based tech giant kept them from a public release even after iOS 18 was unveiled in September. Apple’s latest iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates include additions such as writing tools, cleanup, and automatic movie creation.
Notably, this development comes after months of testing Apple’s Intelligence features through developers and public beta updates.
Models compatible with Apple Intelligence
According to Apple, Apple Intelligence is available for the entire iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. In addition, iPads with A17 Pro or M1 and newer models, as well as Macs with M1 and newer devices, are compatible with the Cupertino-based tech giant’s AI suite. It was added as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates.
Apple Intelligence features
One of the most notable additions of the iOS 18.1 update, which includes Apple Intelligence, is the writing tools. As the name suggests, the feature uses artificial intelligence to check documents with spelling and grammar checks, summarizing and rewriting text for different tones: concise, friendly or professional. It can also present the text in a table or list format, depending on the user’s preferences. Writing tools can be used in a variety of native and third-party apps, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and WhatsApp on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The Photos app on the iPhone has also been updated with the Apple Intelligence feature related to automatic movie creation. Users can now use the Memory Movie option to automatically create movies related to their tips. In addition to the great visuals of the app, it also gets natural language search which, as the name suggests, allows users to search for media files in plain language. Apple Intelligence offers a new Clean Up tool in the same program, which is an object removal tool. The company says it can remove unwanted objects or people from images.
The update also introduced a new Siri interface that lights up around the edges of the screen when the voice assistant is on. It also provides a Siri-like feature where users can communicate with the voice assistant via text in addition to voice prompts. Apple says it has improved understanding and is now able to respond to queries related to device management.
The company is also adding a call recording feature to the Phone app. Recorded calls can be found in the Notes app, as well as an option to get their transcription.
Apple says that broader Apple Intelligence features such as ChatGPT in Siri, Image Playground, Image Wand, Genmoji and Visual Intelligence With Camera Control will roll out in December.