If you’ve upgraded to a more moderen iPhone mannequin just lately, you’ve most likely seen that Apple Intelligence is displaying up in a few of your most-used apps, like Messages, Mail, and Notes. Apple Intelligence (sure, additionally abbreviated to AI) confirmed up in Apple’s ecosystem in October 2024, and it’s right here to remain as Apple competes with Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others to construct the very best AI instruments.
What is Apple Intelligence?
Cupertino advertising executives have branded Apple Intelligence: “AI for the remainder of us.” The platform is designed to leverage the issues that generative AI already does nicely, like textual content and picture era, to enhance upon present options. Like different platforms together with ChatGPT and Google Gemini, Apple Intelligence was educated on giant info fashions. These programs use deep studying to kind connections, whether or not or not it’s textual content, pictures, video or music.
The textual content providing, powered by LLM, presents itself as Writing Tools. The characteristic is accessible throughout numerous Apple apps, together with Mail, Messages, Pages and Notifications. It can be utilized to offer summaries of lengthy textual content, proofread and even write messages for you, utilizing content material and tone prompts.
Image era has been built-in as nicely, in comparable vogue — albeit a bit much less seamlessly. Users can immediate Apple Intelligence to generate customized emojis (Genmojis) in an Apple home model. Image Playground, in the meantime, is a standalone picture era app that makes use of prompts to create visible content material than can be utilized in Messages, Keynote or shared by way of social media.
Apple Intelligence additionally marks a long-awaited face-lift for Siri. The sensible assistant was early to the sport, however has largely been uncared for for the previous a number of years. Siri is built-in rather more deeply into Apple’s working programs; as an example, as an alternative of the acquainted icon, customers will see a glowing mild across the fringe of their iPhone display when it’s doing its factor.
More vital, new Siri works throughout apps. That means, for instance, you can ask Siri to edit a photograph after which insert it instantly right into a textual content message. It’s a frictionless expertise the assistant had beforehand lacked. Onscreen consciousness means Siri makes use of the context of the content material you’re at present engaged with to offer an acceptable reply.
Leading as much as WWDC 2025, many anticipated that Apple would introduce us to an much more souped-up model of Siri, however we’re going to have to attend a bit longer.
“As we’ve shared, we’re persevering with our work to ship the options that make Siri much more private,” stated Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi at WWDC 2025. “This work wanted extra time to succeed in our high-quality bar, and we look ahead to sharing extra about it within the coming yr.”
This yet-to-be-released, extra customized model of Siri is meant to have the ability to perceive “private context,” like your relationships, communications routine, and extra. But in response to a Bloomberg report, the in-development model of this new Siri is simply too error-ridden to ship, therefore its delay.
At WWDC 2025, Apple additionally unveiled a brand new AI characteristic referred to as Visual Intelligence, which helps you do a picture seek for stuff you see as you browse. Apple additionally unveiled a Live Translation characteristic that may translate conversations in actual time within the Messages, FaceTime, and Phone apps.
Visual Intelligence and Live Translation are anticipated to be out there later in 2025, when iOS 26 launches to the general public.
When was Apple Intelligence unveiled?
After months of hypothesis, Apple Intelligence took heart stage at WWDC 2024. The platform was introduced within the wake of a torrent of generative AI information from corporations like Google and Open AI, inflicting concern that the famously tight-lipped tech big had missed the boat on the most recent tech craze.
Contrary to such hypothesis, nonetheless, Apple had a group in place, engaged on what proved to be a really Apple strategy to synthetic intelligence. There was nonetheless pizzazz amid the demos — Apple at all times likes to placed on a present — however Apple Intelligence is finally a really pragmatic tackle the class.
Apple Intelligence isn’t a standalone characteristic. Rather, it’s about integrating into present choices. While it’s a branding train in a really actual sense, the big language mannequin (LLM) pushed know-how will function behind the scenes. As far as the buyer is worried, the know-how will largely current itself within the type of new options for present apps.
We realized extra through the Apple’s iPhone 16 occasion in September 2024. During the occasion, Apple touted numerous AI-powered options coming to its gadgets, from translation on the Apple Watch Series 10, visible search on iPhones, and numerous tweaks to Siri’s capabilities. The first wave of Apple Intelligence is arriving on the finish of October, as a part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1.
The options launched first in U.S. English. Apple later added Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, South African, and U.Ok. English localizations. Support for Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, and Vietnamese will arrive in 2025.
Who will get Apple Intelligence?
The first wave of Apple Intelligence arrived in October 2024 va iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18., and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates. These updates included built-in writing instruments, picture cleanup, article summaries, and a typing enter for the redesigned Siri expertise. A second wave of options turned out there as a part of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2. That listing contains, Genmoji, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, Image Wand, and ChatGPT integration.
These choices are free to make use of, as long as you may have one of many following items of {hardware}:
- All iPhone 16 fashions
- iPhone 15 Pro Max (A17 Pro)
- iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro)
- iPad Pro (M1 and later)
- iPad Air (M1 and later)
- iPad mini (A17 or later)
- MacGuide Air (M1 and later)
- MacGuide Pro (M1 and later)
- iMac (M1 and later)
- Mac mini (M1 and later)
- Mac Studio (M1 Max and later)
- Mac Pro (M2 Ultra)
Notably, solely the Pro variations of the iPhone 15 are getting entry, owing to shortcomings on the usual mannequin’s chipset. Presumably, nonetheless, the entire iPhone 16 line will be capable to run Apple Intelligence when it arrives.
How does Apple’s AI work with out an web connection?
When you ask GPT or Gemini a query, your question is being despatched to exterior servers to generate a response, which requires an web connection. But Apple has taken a small-model, bespoke strategy to coaching.
The greatest advantage of this strategy is that many of those duties turn into far much less useful resource intensive and could be carried out on-device. This is as a result of, quite than counting on the form of kitchen sink strategy that fuels platforms like GPT and Gemini, the corporate has compiled datasets in-house for particular duties like, say, composing an e mail.
That doesn’t apply to all the things, nonetheless. More complicated queries will make the most of the brand new Private Cloud Compute providing. The firm now operates distant servers operating on Apple Silicon, which it claims permits it to supply the identical degree of privateness as its client gadgets. Whether an motion is being carried out regionally or by way of the cloud will probably be invisible to the consumer, until their gadget is offline, at which level distant queries will toss up an error.
Apple Intelligence with third-party apps
Loads of noise was made about Apple’s pending partnership with OpenAI forward of the launch of Apple Intelligence. Ultimately, nonetheless, it turned out that the deal was much less about powering Apple Intelligence and extra about providing an alternate platform for these issues it’s probably not constructed for. It’s a tacit acknowledgement that constructing a small-model system has its limitation.
Apple Intelligence is free. So, too, is entry to ChatGPT. However, these with paid accounts to the latter can have entry to premium options free customers don’t, together with limitless queries.
ChatGPT integration, which debuts on iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2, has two major roles: supplementing Siri’s data base and including to the present Writing Tools choices.
With the service enabled, sure questions will immediate the brand new Siri to ask the consumer to approve its accessing ChatGPT. Recipes and journey planning are examples of questions that will floor the choice. Users also can instantly immediate Siri to “ask ChatGPT.”
Compose is the opposite major ChatGPT characteristic out there by means of Apple Intelligence. Users can entry it in any app that helps the brand new Writing Tools characteristic. Compose provides the power to write down content material based mostly on a immediate. That joins present writing instruments like Style and Summary.
We know for certain that Apple plans to accomplice with extra generative AI providers. The firm all however stated that Google Gemini is subsequent on that listing.
Can builders construct on Apple’s AI fashions?
At WWDC 2025, Apple introduced what it calls the Foundation Models framework, which can let builders faucet into its AI fashions whereas offline.
This makes it extra potential for builders to construct AI options into their third-party apps that leverage Apple’s present programs.
“For instance, in case you’re preparing for an examination, an app like Kahoot can create a customized quiz out of your notes to make finding out extra partaking,” Federighi stated at WWDC. “And as a result of it occurs utilizing on-device fashions, this occurs with out cloud API prices […] We couldn’t be extra enthusiastic about how builders can construct on Apple intelligence to convey you new experiences which are sensible, out there while you’re offline, and that defend your privateness.”
