mayaskApple has unveiled the first developer beta for iOS 18.1, and there’s a pivotal reason for it: Apple Intelligence. The array of artificial intelligence capabilities that Apple introduced at the WWDC a few weeks ago is now on its way to iPhones. Well, at least a select few of those features are.
Currently, Apple Intelligence is accessible only for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Additionally, ensure your device location is set to the United States and Siri’s language is set to English (U.S.) to fully enjoy the benefits of Apple Intelligence. Right now, there’s a waiting list to enable Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, but as per several reliable reports we’ve come across online, the waitlist gets cleared in approximately 10 to 20 minutes. I managed to complete the same on iPadOS 18 in roughly five minutes.
NOTE: Some of the Apple Intelligence features seem to require additional assets to function properly after you install the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta update. Hence, you will come across a message stating, “Support for processing Apple Intelligence modes on the device is downloading.”
Apple Intelligence features you can utilize now
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Once you’ve downloaded the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta update, cleared the waitlist, and your phone has completed the installation of Apple Intelligence models, you’re all set to get started.
On the dedicated Apple Intelligence & Siri page within the Settings app, simply enable the Apple Intelligence toggle at the top. So far, all of the following Apple Intelligence features are active and ready for your use.
Writing Tools
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
One of the most highly anticipated features within the Apple Intelligence portfolio is the systemwide Writing Tools. For instance, in the Notes app, when you select text or double-tap to view the contextual menu, you’ll find options such as Proofread, Rewrite, and adjust the style with tones like Concise, Professional, or Friendly.
More significantly, you also have one-tap options like text summarization, extracting key points from a text, converting it into a list, or formatting it in the form of a table. The entire process is nearly instantaneous, and it undoubtedly feels faster than what you would experience when using cloud-linked tools like ChatGPT or Copilot on mobile.
Mail summarization
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Mail is set to undergo numerous upgrades, but one of the most useful among them all is the Summarize feature. I adored this feature in the Shortwave app, and now, the pre-installed Mail app on your iPhone will summarize email contents with a single tap.
Another nifty feature is the AI-enhanced voice note feature, which can now transcribe and summarize the contents of your voice recordings. You can directly embed voice clips in Notes files without having to switch to another app and have their summary or transcription readily available with a single tap.
A smarter Siri
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
The first major draw is Siri. When summoned, it now showcases a glowing light animation around the entire display. The assistant can now directly access Apple’s resources and will guide you through your device-related inquiries.
I also noticed that the contextual understanding appears to be better, and it processes commands with an enhanced level of comprehension and promptness. Also, we have a new method to invoke Siri. If you’re not fond of the long press on the power button to summon Siri or interact with voice commands, simply double-tap on the navigation bar at the bottom, and a keyboard will slide up, allowing you to enter text commands for the virtual assistant.
An intelligent focus mode
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
Apple provides multiple focus mode presets, such as gaming and work, and the ability to create a custom focus mode. With iOS 18.1, you get a new preset called Reduce Interruptions, which intelligently sifts through the plethora of notifications using on-device intelligence.
It reads through a notification’s contents, and if they seem urgent, it will send an alert. It can be scheduled directly from the control center and allows you to customize the behavior as well. For example, you can whitelist on an individual basis to permit notifications from only a select few significant people, and the same can be done for apps.
All of the missing Apple Intelligence features
Apple
That being said, a handful of Apple Intelligence facilities have yet to arrive in the iOS 18.1 beta. But this is not entirely unexpected. AI tools are notoriously prone to errors, and it requires a considerable amount of time to close the loopholes to ensure they don’t make the same foolish or disturbing mistakes.
Bloomberg also reported that some of the Apple Intelligence features will take their own time to be released and that we can anticipate a few of them to make an appearance next year. Below are some of the most significant Apple Intelligence features that are yet to be seen.
Siri awareness and app integration
Apple
We recently detailed a research paper on how Apple desires Siri to always be aware of what’s on your screen so that it can answer your inquiries and assist users when necessary. Apple finally made this official at WWDC, along with a promising new ability to interact with other apps installed on your phone. Unfortunately, these Siri features have yet to surface with the Apple Intelligence package.
ChatGPT
Apple
Apple states that the new AI-enhanced version of Siri will handle most of your tasks, but in cases where it needs to delve deeper, it will display a prompt that enables you to offload the task to ChatGPT. In case you missed it, ChatGPT is now multi-modal (capable of processing text, voice, and video inputs), and with the latest GPT-4o update, its conversation and comprehension abilities have taken a new leap. However, it seems Apple requires more time to refine and release this two-tier AI assistant system on compatible hardware.
Priority notifications
Apple
This is one of those features that I’ve been impatiently awaiting. As the name implies, this one automatically filters through the flood of notifications and will only highlight those that seem important. Apple says it will achieve the task by summarizing the notifications to allow a quick overview through all the chaos.
Mail upgrades
Apple
Apple demonstrated some convenient features like Priority Messages in the Mail app, conversation summaries, a new Primary section at the top, and an AI-powered Smart Reply for contextual quick replies. Some of these capabilities can be experienced in Gmail and third-party apps like Shortwave, but they have yet to arrive with the first developer beta of the iOS 18.1 update.
Image eraser
Apple
If you’ve been impressed by the AI feature that smoothly removes certain items in an image on a Google Pixel or Samsung phone, well, Apple has something similar in store for the Photos App. It enables you to select and remove unwanted elements from a picture, but unfortunately, this feature hasn’t arrived with the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta update.
Image Playground
Apple
Image Playground is one of the most enjoyable aspects of Apple Intelligence. It allows users to harness the power of AI and create custom images on the go, which can then be used in apps such as Notes, Messages, and more. But Apple is not restricting it. Instead, thanks to the Image Playground API, developers can also enable this functionality in their app.
This is an on-device process, which means unless you are synchronizing or sharing data over the internet, you can create and insert AI-generated images wherever you desire on your iPhone. On a related note, Apple also promised some cool enhancements like a natural language search for finding specific images and text-driven custom memories. But so far, we don’t see them functioning as advertised in the Photos app.
Genmoji
Apple
Think of Genmoji as the next advancement of emoji, but one with an unlimited canvas that is only limited by your imagination. Thanks to Genmojis, users can generate their own emoji with just a text description. They can be used in line with text and can also be shared as stickers.
