Everything you need to know about Apple Intelligence and its features

Back in June, tech giants Apple announced the arrival of its answer to the artificial intelligence era: Apple Intelligence. We can’t tell you if its initials matching that of the original AI is a coincidence, but what can tell you is that Apple Intelligence isn’t here to play. Packed with tools and capabilities that aim to make your day-to-day a little easier, this new personal intelligence system will soon become your new best friend. 

Apple Intelligence is set to roll out next month in U.S. English, with support for other languages—including regional English—coming next year. You’ll be able to access the full suite of tools and assistance on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices*. Besides the ones listed below, more features will be launched in the coming months. To help you digest it all, here is our handy guide to the key features of Apple Intelligence.

 

SUMMARISE, PROOFREAD, AND REWRITE

Communicating your thoughts through words is now easier than ever with Apple’s range of Writing Tools. Available on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, these (aptly named) features will help you rewrite, proofread, and summarise text on multiple apps. 

Don’t have the time to comb through a wordy email? Use Summarise. Iffy about a research paper before sending it off to your professor? Use Proofread. Need to add a little humour to a party invitation? Use Rewrite. These tools are at the ready for you across a range of apps, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and other third-party apps. 

Not to mention, you can now record, transcribe, and summarise audio in the Notes and Phone app. You can start recording calls—in which the participants are then notified—and Apple Intelligence will then come up with a summary or transcription once it is over. 

 

PRIORITY MESSAGES

Say goodbye to overwhelming unread emails and say hello to Priority Messages. With this function, your Mail app will now include a new section at the top of your inbox, which includes only the most urgent emails. 

Whether it’s a document with a deadline or a last-minute invitation, you’ll now find a preview of each important message instead of the first few lines. Longer threads are also condensed into a few details. 

 

SMART REPLY

As Apple Intelligence aims to have your back from read to reply, they have also introduced Smart Reply. This tool provides suggestions for a response, ensuring no question goes unanswered. With a few taps on your screen, you’ll have a well-crafted response typed up in a matter of seconds. 

 

PRIORITY NOTIFICATIONS 

Meanwhile, the Priority Notifications function works similarly to Priority Messages. This time, it compiles your most important—you guessed it—notifications into a pile on the top of the stack. Summaries are also available, so you can get a glance of everything and anything you need to know from your lock screen.

To help those that can’t get away from the notifications, Reduce Interruptions has arrived as a new Focus mode that only allows for pings that might need your attention urgently. 

 

IMAGE PLAYGROUND

Image Playground is Apple Intelligence’s image generator available in its own app or built into others. With this tool, you can create your own images—in your choice of animation, illustration, or sketch styles—in just a few seconds. You’ll be able to pick from a selection of concepts, type in a description of your image, choose a face from your camera roll, and go with a specific style for your generated art.

Image Playground will be available on Messages, where you can send your generated images to friends. On top of that, the tool can also come up with personalised concepts that relate to the topic of conversation in your chats. Let’s say you’re discussing plans to go for a diving trip. Image Playground will then suggest concepts, destinations, and more related to your vacation. 

You can also access Image Playground through the Notes app, where there is a new Image Wand within the Apple Pencil tool palette. With this update, your notes will now come to life with illustrations and graphics that can fill your empty spaces or replace doodles. Image Playground is also accessible through Keynote, Freeform, Pages, and other third-party apps that are compatible with its API.

 

GENMOJI

Emojis have also entered the Apple Intelligence chat in the form of Genmoji. Whether you want your unicorn to be dressed in a suit and sunglasses or your hamburger to be topped with strawberries, Genmoji will create anything you desire in Emoji form.  

All you have to do is type in a description and voilà! This feature even extends to creating icons that resemble your friends or family—just use a photo for reference.

 

PHOTOS APP

Apple Intelligence just made handling your photos and videos much easier. Gone are the days of scrolling through your endless camera roll or using generic terms to search for a specific photo. With Apple Intelligence, you can now use natural language to hunt down that one snap you remember taking a few months ago. You can also use this feature to look for specific frames within your video clips. Not to mention, if you’ve got a pesky distraction in the background of your photos, you can now use the Clean Up** tool to remove them! 

The little slideshows that the Photos app puts together of your photos and videos have also gotten the Apple Intelligence treatment. You can now compile your own Memories with the help of the personal intelligence system’s deep understanding of language and images. To use this feature, enter a brief prompt that Apple Intelligence will use to select relevant content with. It will then compile them into a short movie with its own storyline. 

 

SIRI

Siri is now powered by Apple Intelligence, so you can expect more personalised assistance and a deeper understanding of what you need. You’ll never have to worry about speaking in seamless sentences or maintaining context in every request because Siri is now able to pick up on natural language. You can also now type your requests for Siri and even switch back to voice if you need to go hands-free all of a sudden. When Siri is activated, you’ll no longer see the glowing orb on the bottom of your screen. Instead, you’ll be greeted with a glow around your screen.

To make things even more convenient for you, Siri now has onscreen awareness so you can forgo giving context and get straight into your request. Let’s say you want to add an image a friend sent you into your camera roll, all you have to do is say “save this picture into my photos”. With abilities across Apple and third-party apps, Siri can support a multitude of tasks tailored to you using on-device information. From “Send Dad the photos from last Monday’s dinner” to “Put Lisa’s flight information into my calendar”, Siri is proving once again to be the best assistant we all deserve.

 

CHATGPT INTEGRATION

If all that wasn’t enough, ChatGPT is now fully integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. Siri works together with the OpenAI tool to bring you a world of information and tools without you ever having to switch to another app. You won’t have to worry about privacy either as everything is done on-device or through the Private Cloud Compute. Siri will always prompt you before sending any information or questions to ChatGPT. So if you need a little help planning meal prep or writing up a summary for your notes, Siri and ChatGPT have got your back. 

* Apple Intelligence will only be available on all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to US English, as part of an iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia update later this year. 

** Clean Up will be available in beta on all iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 later this year.

 

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