Surprise – Apple Intelligence first appears in iOS 18.1 developer beta, promising a generative AI future
Rumors of Apple Intelligence delays may be wildly exaggerated. Apple’s own brand of generative AI, scheduled to roll out to iPhones, iPads, and Macs later this year, is arriving today—at least parts of it—in early form as developer betas for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 18.1.
It’s the first early access to Apple’s promised generative features, and a hopeful sign that some bits of Apple Intelligence will arrive with the long-awaited iPhone 16. Apple is rolling out the iOS 18.1 dev beta, iPadOS 18.1 dev betas, and macOS 15.1 dev betas to developer apps and supporting devices now in an effort to help developers understand Apple’s artificial intelligence intentions and prepare for Apple Intelligence. The news comes just a day after Bloomberg reported delays that may have meant Apple Intelligence wouldn’t arrive in time for iPhone 16. Now it appears the next iPhone is all but guaranteed to have at least some Apple Intelligence.
Apple Intelligence promises to bring things like writing support, natural language search, context persistence in Siri, creating memory movies based on prompts, transcription summaries, and more. Not everything will be available in this early preview. Additionally, especially at this early stage before we get a potential full lineup of iPhone 16 devices all running A17 Pro or better Apple Silicon, only iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPads and Macs with at least M1 chips will be able to access Apple Intelligence features in the new dev betas. It will also only work for English (US) systems.
For those who can, here is some of what you’ll find.
The first signs of the most significant Siri update in a generation can be seen in the new design, a double-tap at the bottom of the screen to access text for Siri, and the ability to preserve context across multiple queries.
Developers can try out the generative writing tools in existing Apple apps like Email to rewrite and summarize text.
Email digests and smart replies are available, as are some natural language search features in the Photos app. You can also create movie memories based on standard and custom prompts.
There are still quite a few things that won’t be shipping with these new dev betas, such as Genmoji creation, image capture, Photo Clean Up, and ChatGPT integration.
Unlike public iOS betas, developer betas aren’t meant for public use or for installing on your primary device. That said, you’ll soon see screens from this early look at Apple Intelligence, which will give you your first tantalizing glimpse at what the new Writing Tools Box looks like, what the Type to Siri keyboard will look like, and how Siri will respond to your query in text. These responses will include information based on Siri’s knowledge of apps and your system.
Apple Intelligence isn’t turned on by default in iOS 18.1. Developers will need to head to the Settings app, where they’ll find a new option: “Apple Intelligence & Siri.” From there, they can opt to join the waitlist, after which they’ll be notified when it’s enabled. The waitlist appears to be a way for Apple to manage the load that could hit its new Private Compute Cloud, which will handle generative queries too intensive for on-device computing, and all that Apple Silicon Servers. Apple Intelligence access is expected to arrive within a few hours of developers signing up.
This gradual arrival of Apple Intelligence is a pivotal moment for Apple, especially if the company wants to survive (and perhaps even continue to exist). enter) the generative AI game. Google and Samsung already have a significant head start. We’ve been using Gen AI features in Pixel phones for months, have been enjoying Samsung’s Galaxy AI since its launch at Unpacked in January, and even more so with the new Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 that we picked up in Paris at the second Unpacked of the year.
As for when Apple Intelligence will appear in iOS 18 public betas, Apple hasn’t given any guidance. As far as we can tell, Apple Intelligence is slated to launch sometime this fall, meaning sometime between September and late December. Let’s hope the wait isn’t that long and that it all arrives in time for the iPhone 16’s anticipated launch in September.
