Apple Intelligence arrives with iOS 18.1: here are 3 features you’ll use every day
The wait for Apple Intelligence is over. Apple has teased and promised many features since introducing its AI technology earlier this year, and now we’re getting our first taste of Apple’s AI ambitions in iOS 18.1.
And although the first set of functions is modest in sizeyou will definitely find some useful. After running the iOS betas with access to Apple Intelligence for several weeks, I think these are the three features you’ll use on a daily basis.
You need one iPhone 15Pro, iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro (or their Plus and Max variants) with iOS 18.1 and, crucially, it should request access to Apple Intelligence to take advantage of these new technologies.
Once you’re inside, here’s what you can realistically expect. As time goes on, more features will be added – and keep in mind that Apple Intelligence is still officially beta software – but this is when Apple begins its AI era.
Summaries add TL;DR to your correspondence
In an age where so much of our attention is demanded and there is seemingly less time to delve into longer topics…Sorry, what did I actually say?
Oh yes: how many times have you wanted an “too long, didn’t read” version of not only long emails, but also the firehose of communication that shoots your way? The ability to summarize notifications, emails, and web pages is perhaps Apple Intelligence’s deepest and least intrusive feature yet.
When a notification arrives, such as a text from a friend or group in Messages, iPhone creates a quick one-sentence summary.
Apple Intelligence summarized two text messages.
Sometimes summaries are vague, and sometimes they are unintentionally funnybut so far I’ve found them to be more useful than not. Summaries can also be generated based on alerts from third-party apps such as news or social media apps – although I suspect my outdoor security camera picks up several passersby over time and doesn’t tell me that there are ten people at the standing at the door.
No one told me there was a party at my house.
That said, Apple Intelligence certainly doesn’t understand sarcasm or colloquialisms; you can disable summaries if you prefer.
You can also generate a longer summary of emails in the Mail app: Tap the To summarize button at the top of a post to view an overview of the content in a few dozen words.
When you’re viewing a page in Safari where the Reader feature is available, tap the Page menu button in the address bar, tap Show reader and then tap the Summary button at the top of the page.
Summarize long articles in Safari in the Reader interface.
Siri gets a shine and better interaction
During the releases of iOS 18 and iPhone 16, I was amused that the main visual indicator of Apple Intelligence (the full-screen Siri animation with color on the edges) was noticeably missing. Apple even lit up the edges of the massive glass cube of its Apple Fifth Avenue Store in New York City like a Siri search.
Instead, iOS 18 used the same old Siri sphere.
Now the modern Siri look has arrived in iOS 18.1, but only on devices that support Apple Intelligence. If you’re still tapping your fingers in the Apple Intelligence waitlist, you’ll also see the Siri orb for now.
Siri under Apple Intelligence looks like a multicolored halo around the edges.
The new look brings a number of Siri interaction improvements: it’s more forgiving if you stumble through a question, such as saying the wrong word or interrupting yourself while you’re thinking. It’s also better to listen after you’ve achieved results so you can ask related follow-up questions.
However, the ability to personalize answers based on what Apple Intelligence knows about you is still not available. iOS 18.1 also does not yet use ChatGPT as an alternative information source; that interaction has only just been rolled out in the developer beta of iOS 18.2.
Remove distractions from your photos with Cleanup in the Photos app
Until iOS 18.1, the Photos app on iPhone and iPad lacked a simple retouch feature. Dust on the camera lens? Litter on the ground? Sorry, you’ll have to deal with these and other distractions in the Photos app on MacOS or with a third-party app.
Now Apple includes Intelligence Clean Up, an AI-powered removal tool, in the Photos app. When you edit an image and tap Clean up button, the iPhone analyzes the photo and suggests possible items to delete by highlighting them. Tap it or draw a circle around an area. The app erases those areas and uses generative AI to fill in plausible pixels.
Remove distractions in the Photos app with Cleanup.
In this first incarnation, Clean Up isn’t perfect and you often get better results in other dedicated image editors. But it’s great for quickly removing annoyances from photos.
Check this out: Apple Intelligence Impressions: Don’t expect radical changes
