What is Apple Intelligence? The new Apple AI for your iPhone, iPad and Mac explained

Apple Intelligence is the Cupertino company's name for the AI that now sits at the beating heart of its operating systems on iPhone, iPad and Mac. But rather than being released in one go, Apple Intelligence features are coming in waves over 2024 and 2025. The first wav of Apple Intelligence features launched with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1, in October and included Writing Tools, Notification summaries, Clean Up in Photos and a redesigned Siri.

The next wave, which we'll get in iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2 and macOS Sequoia 15.2, hopefully before Christmas, will include Genmoji for making your own emojis, and an Image Playground app for generating and manipulating AI images.

With Apple Intelligence, Apple is exploring how AI can help people in their everyday lives, with a big focus on privacy. It will help you write emails, perform natural language search and create memory movies based on prompts, but unlike the approach from Google and Microsoft, there is no plan to charge for access to Apple Intelligence's better features until at least 2027.

Apple Intelligence is Apple's multimodal, cross-platform approach to today's AI computing trend. It's coming to just about every Apple platform and most newer Apple devices. Apple Intelligence includes generative AI features, like writing and image creation, as well as an improved Siri assistant, and much more.

Apple Intelligence takes a decidedly Apple-like approach to privacy, which means that the least information possible is shared with anyone, even Apple itself. Most Apple Intelligence features run on your device. When Apple needs to access the cloud for more power, it has a Power Cloud Compute standard to protect your data and privacy; in a nutshell that means cloud-power without data spreading between a load of servers and platforms.

We mention privacy first because Apple always mention privacy first, and no other AI company talks about your data privacy and how your data is being protected quite as much as Apple does.

Apple is granting its new Apple Intelligence system broad access to your personal data, including the ability to analyze messages, track calendar events, monitor Maps activity and location, review photos, and even process phone call information. By integrating this vast amount of personal information, Apple Intelligence is designed to deliver highly contextual and personalized features, enhancing functionality across Apple's ecosystem. While this promises a more seamless and intuitive user experience, the level of data access raises questions about privacy and data security, underscoring the importance of transparency in how this information is managed.

Apple Intelligence introduces a suite of generative AI tools designed to enhance writing, image creation, and task organization. It offers powerful writing aids, such as rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing capabilities, making it easier to refine and improve your text wherever you input it. Whether it's drafting an email or working on a report, Apple Intelligence can step in to assist with contextually relevant writing suggestions.

Staying attuned to your communications, Apple Intelligence also prioritizes incoming messages and notifications based on your preferences, ensuring you don't miss what's important. Instead of receiving a partial email notification, for example, you’ll get a concise summary, helping you focus on what matters. Additionally, it can summarize conversations, including phone calls and audio recordings in apps like Notes, saving you time on reviewing lengthy content.

A new *Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode* uses Apple Intelligence to filter out low-priority messages, ensuring you’re only interrupted by the most urgent notifications. For creative tasks, Apple introduces Image Playground, an app in iOS 18.2 that leverages AI to generate personalized image prompts based on your current activity or conversations, making image creation both fun and intuitive.

One of the most exciting features is Visual Intelligence, arriving with iOS 18.2, which works in tandem with the iPhone 16’s new Camera Control button. This tool allows you to point your phone at something and instantly search for related information using Apple Intelligence’s multimodal features, creating a seamless experience between the real world and digital content.

These innovations reflect Apple’s commitment to enhancing user productivity and creativity, making everyday tasks more efficient and engaging.

Apple's new tools in iOS 18.2 offer exciting creative features, including the ability to choose from a variety of image styles, such as transforming people in photos into cartoon-like images. This feature adds a playful touch to your images, letting you customize them in unique ways.

In addition to the Image Playground, Apple is introducing Genmoji, a fun emoji generator that creates custom emojis based on your descriptions. Simply type in what you're thinking, and Genmoji will generate an emoji to match, adding a personalized twist to your emoji conversations. These innovations are part of Apple's continued push to integrate more AI-driven creativity into their ecosystem.

We can’t wait to explore these features when iOS 18.2 arrives!

Apple is bringing its generative AI tools to photo editing with a powerful new feature called *Clean Up*. This tool works like a Magic Eraser, allowing you to remove unwanted objects from your photos with ease. Simply tap on the Clean Up option in the photo editor, select the part of the image you'd like to erase, and let AI seamlessly replace it with a natural background. If you remove a person from a photo, it will look like they were never there at all.

In addition to photo editing, Apple is leveraging Apple Intelligence to enhance your ability to search through photos and videos. With this feature, you can find specific moments you thought were lost—whether it’s a scene from a video or a photo of your child wearing a blue t-shirt. Just type in keywords like a person’s name or a description, and Apple Intelligence will help you locate the media you're looking for. It can even create a personalized video presentation of your photos and videos, complete with background music that suits your selection.

These features demonstrate how Apple is integrating AI to simplify and enhance your media experience, making it easier to organize and relive precious moments.

Apple Intelligence has officially arrived! The first wave of features debuted on October 28 with the release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. These updates introduced groundbreaking tools like Writing Tools, Notification Summaries, the Clean Up photo editor, and a redesigned Siri, offering users a glimpse into Apple’s generative AI future.

However, some of the most anticipated upgrades, including the full Siri overhaul and ChatGPT integration, are set to arrive in early 2025 with iOS 18.2. This release will mark the final rollout of the announced Apple Intelligence features.

Coming soon in December, iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 will bring even more innovations, including the creative Image Playground and personalized emoji generator Genmoji, making the updates an exciting prospect for Apple enthusiasts.

Siri has undergone a major transformation with the introduction of Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1. No longer just a floating bubble at the bottom of your screen, Siri now takes center stage—activating it causes your entire home screen to ripple, signaling its complete integration.

Apple has enhanced Siri across the board, boasting "richer language-understanding capabilities." It now feels more natural and context-aware. Siri remembers the context of your conversation, allowing you to pick up where you left off without needing to start over each time.

Typing to Siri is finally an option, a long-requested feature. Previously limited to voice commands, users can now type queries and commands, offering a quieter, more flexible way to interact.

Siri has also become more helpful with Apple devices. Whether you're using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, Siri can now answer thousands more questions about how to navigate and use your device, making it a more effective personal assistant.

Even more exciting features are on the horizon. By 2025, Siri will gain screen-awareness, offering suggestions based on what’s displayed. It’s also set to integrate with ChatGPT, enabling far smarter and more complex conversations than ever before.

Apple Intelligence is a major upgrade for Siri that will enable far more third-party actions. Using Apple's new App Intent API, app developers will be able to program commands that you can use with Siri.

Siri will also know you. It will know much more of the information you have on your device. You'll be able to ask Siri to "play that song Edgar mentioned" and it will know because it read your iMessage conversation with Edgar. If you ask "when is Dad landing at Laguardia" it will look up his flight details from the message he sent and give you real-time tracking info. That's cool, but it's a lot more than we're used to a computer knowing about us.

Based on what we've seen so far it looks like iOS 18.4 will finally deliver the Siri we've been waiting for.

Privacy is a standout feature that distinguishes Apple's AI from its competitors.

Apple prioritizes on-device processing whenever possible. For example, while Siri may access your text messages to assist you, it ensures that this information stays private—neither shared with Apple nor anyone else. At least, that's Apple's commitment.

When you create an image in the Image Playground, Apple has no access to the image you’ve made. Even if your iPhone uses cloud assistance to summarize your last phone call, none of that data is reported to Apple.

For more complex cloud-based requests, Apple uses a Private Cloud Compute environment. This system "cryptographically ensures that iPhone, iPad, and Mac do not communicate with a server unless its software has been publicly logged for inspection," according to the Apple Intelligence news release.

iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 will introduce ChatGPT integration via Siri, enabling Apple users to leverage ChatGPT for tasks like understanding documents and analyzing images. Siri can even route specific requests through ChatGPT—if you ask nicely.

Apple is implementing privacy measures for these interactions. According to the company, when you access ChatGPT through Apple Intelligence, your IP address is masked, and OpenAI won’t store your queries. However, standard ChatGPT data-use policies still apply.

ChatGPT, powered by GPT-4, will debut across iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia in December as part of the next OS updates. Apple has also hinted at future partnerships with other AI models, suggesting ChatGPT might not remain the sole large-language model (LLM) partner for Apple Intelligence.

We’ve explored the iOS 18.2 beta, which showcases ChatGPT integration in Siri, and the results are impressive. The feature is entirely opt-in, and Siri clearly indicates when ChatGPT is providing a response.

Apple Intelligence introduces advanced features across macOS 15 Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18, but not all devices running these operating systems will support them.

Apple describes the iPhone 16 as the "first iPhone designed from the ground up for Apple Intelligence," and all models in the lineup—the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max—are fully compatible.

Apple Intelligence will also be available on devices powered by M1, M2, M3, and M4 chips, as well as the A17 Pro chipset. However, some current devices will miss out on these features, despite being newly purchased this year.

Supported iPads include the current iPad Pro and iPad Air models, along with previous-generation iPads equipped with M1 and M2 chips. However, the base model iPad 10.9 and the iPad mini are excluded due to their use of older Apple Bionic chips.

Among older iPhones, only the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which feature the A17 Pro chipset, will support Apple Intelligence. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, with the A16 Bionic chipset, are not compatible.

Mac users with devices such as the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac Studio, or Mac mini equipped with M1 chips or newer will be able to use Apple Intelligence. However, Intel-based Macs are not expected to receive support.