24/09/2024
Nicole Newton

Apple Intelligence: everything you need to know

Apple has just unveiled the iPhone 16, with a heavy focus on upgraded cameras and Apple Intelligence. While there’s plenty to be excited about, there seems to be quite a bit of confusion over Apple’s AI announcement.

Many have been left wondering when Apple intends to release Apple Intelligence, what devices will support the new AI feature and what you’ll be able to do with it. Luckily, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about Apple Intelligence ahead of its upcoming release. So settle in and get ready to hear all about Apple’s AI feature!

In this blog:

What is Apple Intelligence?

So, exactly what is Apple Intelligence? Essentially, it’s Apple’s solution for AI within selected iPhone models. You’ll be able to use Apple Intelligence within your day-to-day life to write emails, perform natural language search, clean up photos and much more. Apple Intelligence will be similar to the Galaxy AI and Google AI features available in selected Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel phones.

What to expect from Apple Intelligence

With so many AI tools on the market and other brands already incorporating it into their devices, you may be wondering what Apple’s AI has in store. Here’s a rundown of everything you can expect from Apple Intelligence:

Writing tools

Apple Intelligence will soon assist with rewriting and proofreading your text, whether that’s an email, a text or in a third-party app.

While this isn’t groundbreaking, it’s pretty helpful if you want to clean up your writing or struggle to find the right tone or words to use in your messages.

Clean Up in Photos

With Clean Up, you’ll be able to remove unwanted objects from your photos with ease. Apple Intelligence can identify background objects, so you’ll be able to simply tap to remove them from your images.

Voice recordings in Notes

The Notes app will soon have an upgrade thanks to Apple Intelligence. You’ll be able to record audio within the Notes app and receive a transcribe of the speech.

Create a Memory Movie in Photos

For those who have a lot of photos on their iPhone, you’ll be able to use Apple Intelligence to compile some of your photos into a Memory Movie – this is essentially an AI-generated montage of your photos.

In the Photos app, you’ll need to type in a request and describe which of your photos you’d like in your Memory Movie, such as specific holiday photos, pictures of your family pets, etc.

Once you’ve described which photos you want, Apple Intelligence will scour your Photos app and add all the relevant images into a Memory Movie for you.

Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing in Focus

For those who enjoy the Do Not Disturb feature, Apple Intelligence has introduced a new Focus mode that will reduce interruptions by accessing your notifications.

This mode will work similarly to Do Not Disturb, however, it will allow any important notifications to break through the Do Not Disturb feature, so you can stay focussed without missing anything urgent.

Priority Messages

Apple Intelligence will also support a new Priority Messages feature. This will access your notifications (and your emails) to determine which ones are most important and surface those to the top for you.

Type to Siri

As well as being able to speak to Siri, you’ll also be able to type questions to the assistant anytime you want.

Summaries in Mail and Messages

If you don’t fancy reading through a long email or message, Apple Intelligence can do it for you thanks to its Summaries feature. Simply click the Summarise button to get a short summary of your email or text.

Visual Intelligence

Using Visual Intelligence, you’ll be able to search for things with the snap of a photo. For example, you could take a picture of a storefront to get information such as opening times or snap a picture of a bag you like the look of to find out where you can buy it.

While this feature is included in Apple Intelligence, you’ll need an iPhone 16 model as this feature uses the new Camera Control side button.

Phone call recording and transcription

Apple Intelligence allows you to record phone calls and will give you a full transcript of the whole call, making business calls much easier. Be warned though, activating this feature will tell all parties that the call is being recorded.

Natural language search in Photos

If you want to find a specific photo in your camera roll but don’t fancy scrolling through hundreds of images, you’ll be able to search for it using natural language. Simply open your Photos app and type in a description of the image you’re looking for.

Genmoji

With Genmoji, you’ll be able to create your own emojis. Simply type in a description of the emoji you want to create and Apple Intelligence will do the rest!

When is Apple Intelligence coming out?

Despite the heavy promotion of Apple Intelligence during the latest keynote event, it won’t be available for the iPhone 16 release in September. Instead, Apple has released the first version of iOS 18 (iOS 18.0), with Apple Intelligence not included in the update.

In fact, Apple Intelligence won’t begin rolling out until October in the US, and the Apple Intelligence UK release date is expected to be even later this year in December. Apple Intelligence is still in beta testing, so we’ll have to wait a little longer before we can get our hands on these new and exciting features.

Apple Intelligence supported devices

Alongside the lengthy wait for Apple Intelligence, Apple has announced that only a select few iPhone models will support the new AI feature… and the list is very short.

All those upgrading to the new iPhone 16 series (including the Plus, Pro and Pro Max models) will be able to access Apple Intelligence on its release. For those who aren’t looking to upgrade, only those who have the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will have access to Apple’s AI feature.

However, that doesn’t mean that your device won’t support iOS 18. iPhone XR models and upwards will all support iOS 18, although not all of them will feature Apple Intelligence.

How to get Apple Intelligence

The obvious answer to get Apple Intelligence is to wait for the new iOS 18 update to be released in December, but if you want to get a sneak peak, here’s how you can get the beta version of Apple Intelligence on your device:

  1. Firstly, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max or one of the new iPhone 16 models.
  2. For those in the UK, you’ll need to set your device and Siri language to US English.
  3. Update to iOS 18.1 (when available)
  4. Go to Settings, tap Apple Intelligence & Siri, then tap Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist.

If you’re looking to upgrade to an iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence, why not make your purchase even cheaper by trading in your old phone with us? We’ll give you quick cash for your device, so you can put it towards that new phone you’ve been eyeing!

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