iOS 18 and Apple Intelligence Availability Details Disclosed

Tuesday, 10 September 2024 at 01:35

Apple has announced that iOS 18 will launch on September 16, just ahead of the release of the iPhone 16 series on September 20, which will come with iOS 18 preinstalled. The update will roll out to all supported iPhones without a staggered release, unlike Google's method of gradual rollouts.

However, Apple Intelligence won't be included in iOS 18. Instead, the first set of Apple Intelligence features will come with iOS 18.1 (as well as iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1) in October. Initially, these features will only support US English, with localized English versions coming to other regions like Australia, Canada, and the UK in December. In 2025, additional languages such as Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish will arrive.

Apple Intelligence Features Coming in October

In October, Apple Intelligence will bring a range of AI-driven features with iOS 18.1. Here's what's expected:

Writing Tools to assist with tasks like drafting and editing.
Movie creation from a description in the Memories feature of Photos.
Photo search using natural language, allows users to find images by describing them.
Video moment search to find specific scenes in videos.
Clean Up for removing unwanted objects or people from photos.
Audio recording, transcription, and summarization in the Notes and Phone apps.
Summarized notifications for easier information access.
Priority Messages in Mail, highlighting important messages.
Email summaries for quick overviews.
Smart Reply in Mail for faster responses.
A redesigned Siri that's more natural and flexible, supports typing, and can answer questions about Apple device features and settings.

These features will add powerful, intuitive AI capabilities across Apple's ecosystem. They will further empower the iPhone 16 series which has new processors especially crafted to boost AI features.

Later this year and in the months following, more advanced features will arrive, expanding the AI capabilities of Apple's devices:

Image Playground: Generate images and emojis based on your input.
Image Wand: Create images from sketches or drawings.
Personalized Siri: Siri will begin using your context to deliver tailored information and actions.
Onscreen Awareness: Siri will understand what’s on your screen and perform hundreds of new actions across Apple and third-party apps.
ChatGPT Integration: Apple will incorporate ChatGPT, bringing advanced conversational AI into its ecosystem.

Apple Intelligence Availability on Apple Devices

Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI-driven features, will be exclusive to the latest iPhone 16 series, as well as last year's iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Additionally, only iPads and Macs powered by M1 or newer chips will have access to these capabilities. This limited availability is likely due to the higher processing power required for the advanced AI functions. Therefore, older devices are incompatible with the upcoming features even if they're still supported by iOS 18.

iOS 18 Availability Details

According to Apple, the iPhone SE (1st Gen), and the iPhone XR won't be compatible with iOS 18. All models following will receive the update. Those with iPhone XS models and newer will receive the update from September 16.