iOS 18.1 with Apple Intelligence is here. Try these 5 AI features first

The most anticipated new feature of the iPhone 16 has finally arrived, a month after the phone itself. Apple Intelligence has been Apple’s biggest story of 2024 — with apologies to the Apple Vision Pro headset — and with the arrival of iOS 18.1 you can now jump into the beta version of Apple Intelligence and start trying some of the first features.

Also: iOS 18.1 is officially available for iPhone. How to download (and which models support it)

You’ll have to sign up for the Apple Intelligence beta after downloading the iOS 18.1 update on your phone and then going to the Settings app, tapping the new “Apple Intelligence & Siri” setting, and requesting beta access. 

Also, keep in mind that not all of the Apple Intelligence features have arrived yet. I’ll go through what’s in iOS 18.1 and what’s coming later. I’ve been using Apple Intelligence since the end of July when it first arrived in the developer beta, and I have several favorite features. 

I also recently spoke with Apple’s Bob Borchers, vice president of worldwide product marketing, about the launch of Apple Intelligence to the general public with the arrival of iOS 18.1. We especially talked about my two favorite aspects of the way Apple is implementing generative AI: 

1. Apple Intelligence takes some of the best capabilities of large language models (LLMs) and integrates them directly into apps and features rather than relying solely on a chatbot prompt.
2. Strong security and privacy controls are thoroughly built-in from the ground up.

Borchers said, “We are introducing features that are going to integrate into your day-to-day life and into your workflow to make it easier, faster, better, and more personal — and without ever compromising your privacy.”

Also: 6 iOS 18 settings I changed immediately – and why you should too

Apple also isn’t just relying on work from OpenAI and other AI companies. It’s doing its own research and development to power new features. “We have built both diffusion and large language models here at Apple that are core to Apple intelligence,” said Borchers, “and we have specialized them to specific tasks.” 

My 5 favorite Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.1

Only some of the features that Apple announced this summer when it unveiled Apple Intelligence are available in iOS 18.1 (as well as in iPadOS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia 15.1). These are my favorite features. 

1. Siri gets a glow-up — The fact that Siri looks and feels completely new, with a multi-color glow around the edges of the screen when you activate it, is an indication of the fact that it can do a lot more. One of my favorite things is actually one of the most subtle. It is loaded with lots of tips and info to help you figure out how to do things on your iPhone, such as how to AirDrop a file and how to share a Wi-Fi password.

2. Writing Tools fix your messages — Apple’s AI helper app for correcting your grammar, spelling, and style is easily accessible from Mail, Notes, and can even be accessed by third party apps.

3. Notification Summaries save time and scrolling — Rather than having to scroll through a long group text thread, the system can summarize the decision on where to meet for dinner or update you on the most important information among all the notifications you missed while you were off the grid.

4. Record phone calls and summarize them — You can now record phone calls directly from the Phone app and the summarization feature can give you a quick paragraph explaining the most important points. The summarization is still a work in progress.

5. Take audio in Notes and summarize  — When you use the Notes app to do an audio recording (the recording feature is buried under the paper clip), the system can now do a summary for you. Like the phone call summary, Apple’s summarization quality is still a work in progress, but it’s useful to have.

What’s not yet in Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1

• ChatGPT integration — If Siri doesn’t know certain information, it will eventually be able to query ChatGPT to do some of the things it’s good at.
• Image Playground — This is where you can generate your own images based on a description you type.
• Genmoji — You’ll be able to make your own custom emojis to respond to text messages. 
• Personal Context — This is the example where you’ll simply be able to ask Siri what time your mom’s flight arrives and it will know who your mom is and be able to look up the flight information based on a recent email or text message.
• Non-English languages — Additional English variants (other than US) will arrive later in 2024 and other languages (Chinese, French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese) will arrive in 2025.

More to come

Borchers characterized this launch as the beginning of “a continuing drumbeat of Apple intelligence releases that we expect to continue for quite some time.”