Apple Intelligence could arrive on iPhone on October 28

At WWDC 24, Apple informed us that AI was finally coming to the iPhone. This wouldn’t be artificial intelligence, of course, because that’s what everyone else calls it. This would be Apple Intelligence.

Disappointingly, none of the features were ready for the launch of the new iPhone 16 models, and iOS 18 arrived without a single Apple Intelligence feature included. Apple said that they would be coming “later this year” and the consensus was that they would arrive in iOS 18.1 at some point in October.

According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we now have a potential date for the arrival of Apple Intelligence. In his Power On newsletter, Gurman revealed that according to his sources, Apple intends to release iOS 18.1 on October 28. This isn’t official, but Gurman has a very good track record for insider Apple news and is right far more often than he’s wrong.

If you own one of the new iPhone 16 models, or you have an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, you’ll be able to get access to Apple Intelligence features when iOS 18.1 arrives. Unfortunately, if you don’t have one of those phones, your iPhone doesn’t have enough RAM to support Apple Intelligence. With just a few more weeks until we may finally have the official release of iOS 18.1, here are some of the Apple Intelligence features you can look forward to.

1 AI writing tools wherever you enter text

Apple Intelligence can proofread or rewrite what you write

Generative AI has always been useful for creating or rewriting text, and Apple uses that to full advantage in iOS 18.1. The Apple Intelligence writing tools can be summoned from almost anywhere you can input text and offer you some useful ways to check or edit what you’ve written.

You can use the Proofread tool to find and correct errors, or have your text rewritten to be more concise, professional, or friendly. There are also some useful options for summarizing text; Apple Intelligence can provide a general summary, a short breakdown of the key points, or a list summarizing the content. You can even convert text into a table.

In some apps such as Notes, the writing tools have their own place among the other tools, but in most apps where you enter text, all you need to do is highlight some text, and select Writing Tools from the menu that appears.

A quick and easy way to make simple edits

A lot of new phones are being heavily promoted for their AI image editing capabilities. The Google Pixel 8 had an entire advertising campaign based around features such as Best Take, which allows you to combine the best facial expressions from multiple photos to create a photo where everyone is looking their best.

The iPhone isn’t quite at the same level just yet, but it does finally have its first AI photo editing tool. Clean Up is a quick and simple way to remove unwanted people or objects from photos. In the Clean Up tool, when editing a photo, simply tap an object if it’s already been highlighted, or circle or draw over one to select it. Your iPhone will then magically remove the selected person or object from the image. It works well with simple objects and backgrounds, but the results aren’t always that great for more complex images.

3 A vastly improved search in Photos

Finds photos and videos quickly using natural language

It was already possible to search for photos and videos in the Photos app using keywords, but Apple Intelligence gives search an impressive boost. You can now use natural language to search using detailed descriptions of what you’re trying to find, and much of the time your iPhone will be able to bring up useful results.

You can search for things such as “a house with a blue door in France” and your iPhone will bring up all the photos you have that feature a house with a blue door that you took in France. As long as you’ve tagged photos that your iPhone thinks are the same person in the People section of Photos, you can also use searches such as “Dad reading a story to Daisy.” The results are impressive and make finding photos so much easier.

4 Smart Replies for quicker responses in Messages

Your iPhone can add a suggested reply with a tap

If you have a friend who always takes forever to send a reply, leaving you staring for what seems like hours at the typing icon while they craft their carefully worded response, you may fall in love with this feature. When someone sends you a question in Messages, Apple Intelligence can generate some potential replies to that question. You can then tap one of those suggestions to immediately add it as your reply, without needing to type the whole thing out.

Rather than just being stock responses, however, the smart replies are generated by Apple Intelligence, so they are more suited to the context of the question than your typical smart replies would be.

If you’re sick of friends who take a long time to type out a response, make sure you point them in the direction of smart replies.

5 Summaries for multiple notifications

No need to read through multiple notifications from the same app

There are some apps that send me a lot of notifications, and it’s not their fault; I want them to. For example, my Home Assistant server sends me a notification every 30 minutes with the updated electricity price from my supplier, because the prices change constantly throughout the day as the supply and demand of electricity changes.

Having a lock screen full of stacks of notifications isn’t ideal, however. You have to open them all and then scroll through each one to see what it says. In iOS 18.1 you don’t need to do that any longer. Apple Intelligence will provide a summary of the entire stack of notifications, giving a general idea about what they say. It can be a big time saver, allowing you to delete a whole pile of notifications without having to read them all.

6 Summaries and priority messages in Mail

Get a brief summary of the contents of your email before you open it

Mail offers a similar summary feature of its own. Previously in the Mail app, each item of mail would show the first few words of the message beneath the sender and subject. For some emails, this is still the case, but for many, Apple Intelligence instead provides a brief summary of what the email says.

For example, I received an email this morning from Amazon promoting the Big Deal Days event. The summary informed me that the email contained details of deals on Echo devices, so I knew exactly what the email was about without even having to open it. It’s another useful time saver that can help you get to inbox zero more easily.

7 Create your own Memories in Photos

Make the exact Memories that you want with a simple prompt

Do you ever find that your iPhone has created a Memories video of a specific occasion or a specific person and wish that it had made one about something or someone else instead? If so, there’s some good news; you can now create your own Memories using the power of Apple Intelligence.

In the Memories section of the Photos app, tap Create and then write a description of the Memory Movie you want to create, such as “Special moments with Mom” or “Fun at the music festival in the park”. Your iPhone will find the best matching photos and build them into a movie for you, along with some accompanying music. You can edit the photos and music to create your perfect memories.

8 Siri is a little better but there’s much more to come

The best Siri features are still some way off

It’s fair to say that Siri hasn’t really improved that much since she first appeared on the iPhone all the way back in 2011. With Apple Intelligence, Siri is finally getting some serious upgrades. Unfortunately, most of the best features aren’t going to be released until December and beyond.

In iOS 18.1, however, you do get some improvements. Siri is now much better at understanding context and will realize when you’re referring back to something earlier in the conversation. You can also type to Siri rather than speaking to her by double tapping the bottom of your iPhone screen, even when you’re using apps. Siri also has a new look, with the rainbow glow now appearing around the edges of the screen rather than as a circle on the screen itself.

There’s more to come, however. Siri should get image and emoji generation capabilities in December, along with the ability to turn to ChatGPT for help if needed. In March next year, Siri will gain the ability to take more actions within your apps and even perform actions between one app and another.