After months of anticipation, Apple has finally given us a taste of AI. However, Apple Intelligence is still missing a lot of features.
Virtually every single tech giant has jumped on the AI bandwagon and Apple is no exception. The iPhone maker has eschewed its typical wait-and-watch approach to new technologies in favor of an aggressive feature push to compete with Google and Samsung. And that’s how we got Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI features that promise to make your iPhone, iPad, and Mac more proactive and useful. But not every Apple Intelligence feature will make its way to your device right now and you may even have to wait until 2025 for some of the highlights.
So in this article, let’s break down which Apple Intelligence features you can use today, and which ones you’ll need to wait a bit longer for.Apple Intelligence features available today
The first set of Apple Intelligence features have arrived with the iOS 18.1 update, starting October 28, 2024. The list of features include:
You can now call upon Apple Intelligence to summarize, proof-read, and rewrite in any app or text field. Simply tap and hold any piece of editable text and you should see a list of available options. This is a handy feature to detect and correct errors and serves as an alternative to third-party tools like Grammarly. The rewrite tool also allows you to switch between various tones like Professional, Friendly, and Concise.
The December update will expand Writing tools with the ability to dictate specific writing styles. You could ask Apple Intelligence to rewrite a piece of text as a poem, for example.
Notifications have never been iOS’ strong suit but Apple Intelligence aims to remedy this long-standing deficiency with intelligent summaries. It can truncate and summarize dozens of chat messages, for example, saving you from reading through entire group conversations.
The Mail app will also use AI to push relevant emails like boarding passes to the top of your inbox. You can also see a summary below each email right within your inbox. When it’s time to respond, a feature called Smart Reply can help with drafting your reply.
