With the Apple Intelligence release date just around the corner, it’s an exciting time to own one of the best iPhones.
AI tools are one of the main selling points of the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro, bringing features such as proofreading and rewriting, summarizing, and AI photo editing to iOS 18. However, that’s not all – with the upcoming release of iOS 18.1, the arrival of artificial intelligence on iPhone is just the beginning, with more Apple Intelligence features coming next year.
So when is the release date of Apple Intelligence? Is this really a big deal? Or will consumers forget it exists in just a few months?
Apple intelligence release date
Apple Intelligence is currently being tested with the iOS 18.1 public beta. This means we can expect to see features like writing tools, cleanup, and notification summaries in October with the official release of iOS 18.1. We’ve already covered all the Apple Intelligence features in depth and when they’ll be available, but here’s a quick overview of the expected release schedule:
Apple has confirmed that Apple Intelligence will be released with iOS 18.1 in October. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Genmoji and Image Playground will be released in iOS 18.2 later this year, which is expected to be released in December. Following these major updates, iOS 18.3 is expected to be released around January and may add some Siri features powered by Apple Intelligence. Finally, Siri Apple Intelligence is expected to be overhauled next March as part of iOS 18.4, concluding the first year of Apple Intelligence functionality ahead of iOS 19 and WWDC 2025.
Based on these rumors, and Apple’s own confirmation that Apple Intelligence will launch this month, we fully expect iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 to be released in the coming weeks.
Why is this a big deal
The release of Apple Intelligence is a big deal for the future of accessible AI, and Apple’s entry into AI could play a key role in the future of the technology. Let’s take a step back from AI giants like OpenAI; your parents probably had their first experience with AI in Apple Intelligence, as did many average consumers. That means Apple’s foray into AI, and its attempt to become “AI for the rest of us,” is much more significant than the new AI features themselves.
iPhone users make up the majority of the U.S. smartphone market, and Apple has built a successful business on its promise of out-of-the-box technology. With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, we’ll have a good idea of whether AI is ready to become a key element of our daily lives, or if, in its current form, it’s just a good thing we’ve forgotten about over time. Will Apple Intelligence become a key element of the iPhone experience like FaceID, or will it be the next example of an Apple idea failing to deliver on its promise, like the discontinued Touch Bar?
Today, every AI-enabled smartphone, whether it’s the Google Pixel 9 or the Samsung S24 Ultra, seems to repackage the same tools: writing, summarizing, photo editing, and a better voice assistant. Can Apple’s attempt to surpass these Android products and offer something unique? If so, would people still care?
As someone who writes about artificial intelligence on a daily basis, I’m interested in how the average consumer interacts with the idea of chatbots and artificial intelligence capabilities built into operating systems. Apple’s vision for its Apple Intelligence-powered version of Siri, with personal context and screen awareness, to complement the AI in iOS is what I’m most excited about, but if the voice assistant turns out not to be as impressive as Apple’s WWDC 2024 The demonstration showed that it would quickly be viewed as a high-profile failure.
There’s a lot to look forward to in the world of artificial intelligence; Apple Intelligence, while it may not be the most impressive use case for artificial intelligence we’ve ever seen, will be a turning point for the technology. As for which direction this will go, however, your guess is as good as mine: Will Apple Intelligence push consumer AI into the mainstream? Or will it become another Apple Vision Pro – niche and better executed by someone else?
