Apple brings Apple Intelligence with iOS 18.1 dev beta, but there are a lot of limitations

Ivan Mehta
Updated ·2 min read

Users who have signed up for iOS 18's developer beta can now get the first taste of Apple Intelligence as the company has released some features of its AI suite via an update released on Monday.

The company revealed Apple Intelligence at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June, but the first set of developer beta and public beta releases didn't have any Apple Intelligence features.

Usage limitations

The rollout with iOS 18.1 seems to be quite limited. Apple said in June that users with iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPads and Macs that run on M1 chips would be able to try out Apple Intelligence features in beta if their device language was set to U.S. English.

But according to users and our own testing, you also need to set your device region to the U.S. Notably, this doesn't change your App Store region.

To use Apple Intelligence features, you will have to tap on join a waitlist under a new "Apple Intelligence & Siri" menu in the Settings app. You will get a notification when you can use it, but it might take a while for your device to download models related to the AI suite and all features won't be available immediately.

Features

Apple is debuting a new animation for Siri. Plus, you can invoke Siri to use text prompts by double tapping on the bottom bar.

There are also writing tools that let you proofread or rewrite the text. You can choose to change the tone of a passage via three options: "Friendly," "Professional," and "Concise." The tools can also turn passages of text into lists, summarize it, format into a table, or surface the key points.

<strong>Image Credits: </strong>Apple
Image Credits: Apple

The Mail app also gets a summarization feature: You now see one-line summaries of each email without opening them. The app also automatically displays important emails at the top of your inbox, and lets you use smart replies to quickly respond to emails.

Focus Mode is getting an AI boost, too: A mode called "Reduce Interruptions" will use AI to only surface essential notifications.

The Apple Intelligence suite still lacks many features, such as ChatGPT integration and Image Playground. According to Bloomberg's reporting, Apple is still fixing bugs with a lot of these new features so we're going to have to wait a bit until we see them fleshed out.