Apple first teased Apple Intelligence at the WWDC event this year, promising the first rollout this fall. Fast forward to now, and the much-anticipated features are finally here!
The first version of Apple Intelligence, available in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS 15, features notification and email summaries, priority alerts for emails in Mail, Writing Tools, natural language searching and image editing in Photos, and an upgraded Siri.
Writing Tools is a particularly notable new feature in the iOS 18.1 release. As the name implies, the feature uses AI to proofread documents with spelling and grammar checks, summarise them, and rewrite the content in three different tones: concise, friendly, and professional.
It can also display the text in a table or list format, depending on the user’s preferences. Writing Tools are available in a variety of first and third-party apps for the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and WhatsApp.
Summaries are another handy feature that’s included in this rollout. Notification summaries use AI to break up your notifications into small chunks of information, allowing you to focus on the most relevant aspects of your messages. Text message summaries also serve to highlight the most important details of your text messages.
Photos is also getting a new AI Clean Up tool which can be used to quickly remove unwanted objects from an image. You can tap something that has been automatically highlighted by the tool or draw your own outline of what you wish to delete. It operates on-device, so all you have to do is wait a few moments for the selected object to disappear. It also includes natural language search, which, as the name implies, allows users to search using simple language.
Finally, Siri also boasts a shiny new upgrade featuring a new interface that glows around the edges. It recognizes when users stumble over their words and allows them to restart the conversation. Siri can also answer product knowledge searches about Apple devices, like how to scan documents on the iPhone. Users can also type in their queries by double-tapping the bottom of the screen.
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