Apple Intelligence is a gradual rollout—here’s what you’ll get, and when

Easily the hottest feature of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15 is Apple Intelligence, the brand Apple has chosen for its own particular suite of mostly-on-device, privacy-protected, personal AI features.

But when you update your devices this September, you’ll probably be left scratching your head as to where all the AI features are. First, because Apple Intelligence is only going to run on iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (or iPhone 16) and M-series Macs and iPads, but also because many of the cool features you’ve heard about just aren’t there.

The best parts of Apple Intelligence aren’t coming at launch. Some will come later in 2024 through some software updates, and others will come in 2025. It’s sort of a slow rollout of AI features through the lifespan of iOS 18, and we’ll probably be downloading updates with new AI features until it’s nearly time for next year’s WWDC.

Here’s a breakdown of which features are coming, and when.

Updated September 18: Apple has divulged more info about when languages other than U.S. English.

Available at with iOS 18.1 in October

None of the Apple Intelligence features arrived along with iOS 18 on September 16. It is not until iOS 18.1, likely in October, that the first features will roll out. These features will likely be released with a “beta” designation, to warn users that there may be some minor issues.

Siri’s new interface: A glowing edge around the whole screen, and the ability to type requests to Siri.

Siri natural conversation: Siri’s ability to understand you better, even when you mess up what you’re saying, and remember context from previous requests.

Clean-up tool: Remove unwanted background items in Photos.

Writing support: Re-write passages, and create summaries and lists.

Call recording and transcription: Record a call, see a transcript of it, and generate a summary.

Some Mail features: Summaries of emails in notifications and the inbox, priority emails on top, and the ability to create a summary of emails and email threads.

Safari summaries: From within reading mode, summarize a web page.

iOS 18.2 in December

These features are expected in iOS 18.2, which will probably release in December.

Additional English languages: AI features will support localized English for UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Image generation: Genmoji and other image generation, including the Image Playground app.

Advanced Mail app features: Automatic categorization of emails and the creation of digests for groups of similar emails.

Swift Assist programming companion: An AI coding tool in Xcode that helps you write code or answer coding questions (Mac only).

ChatGPT integration: Get more advanced general knowledge questions answered by ChatGPT, or use the tool to general more elaborate text.

There are some other general iOS 18 features, not related to AI, that are coming after the initial launch. You can read all about those here.

iOS 18.3 or 18.4 in 2025

In the first half of next year is when Apple Intelligence is really going to shine, as it adds some core Siri features that will take it to the next level. This big update will likely release around March, with a beta more than a month earlier.

Siri on-device context awareness: The ability for Siri to give sensible answers based on data found in Messages, Mail, Contacts, and other on-device information.

Siri on-screen awareness: Siri will be able to see what is on your screen when you ask it to perform a task and take that information into account.

Siri application control: A big expansion of App Intents, which lets Siri perform actions in your apps. Currently limited to things like playing music or getting directions, there will be hundreds of actions Siri can take in apps. This will start with Apple’s own apps and expand to third-party apps over time.

Later in 2025

Additional languages: Apple’s AI features will expand to support German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Vietnamese, “and others” throughout 2025, according to Apple. Apple has still not committed to a date for when Apple Intelligence will be available in the EU, or which features will be supported.

Of course, all of this is subject to change depending on how smoothly Apple’s AI development goes, and how beta testing progresses. These features and dates are subject to change, and we will update this article as we learn more.