Moderate Apple AI and iOS Upgrades Has Started

After Apple updated the iPhone’s iOS 18.1 recently, the company has started to slowly release its much-anticipated Apple Intelligence system. The initial upgrade was not that impressive and can be considered underwhelming, but it also hints of more changes to come.

Despite the highly promoted investment in AI, its first batch of iPhone features could be called moderately helpful, at best. With Apple Intelligence, users can now catch up on notifications faster with notification summaries, ask Siri questions with text instead of just their voice, and remove unwanted elements from photos with a new editor, among a handful of other new capabilities.

However, the initial list of new features doesn’t include the flashiest and most-promoted Apple Intelligence features — like the Image Playground, where users will be able to generate AI images via a prompt, or Visual Intelligence, which will allows them to search the web for what’s in their camera’s real-life viewfinder.

In fact, most of the currently available Apple Intelligence features are quite similar to AI features already available on certain Galaxy and Pixel phones. Still, the new iPhone features are useful enough while everyone await for the meatier main course later this year and next, when more Apple Intelligence features will be released.

To activate Apple Intelligence, first, users will need to install the latest iOS 18.1 update. To do so, they should go to Settings > General > Software Update and select "Update Now" under iOS 18.1. (Obligatory reminder to back up the phone beforehand!)

Once that’s good to go, the user will also have to actively request access to Apple Intelligence. They can go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri > Apple Intelligence and select "Join the Waitlist." It shouldn’t take long. Some users gained access in just a couple of minutes, though some people report it taking a couple of hours.

As mentioned in earlier press releases, only the iPhone 15 Pro models and iPhone 16 models can access Apple Intelligence.