Apple Intelligence announced: Check new features coming to iPhone, Mac

Apple Intelligence: Apple hosted its annual developers’ conference, WWDC 2024, at Apple Park tonight wherein the company shared a roadmap as to how it plans to integrate artificial intelligence into its devices. As a part of this plan, the company announced Apple Intelligence, which uses generative models and personal context to deliver “intelligence that’s incredibly useful and relevant”.

“We’re thrilled to introduce a new chapter in Apple innovation. Apple Intelligence will transform what users can do with our products — and what our products can do for our users,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the occasion.

What is Apple Intelligence?

Apple describes Apple Intelligences as a ‘personal intelligence system’ that can be used to create language and images and take action. It uses Large Language Diffusion Models to deliver natural language understanding, create and personalise images, and take actions based on personal context.

Apple says that Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia and that it ‘harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks’.

Apple Intelligence availability

As far as the availability is concerned, the company is that Apple Intelligence is free for users and it will be available in beta as part of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall in US English. Talking about devices, it will be available on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to US English.

Image: Apple

Apple Intelligence features

Here are the top features of Apple Intelligence:

Writing Tools

— Apple Intelligence or AI powered Rewrite will enable users to choose from different versions of what they have written, and adjust the tone to suit the audience and task at hand.

— Proofread will check grammar, word choice, and sentence structure while also suggesting edits along with explanations of the edit.

— Summarize will let users select text and have it recapped in the form of a digestible paragraph, bulleted key points, a table, or a list.

Mail

— The new Priority Messages section at the top of the inbox will shows the most urgent emails, like a same-day dinner invitation or boarding pass. Users will also see a summary of email instead of the first few lines.

— Smart Reply will provide suggestions for a quick response. It will also identify questions in an email to ensure everything is answered.

— Priority Notifications will appear at the top of the stack on iPhone screen to surface what’s most important.

— Apple has also introdued a new focus called ‘Reduce Interruptions’ that surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention.

Notes and Phone apps

— Apple says that users can now record, transcribe, and summarise audio. “When a recording is initiated while on a call, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to help recall key points,” the company added.

Image Playground

— This feature lets users create new images. They can choose from three styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch.

— Image Playground is easy to use and built right into apps including Messages, Keynote, Freeform and Pages. It is also available in a dedicated app.

— Apple says that in Notes app, users can access Image Playground through the new Image Wand in the Apple Pencil tool palette to make notes more visually engaging.

Genmoji

— Users can also create their own emojis using Apple Intelligence. The emojis generated this way are called Genmojis.

— Users can create Genmoji of friends and family based on their photos. They can be added inline to messages, or shared as a sticker or reaction in a Tapback.

Photos

— Apple Intelligence can also be used for searching photos and videos with some context.

— Users can also search for specific moments in video using AI.

— The new Clean Up tool identifies and removes distracting objects in the background of a photo without accidentally altering the subject.

Siri

Siri has got a big boost with the introduction of Apple AI. “With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri is more natural, more contextually relevant, and more personal, with the ability to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks,” Apple wrote. Here are the top AI powered features coming to Siri:

— It can follow along if users stumble over words and maintain context from one request to the next.

— Users can type to Siri, and switch between text and voice to communicate with Siri.

— Siri can now answer thousands of questions about how to do something on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

— With onscreen awareness, Siri can now understand and take action with users’ content in more apps over time. “For example, if a friend texts a user their new address in Messages, the receiver can say, ‘Add this address to his contact card’,” the company added.

ChatGPT 4.0

Apple is also bringing ChatGPT 4.0 access across Apple’s devices via iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS 15. “Siri can tap into ChatGPT’s expertise when helpful. Users are asked before any questions are sent to ChatGPT, along with any documents or photos, and Siri then presents the answer directly,” the company wrote.

ChatGPT will also be available in Apple’s systemwide Writing Tools.