10 Apple Intelligence Features That You Must Know

Apple Intelligence a term and a new chapter in Apple innovation is circulating all around the globe. Released on July 29, 2024, “Cupertino Marketing Executives” declared it "AI for the rest of us". It's a platform launched by Apple Inc. to utilise the features of Generative AI into their devices. Like OpenAI ChatGPT and Google Gemini, Apple has also set its ground in the AI landscape to remain one step ahead of its competitors by introducing intelligent AI features.

The freshly launched Apple intelligence feature is only compatible with iOS 18, iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia. By utilising Apple Silicon power it can understand language and context, take actions across different apps to speed up everyday tasks. From personalized notifications to Siri enhancements, Apple is going to do wonders in the AI field. Right after the launch of this new feature, the Apple stock value jumped immediately in 24 hours thus increasing the company's market capitalization by 215 billion U.S. dollars. Therefore, to understand clearly the new AI features in Apple devices let's discover the ins and outs of Apple intelligence, the reasons behind its launch, and the 10 best Apple AI features (including 2 bonus features) everyone must know. So let’s read.

What is Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence a new buzz word is meant to be Apple's multimodal approach. It’s a massive step toward the newest AI computing trends. The main aim of Apple behind this new step is to bring generative AI features into their devices such as image creation, Siri enhancements, and several writing tools.

It utilizes the Apple Silicon power to create images, understand languages, take actions across multiple apps, and personalized notifications to speed up daily tasks. With the availability of Apple Cloud Compute power and the ability to upscale computational capacity between on-device processing and multiple server-based models, it’s going to set a benchmark standard for privacy in AI.
This new feature is ready to rule on about every Apple device most specifically the newest ones.

Apple Intelligence and its Role in Deep Learning

We know that Apple has set strong ground in deep learning capabilities. For that purpose, it has integrated a Neural Engine named Neural Processing Unit (NPU) into its multiple generations. Due to this integration, intelligent image processing becomes possible when it comes to local machine-learning tasks. However, the recent Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2024 announced that Apple is on its way to utilizing those Neural Engines in the core Apple products.

The main aim behind this approach is to bring Large Language Models and Generative AI into the device right away to level up Apple's users' experience and solve consumer's pain points. After certain updates and keynotes Apple’s CEO Tim Cook announced a term for generative AI solutions that is “Apple Intelligence”. He said that;

"We can’t wait to disclose new innovative chapter in Apple that is Apple Intelligence. It’s going to change the way people use the devices. This unique approach is going to combine generative AI with users' context to help them deliver true intelligence."

He further added that

"These AI features can access information in a private way to help users do whatever they can."

Reasons to Integrate “Apple Intelligence” Features

Tim Cook; Apple’s CEO during the conference indicated that they wanted to integrate all-in-one AI into Apple products. The AI which can be powerful enough to be effective, User-friendly enough to maintain ease of use, deeply integrated enough to ensure privacy terms, and personal enough to be a true assistant to the users. Due to all these objectives and reasons behind this move, Tim declared “Apple Intelligence as personal intelligence”.

Furthermore, he indicated the Partnership with OpenAI for the incorporation of ChatGPT and some other generative AI products into Apple. Hence, due to the additional functionality from third-party solutions, the privacy of Apple users must be ensured, thus letting the company remain competitive amidst Google and Microsoft.

List of 10 Best Apple Intelligence Features You Must Try

To use these features you have to install iOS developer beta on your 15 pro or 15 pro max iPhone, now it's time to see what kind of features Apple has introduced. So let's begin!

Language, Focus, and Communication Features

1. Writing Tools

Apple Intelligence feature will allow users to rewrite or proofread their text wherever they write it, even through third-party apps. This feature will help mainly in writing and sending important emails, social media blog posts, or articles.

2. Prioritized Notifications

Through Apple AI, users will be able to pick the most important notification at the top of the stack so that they will be able to pay attention to the important ones at a glance. Additionally, for faster scanning, users can get summarized notifications in real-time.

“Reduced Interruption” Feature:
When it comes to priority notifications then Apple Intelligence came up with a new Focus term "Reduced Interruption". This feature will be able to understand the context and content of the arrived notification. After understanding the content it will display you the one that might need immediate attention. For example "a notification of piking baby child from day-care".

3. Prioritized Mail

Users can now get Priority mail messages in a go. With the help of the new intelligent features, Apple users can get time-sensitive emails at the top of their inbox. For example, it will ping such invitations on the top which has a deadline of today or it can also prioritize the check-in reminder for your afternoon flight at the top of your inbox. Additionally, this feature will help cut down the long emails into short summaries while delivering the important message. Users can tap on the email to reveal a summary right from the inbox.

“Smart Reply Option” in Mail
Apart from prioritized Mail, Apple Intelligence introduced a Smart Reply option to Emails. Due to this, it can easily identify the questions that are being asked in the emails and suggest relevant responses. So with the help of a few taps, you can send an immediate reply while answering the key questions of Mail.

Expressive and Unique Image Features

4. Image Playground App

Due to Apple's intelligence, iPhone users can experience creating fun images with the Image Playground tool right in their apps. This app provides multiple suggestions, concepts, and descriptions to create an entirely new image. Users can even pick a person's image from the photo library to experiment with.

Furthermore, it also allows you to set and adjust the style to match either the Message thread or slide in the keynote. With the help of this feature, you can also experiment with different image styles like animation, illustration, and sketches. In the end, you can share these custom images with your friends or in social media posts.

5. Image Wand

Another intelligent feature designed by Apple is the Image Wand. Users can transform their rough sketches into related images in the Notes App. For example, if you have sketched in the Notes app then with the help of an Apple pencil or with your finger, you can draw a circle around that sketch. This feature will analyze the content around the sketch and will produce a harmonizing visual.

Additionally, users can even loop a blank area and Image Wand will create a picture while analyzing the surrounding context.

6. Genmoji Creation

Apple's Intelligent features have taken the Emoji world into a completely new world. Now Apple users can create original Genmoji to express their emotions. According to the situation simply they can describe the context and emotion, Apple AI will generate a Genmoji along with some additional options.

Users can also pick a photo of their friend or family member to create their Genmojis for fun. You can use them in Messages, share them as a sticker with your friends, or even as a reaction in the Tap back. So, the Genmoji feature helps to make the conversations more personalized, expressive, and engaging.

7. Clean UP

Having a perfect group photo but with multiple objects in the background has always been an annoying thing. But now Apple users need not worry about that because the Intelligent Clean Up feature in the Photo app is here to remove this annoyance for you.

With this Apple Intelligence feature now you can remove any kind of distraction in our best-clicked photos. You can open the picture from gallery. Click on the clean-up icon and then circle the object that you want to remove. With a little tap, you can remove the unwanted things while maintaining the original image.

8. Memory Movie Creation

With this new Memory movie feature in the photo app, Apple users can now create customized movies of their memory photos or videos. For example in the description box, you can enter a description about all the deserts that you have eaten in summer, Apple intelligence will navigate all through down in your photos and videos and will find the perfect match with your described prompt.

urthermore, based on the theme it can generate a unique storyline by arranging your photos with its narrative arc.

9. Quick Photo and Video Search

Searching for desired photos or videos in a time of urgency has always been an arduous task. But now it's one step away for Apple users. The "Search for photos and Videos” option is accessible in your Photo app. With Apple Intelligence now this search has become more convenient for users. Through Natural Language capability, you can search to get much needed photos and videos, like “Kaitie photo with stickers on face”.

Moreover, if you want to find some important clip from any video, you can also type the keyword in the search bar. As a result, it will get you right to the relevant segment of the video.

New Era for Apple’s Chatbot –“Siri”

10. Siri Enhancements

Apple Intelligence is now connected to Siri to do extra wonders. With the help of new AI, Siri can now understand broader level of language with more ease. So now it is more natural to communicate with Siri than ever before. The enhanced Siri is now more capable and have;

• Awareness of personal context
• Ability to take certain actions across the apps
• Ability to guide Apple users about device "features and settings" through the "Product Knowledge" feature.

Now let’s see the upgraded Siri features through Apple Intelligence;

• Product Knowledge Feature: This feature helps users to expand their knowledge about device features and settings. If you are facing any difficulty in operating any of the features then you can ask questions from Siri right away. For example, you can ask about how to schedule a text message on your new iPad, iPhone, or Mac, then Siri will immediately give you step-by-step directions in a go.
• Onscreen Awareness: Another great feature that Apple Intelligence came up with to empower Siri's onscreen awareness. It means that this feature will take care for the things that are happening right on screen. For example, if any of your friends messaged you about their new address then you can simply say to Siri "Add the new address to their contact card". By doing so Siri will take care of the rest.
• Richer Language Understanding: Previously Siri was capable of understanding language, but now with Apple Intelligence it has richer language understanding and enhanced voice. This feature helps communicate with Siri in an even more natural way. Siri understands the prior context of the appeal. For example, if you were about to set a timer of 10 minutes and you mistakenly mention alarm rather than timer then you can ask Siri to reconsider the request and it will do so. An example would be like;

“Hey Siri please set the alarm for 15 minutes –oh Sorry I mean set a timer of 10 minutes not alarm, actually not 10 let’s make it 5."

• Ability to Understand Personal Context: Since now Siri can understand the personal context with the help of a new intelligence feature. It can help you remember the things that you have forgotten. For example, if you are trying to find out some sort of recipe that your friend sent to you. Now you are unable to find it whether it was in a text, Note, or email. Siri will immediately help you find that recipe by using previous knowledge of the information without even compromising the privacy terms and conditions.
• In and Across the Apps Actions: With Apple Intelligence now users can seamlessly take action across the apps with the help of Siri. You can request that send you the previously drafted. Siri knows about the referred email you are talking about. It also knows about the app where it's in. Since it can take actions across the app you can ask it to pop up your specific photo and then drop it into your Notes app.

Let's explore 2 bonus Apple intelligence features.

Apps Incorporation and Privacy Terms

11. ChatGPT Integration in Apple Devices

Apple proclaims a partnership with OpenAI to incorporate ChatGPT-4o in compatible devices like MacOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18. Apple users can access ChatGPT for free even without creating an account. This integration allows users to fully access its expertise from image generation to its document understanding capabilities.

With ChatGPT integration, Apple users will be at ease without jumping between other tools. Moreover, Siri can also tap into the expertise of ChatGPT when needed. It’s going to be present in all the writing tools of Apple, helping to generate content for almost anything. Additionally, Apple users can access ChatGPT to generate images in various styles. It helps writing more unique and complementary.

In terms of privacy and security, it's clear to the users who access ChatGPT, that their IP addresses are hidden. Apple is fully taking responsibility for privacy without depending upon OpenAI to do so.

12. Apple’s Privacy and Security

Since Apple intelligence is designed on high security. These privacy terms ensure that tasks are handled efficiently and securely. The intelligence feature employs a unique architecture that helps in balancing both on-device processing and cloud computation.

• On-Device Processing: This feature ensures multiple AI functions such as image creation, and text rewriting are happening directly on the phone or your device. It means that your data remains on your iPad, iPhone, or Mac. As a result, it eliminates the data breach risks while ensuring that private information is secure and personalized.
• Private Cloud Computation: For intense computational tasks, Apple prefers Private Cloud Compute to process data on devoted Apple Silicon Servers. These servers help in handling complex tasks while maintaining privacy. Apple ensures that no kind of personal information is stored or sent to the cloud, thus returning the results to your device while maintaining a high level of privacy and security.

So, Apple's approach of combining cloud computing and on-device processing ensures the high-end protection of data while delivering effective AI capabilities. This architecture not only helps in securing the data but also enhances the system's performance.

For more understanding about Apple intelligence features you can visit the Apple blog to find the information that matters most to you.

To Which Devices Are Apple Intelligence Features Compatible?

Once the Apple intelligence features are launched then questions arise about their compatibility with multiple Apple devices. So, to answer the query, these new intelligent features work on the following

• iOS 18.1
• MacOS “Sequoia” –Freshly launched Apple operating system
• iPad OS 18.1

So, not all Apple devices support Apple Intelligence features. Only the iPad series with M processors (from M1 to M4), Mac and recent launches such as iPhone 15 pro with A17 processor users can use the new AI features.
Apart from that, knowing that in Apple silicon, a certain level of TOPs (Tera Operations per Second) performance is required for Neural Engine. It also appears with the concept that devices need at least 8GB DRAM as well to run generative AI models.

For example, in the above table from Forbes, you can see that the A16 bionic processor from iPhone 14 does not support Apple Intelligence features. It is due to the limited 6GB DRAM despite having 17 TOPs, even more than M1 and M2 processors. So we can say that 8GB DRAM is the ultimate requirement to hold genAI intelligent features.

Apple’s AI Compatibility with Older Devices

While knowing that Apple has been integrating its Neural Engine “NPU” for various generations of Apple silicon. It allows Apple Intelligence features to run on older systems as well. It will help roll out Apple's Intelligent features to a wider audience, resulting in a significant advantage. To better understand this concept let’s compare Microsoft and Apple this way;

To run Microsoft's advanced Co-pilot+ features on PCs the users require new AI PC silicon. On the other hand, Apple rolled out here by allowing the new features in older devices without having to build a new network or any kind of installed base. That's why Apple supports the intelligence features in its 2020 editions of MacBook Pro and MacBook Air with M1 Processors as well.

Steps to Turn on Apple Intelligence on Your Device

Step 1: Install the iOS developer beta on your iPhone.
Step 2: Go to the setting option
Step 3: Then navigate to Apple Intelligence and Siri
Step 4: Join the Apple Intelligence waitlist. This waitlist ensures smooth downloads while not overloading the system.

After following these steps you will get access to Apple Intelligence within an hour or so.

Conclusion

Apple's entry into the AI era through Apple Intelligence is no less than a wonder. Its giant steps towards ensuring security and privacy are setting Apple apart from other competitors like OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google. Looking forward, how Apple will introduce its intelligent features in healthcare, augmented reality or other seamless multi-device experiences will be just surprising. Moreover, Apple's main focus on security and privacy suggests that future developments will prioritize user needs and privacy. Apple is indeed late in the AI race but with proper implementation, it will set new trends in the AI landscape.