Apple has finally rolled out the first leg of its Apple Intelligence aka AI features for iPhones, iPad and Mac users with a latest update on Monday. Notably, Apple Intelligence was announced by Apple during WWDC in June but the new features weren’t ready in time for the iPhone 16 launch in September.
While many Android smartphone makers including Google and Samsung have already rolled out AI features to their smartphones, a big part of Apple’s marketing push behind Apple Intelligence is maintaining users’ privacy. During WWDC event in June 2024, Apple had said that many of the new AI features will run entirely on the device, while more complex tasks will be run via a Private Cloud Compute powered by Apple silicon. The Cupertino based tech giant had also claimed that users’ data will never be stored or exposed, and independent experts will be able to inspect the code running on Apple silicon to verify the company’s claims.
iOS 18.1 supported devices:
While the iOS 18.1 update is rolling out to a variety of devices starting from iPhone SE (2nd generation) onwards, but the Apple Intelligence features are only available to a select few devices. Here’s a complete list of all Apple devices that support the new AI features:
iPhone 16
iPhone 16 Plus
iPhone 16 Pro
iPhone 16 Pro Max
iPhone 15 Pro
iPhone 15 Pro Max
What’s new with iOS 18.1?
1) Writing tools and Mail app overhaul:
The new update brings with it a set of system wide writing tools that allows users to polish their text by rewriting, proofreading, summarizing it across the plethora of Apple apps like Mail, Messages, Pages and more.
Apple has also provided a major update to the Mail app, by sorting out the emails in the users inbox and detecting the time-senstive emails to the top of their list. Meanwhile, iOS 18.1 also allows users to read summaries of emails without actually needing to the open a message. Apple is also adding the Smart Reply feature across Mail and Messages app which automatically analysis the context of messages to provide some smart AI generated replies.
2) Revamped Siri:
Apple’s voice assistant Siri is finally getting an overhaul with iOS 18.1 update, making it more natural, deeply integrated within the system and able to understand more complex commands. The first major change with Siri are the glowing lights that wrap around the edge of screen when the voice assistant is activated. Siri also has a richer language understanding, helping it understand the users even if they take pauses while speaking or even change the sentence mid-way.
Meanwhile, users can also type out their commands by activating the Type to Siri mode by double tapping the bottom of the screen.
3) Photos app overhaul:
The Photos app is also getting a major redesign in iOS 18 to make it easier for users to find their favourite memories across pictures and videos. Users can now pin their favourite collections, view highlights of their favourite people, pets, places and more in the new Carousel view, and autoplay content through the app to relive past moments.
iOS 18.1 also brings a much needed feature that Android users have enjoyed for years. Apple now allows users to remove unwanted objects from Photos using the new clean up tool. The new AI backed tool can automatically detect unwanted objects or persons in an image while users also get the ability to manually select the part of image they want cleaned up by using using circle or brush gesture.
4) AI backed focus modes:
iOS 18.1 comes with a new focus mode called ‘Reduce interruptions’ that uses AI to analyze the contents of your notifications and only lets important updates disturb the focus of user.
You can override the notification settings for specific apps and people, which is how it worked prior to iOS 18.1. There is also a new toggle called ‘Intelligent Breakthrough and Silencing’ which applies similar AI notification detection to existing focus modes.
5) Cal recording and transcription:
iPhone users had to wait for a long time before Apple finally announced at WWDC 2024 that they are bringing the call recording feature to iOS 18. Not only does iOS 18.1 provide the option to record phone calls but users can now also get a transcript and summary of the recording inside the Notes and Phone app.
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Published: 29 Oct 2024, 07:11 AM IST
