iOS 18.1 brings Apple intelligence to your iPhone – but only these 7 features
Apple has started rolling out the first wave of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone users. As long as you have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer model, you can start using them. Here’s a look at all the AI features you’ll get with iOS 18.1.
1 Improvements to the Photos app, including Clean Up
Apple Intelligence adds several new features to the Photos app. When you try to edit an image, you will now see a Clean up a tool that can remove unwanted objects from an image. Similar to Google’s Magic Eraser, you can use it with any image—whether it’s a screenshot or a photo taken with another camera.
To use it, open a photo and tap Edit icon (indicated by three sliders) at the bottom and select Clean up. Apple Intelligence will highlight areas of the photo that you might want to remove. You can also tap, brush, or circle something you want to remove. Drag your fingers to pan and zoom in on the image. This feature works best with smaller parts of the image or objects on a plain background.
In addition, you can use natural language in the Photos app to search for something specific, such as “Maddie with the dolphins.” You can also search for a specific event in a movie clip. In Memories, you can create a movie by entering a description, such as “Trips to Orlando.”
With Apple Intelligence’s suite of writing tools, you can tweak anything you write. The tools are available in any application, including Mail and Messages. Just highlight the text and select Writing tools.
You can select from the Writing Tools menu that appears at the bottom Correct correct errors in the selected text, including spelling. You can go through the changes that Apple Intelligence has made individually, or choose to revert all changes at once.
Another option is Overwrite. This will change the tone of your text using Friendly, Professionalor Brief choice.
Finally, you can select text and choose to summarize it in a number of ways. You can copy and paste the summarized content anywhere.
3 Better Siri
When you activate Siri with a voice command or by pressing the side button, you’ll see a new glow around the edges of your iPhone’s display. When you speak, the glow also animates according to the sound of your voice.
There’s also now a new way to activate your personal assistant. Just double-tap the bottom of the screen and the Type to Siri interface will appear. Instead of speaking a command, you can type your command. As you type, Siri will provide you with a list of suggested requests.
When talking to Siri, the personal assistant will also remember the context between questions. For example, you can ask, “What time is it in Los Angeles?” and “What’s the weather like there?” and Siri will remember what city you ask about.
If you ever change what you say or stumble over a phrase while making a request, Siri can now follow you and still provide the correct answer.
Siri has also become an Apple expert. You can ask Siri various questions about your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, such as specific settings or customization tools. For example, you can ask Siri for directions to schedule a text message, which is one of the handy features of the Messages app that Apple introduced with iOS 18.
4 Summaries and more in Mail and Safari
Apple Intelligence can help summarize content in both Safari and Mail. In Reader mode in Safari, select Summarize at the top of the page you’ll see a summary of the article.
In the Mail app, you’ll now see a quick summary of each email in your inbox, along with the sender and subject. Previously, you saw the first few lines of the email. You can also open a specific email and choose Summarize in the upper right corner, you will see a summary of the contents of the email.
Whenever you receive a time-sensitive email, Mail automatically places it at the top of your inbox for easy access. When you’re replying to an email, Smart Reply provides quick responses based on the context of the email.
5 Transcription for phone calls and voice memos
In iOS 18.1, you can use the transcription feature when recording phone calls or audio in apps like Notes and Voice Memos. You can see exactly what was said and even share or use the text in another app.
You can also see a summary of these transcripts with Apple Intelligence.
6 Smart replies to messages
Just like in Mail, you can tap Smart Reply in Messages. This will examine the text of the message and provide some suggestions so you can respond quickly. This usually works best in situations where there is a question that you can answer “Yes” or “No”.
7 Notification summaries
If you’re like me, your iPhone’s lock screen is probably full of notifications from just about any app imaginable. That’s when notification summaries come in handy; help you better manage all this information.
Instead of having to read multiple notifications from one app, the feature will provide a summary of what’s happening from each app. Works for all apps. During a short setup process, you can turn the feature on for all apps or select specific ones.
In addition, iOS 18.1 has a new priority notifications feature that uses Apple Intelligence to scan all your notifications and prioritize those that require immediate attention. This feature also works with the new Reduce Interruptions focus mode, which you can activate by going to Settings > Focus and selection Reduce interruptions.
Once set up, Apple Intelligence will allow important notifications to interrupt you while silencing any it deems unimportant. You can further customize focus mode so that specific people and apps can distract you.
While this is only the first wave of all the Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC 2024, Apple is off to a good start by adding essential elements to improve the overall iPhone user experience.