With the upcoming releases of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, Apple unveiled a host of exciting upgrades at WWDC 2024. The thing that really stood out was Apple’s take on AI. They chose to call it Apple Intelligence. From ChatGPT-powered Siri to AI-generated images and emojis, here’s a preview of the AI capabilities coming to your Apple devices.
Before diving in, here are a few key points to note:
- These AI features are not currently available but are expected to roll out later this year.
- You will receive these updates upon installation of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia on your respective devices.
- Not all devices that receive the latest update will support these AI features. Here is a list of supported devices.
With that in mind, let’s explore the new AI features Apple has in store.
Table of Contents
1. Continuous Conversations With Siri
You can now have ongoing conversations with Siri without needing to repeat the context every time. For instance, if you ask, “How far is the Golden Gate Bridge?” and then follow up with, “Suggest restaurants near it,” Siri will know that “it” refers to the Golden Gate Bridge.
2. Ask Siri How To Do Things On Your Device
If you are unsure how to send a scheduled message or create a shared album, you can now ask Siri for detailed instructions. Siri will show you the step-by-step process on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
3. Control Your Apps With Siri
Siri can now perform a variety of tasks within apps on your Apple devices. It can interpret what’s on your screen and respond accordingly. For example, you can ask it to “Increase the contrast on this photo,” “Create a folder named Extras,” or “Save the address to contacts.”
Apart from that, Siri can also understand the context. For example when you ask “When will my mom reach home”. It can understand who your mom is, then go through messages and emails to find the relevant info to give you an answer.
4. Siri Can Now Understand Stutters
Siri can now recognize when you stutter or change your mind mid-sentence. For example, if you say, “Set an alarm for 8 AM, no sorry, 7 AM,” Siri will understand and set the alarm for 7 AM.
5. Use ChatGPT with Siri
If Siri can’t answer your question, it can now use ChatGPT to provide a detailed response instead of just showing web results. So now you can ask even complicated questions to Siri like “Create a 5-day meal plan for 8 people” and it will do it with the help of ChatGPT. Siri will always ask for your permission before sending your requests to ChatGPT to ensure privacy.
6. Compose with ChatGPT
ChatGPT is integrated deeply with the operating system, allowing you to effortlessly compose emails, documents, and even generate images on your device.
7. Writing and Reading Tools
Apple Intelligence offers versatile writing tools that can proofread, rewrite, and adjust the tone of your content to be more concise, professional, or friendly. You can also use these tools to summarize text or generate key points in any app or website.
8. Get a Summary of Your Audio and Call Recordings
Now you can record calls on your iPhone and the other person on the call will be notified first. More than that, the recorded calls can be transcribed and you will get a summary for a quick view using the Notes app. Had a 30-minute conversation with your colleague? No issue, you can get key points easily with the summary feature.
9. Email and Message Summaries
Instead of just seeing the beginning of an email or message, Apple now provides a small summary in the app and also in the notifications. This will give you an idea of the content before you open it.
10. Priority Messages and Notifications
Apple uses AI to understand the context of your emails and messages. If something requires immediate attention, it will be marked as a priority both in the app and in notifications, ensuring you don’t miss important communications. For example, an email from your boss asking for the deadline will be highlighted as a priority.
11. Reduce Interruptions
Similar to the Do Not Disturb mode, there’s now an AI-powered Reduced Interruptions mode. When enabled, you will only receive important notifications. The AI determines the importance of each notification based on context.
12. Smart Reply to Your Emails
The new Smart Reply feature in the Apple Mail app allows you to quickly compose replies using AI. Choose your preferences from the menu. For example, if you receive an email asking if you’re available for a meeting, Smart Reply might suggest responses like “Yes”, “No” or “Can we reschedule?”. Upon selecting an option, Smart Reply will compose a reply.
13. Generate AI Emojis with Genmojies
Though there are more than 3,600 emojis on iPhones, we often end up in situations where the perfect emoji we are looking for is not available or just hard to find. Now Apple allows you to create emojis using AI. Simply describe the emoji you want, and it will generate one for you. For example, describe “a happy face with sunglasses and a beach hat,” and the AI will create it for you.
These new emojis can be used just like regular ones to react to messages or include in your texts. However, how these work in third-party apps is still unknown.
14. Generate Images with Image Playground
Apple’s new native image generator can create sketches, illustrations, and animations (but not realistic images). It is integrated into Messages, Keynote, Pages, and Numbers, but the good news is that even third-party apps can incorporate it. Additionally, there’s a dedicated Image Playground app for more creative control. For instance, if you need an illustration of a building for a presentation, just describe it and the app will create it.
What makes Apple’s Image generator special is that it can understand people and generate images with them in it. For example, in iMessage, you can open the Image Playground and generate a birthday celebration image to wish your friend. It will pick up your friend’s image and generate an image accordingly.
15. Image Wand
While Image Playground generates new images, Image Wand replaces existing images with similar ones or adds images based on the provided text. For instance, you can enhance your notes by adding relevant images directly within the app.
16. Clean Up Your Photos
In the Photos app, the new Clean Up feature lets you remove unwanted people or objects from your images. Select what or who you want to remove, and it will be gone. Basically, object remover but Apple named it differently because why not.
17. Create a Memory Movie
In Apple Photos, you can now create a movie from your photos and videos. Just select the photos and videos and how they should appear. Apple will gather the relevant media and create a short video with background music.
18. Math Notes
Calculator has finally arrived on the iPad and how? The iPad’s new AI-powered Calculator app features Math Notes. You can write math questions using your Apple Pencil, and get answers immediately. It can also understand variables and graphs. This feature is available not only in the iPad’s calculator but also in the Notes app on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Any changes you make in the formula or values will be reflected in real-time.
And that’s it, folks.
