Apple Intelligence is the highlight of the overall iOS experience on modern iPhones, with advanced features to make everyday life easier. From notification summaries, Visual Intelligence to ChatGPT-powered Siri, there's a lot to explore. In this guide, we will go over all Apple Intelligence features, how to enable and use them on your iPhone. Also, discuss any upcoming Apple Intelligence features that are yet to come.
What is Apple Intelligence?
Apple Intelligence is a suite of system-wide AI features built into iPhones, iPads, and Macs. It can help to write, summarise, translate, transcribe, generate images, and generally get things done faster. But unlike many AI tools, it processes most tasks directly on your iPhone, keeping your data private.
This means, your data isn’t constantly shared to the cloud and remains secure. However, for more demanding AI tasks, Apple uses Private Cloud Compute to handle them securely without exposing personal data.
Apple Intelligence debuted with iOS 18 on the iPhone 15 Pro, and now comes pre-installed on newer models, including the iPhone 17 and iPhone 17 Pro.
How to enable Apple Intelligence on your iPhone
Unless you have turned off Apple Intelligence manually, enabling it is a pretty straightforward process. If you have bought a new iPhone recently, and wondering where to enable it from, then simply follow the steps below.
- Open the Settings app and select Apple Intelligence & Siri.
- Here, turn on the Apple Intelligence toggle at the top.
That’s it! Once enabled, you should see Apple Intelligence features appear across your iOS apps.
All Apple Intelligence features explained
Based on everything we have discussed above, let's dive into all the Apple Intelligence features available on your iPhone.
Notification Summaries
Notification summaries show a bite-sized AI preview of app notifications. It provides a quick context, without needing to go through lengthy messages. Summarised notifications appear when you pull down the Notification Center. You can tap on the banner to reveal all alerts.
It works across all apps, including News, Messages, WhatsApp and even emails. However, it can make mistakes, as it might not understand the context, and could show a misleading summary instead. This led to quite a backlash, with Apple having to remove the feature and bring it back again later.
Writing Tools
Apple's Writing Tools are handy AI additions that let you rewrite text in different tones (Professional, Casual, Concise), proofread grammar and spelling, and summarise long paragraphs. There’s also a "Compose" option powered by ChatGPT that can generate text or even images from a prompt.
Writing Tools are built directly into the keyboard and can be accessed from the contextual menu that appears after selecting any text. It works across apps like Notes, Mail, Messages, and Safari. However, third-party app support is still limited in 2026. You can even use Writing Tools by creating a shortcut with Apple Intelligence to automatically reply to emails.
Improved Siri with ChatGPT Integration
Siri has also received a big glow-up with Apple Intelligence. The improved Siri can maintain better context across conversations instead of resetting every time. It sounds less robotic and more conversational, and understands your command even if you stumble or correct yourself mid-sentence.
When Siri hits a wall, it can hand off things to ChatGPT for better results. This has been made possible in collaboration with OpneAI. It allows users to ask complex questions that are out of the syllabus for normal Siri. However, features like personal context, on-screen awareness, and in-app actions are yet to arrive. You can activate Siri either by saying "Hey Siri" or long-press the Side button on your iPhone.
Call and Voice Memo Transcriptions and Summaries
Apple Intelligence has also brought the ability to record calls on all Apple iPhones to create transcriptions and summaries of conversations. Users can start recording an ongoing call, and it will alert both participants. Once the call ends, your iPhone will transcribe the recording and even generate a summary, so you don't need to replay anything.
This also works in the Voice Memos app, where you can record a voice note, and it will generate a transcription and a summary for the same.
Clean Up Tool and Smart Search in Photos App
Apple Intelligence also upgrades the Photos app by adding the Clean Up tool and Smart Search features. The Clean Up tool helps to erase unwanted objects and people from the image, similar to the Magic Eraser feature on Google Photos. You can find this tool by tapping on the Edit option.
Meanwhile, Smart Search allows you to search through your Photos gallery with natural language. You can just type "Flowers", and the Photos app will show you all matching results that have flowers in them. This makes finding specific photos easier on an iPhone.
Memory Movie in the Photos App
Memory Movie is another Apple Intelligence feature found in the Photos app. It is located under the "Memories" section, where you can tap on Create and describe the memory you want to make. Like you can write, "Family Beach Vacation Photos" and it will find the related photos and videos, and create a custom slideshow that you can share on your socials.
Reduced Interruptions in Focus Mode
Reduced Interruptions is a lesser-known feature that can be found within Focus section inside the Settings app. When enabled, it automatically filters and silences notifications that it deems useless while sending alerts for priority ones only.
The setting uses artificial intelligence to decide which alert from people and apps are more important. It can be quite useful when you don't want to filter out specific people in Focus Mode. You can find the same option across other Focus Modes like Work, Driving or Do Not Disturb under the Intelligent Breakthrough and Silencing section.
Priority Notifications and Emails
Using the same principle, Apple Intelligence can also identify priority notifications and emails. It can sort urgent messages that need your immediate attention, like a loved one requesting a call back or a bill that is due tomorrow. It will analyse such messages and mails on the device and show them at the top of the lockscreen or the Mail app in the "Priority" box.
Smart Reply in the Messages and Mail Apps
Smart Reply suggests a response on your keyboard when you receive a message or an email. However, it is important to know that Smart Reply creates a response based on the content of the mail or message and might not be relevant for all conversations. It is only available in Messages and Apple Mail apps.
Image Playground App
Unlike most other features in this guide, Image Playground is a standalone app where users can generate AI images in different styles. You can describe anything in natural language, like a "bird riding a motorcycle", and within seconds, the app will generate an image resembling your prompt. Users can swipe through to see the image in different art styles, or customise it with the provided themes.
Image Wand in the Notes App
Image Wand is another neat Apple Intelligence feature that turns all your little doodles and rough sketches into high-quality images with the power of AI. If you have a rough, hand-drawn image in the Notes app of a dog or a house, then Image Wand can transform it into a detailed illustration or artwork filled with colours and details.
Genmoji AI Emojis
Genmoji lets you spice up your iMessage conversations by letting you create custom emojis with simple text prompts. You can type something like "sleepy panda with coffee" and get a unique emoji. To use it, open the Emoji keyboard in Messages, tap Genmoji, and enter your prompt. This is one of the more fun Apple Intelligence features, just like Image Playground.
Visual Intelligence
Visual Intelligence is the Google Lens equivalent for iPhones. This Apple Intelligence feature lets you use your camera to identify things in real time. Just point your iPhone at an object, text, or place, and it instantly tells you what you’re looking at, translates text, or pulls up relevant information.
It can be brought up by long-pressing the Camera Control button available on iPhone 16 and newer models, except for the iPhone 16e and iPhone 17e. Users can also assign Visual Intelligence to the Action button, add it as a lock screen shortcut or bring it up from the Control Centre. It can also use ChatGPT to answer complex queries if you have enabled the ChatGPT extension in Apple Intelligence.
Upcoming Apple Intelligence Features
Development for Apple Intelligence has been slower than Google and Samsung phones, but there is chatter that the company is working on a range of improvements to refine its AI. Based on rumours and reports, here are some upcoming Apple Intelligence features expected in the coming months.
- Google Gemini Powered Siri: Apple has partnered with Google to leverage its multimodal Gemini AI to rebuild Siri on iOS 27 into a far more capable voice assistant. The upcoming version is expected to handle multi-step requests and pull context from your personal data to give more relevant responses.
- Support for Multimodality: With the arrival of Gemini on iPhones, we can expect Apple Intelligence to support multimodality. This means more ways to interact with the AI on your iPhone with less friction. It's a subtle change, but it will offer far more control and flexibility for users.
- Visual Intelligence That Understands Your Screen: Right now, Visual Intelligence only works through the camera, but Apple will be expanding it to understand what’s happening on your screen as well. This means you will be able to scan your iPhone's screen and learn more about its contents.
- Expanded Language Support: Currently, Apple Intelligence is mostly available for English language users only. But the company will be expanding its support for more languages so more people can take advantage of Apple Intelligence and its suite of AI features.
So that wraps up everything that you needed to know about Apple Intelligence. From features to how to enable it, supported iPhones, and what to expect next, we have discussed it all in this guide. While Apple's suite of AI features might not have been a hit right off the bat, there is still a lot to look forward to in the future. And you can rest assured we will update this guide once new details become official.
