Apple brought many new features with iOS 18 in September, but its much-hyped Apple Intelligence features were notable by their absence. With the newly-released iOS 18.1 update, many of the promised AI capabilities are now available to the public. You can grab the free update now in Settings – let’s see what’s new.
Apple Intelligence
These AI-powered features are only available to those with compatible devices, starting from iOS 18.1. Specifically, you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, or any iPad with an Apple Silicon chip (M1 or higher). You’ll also need to opt into the Apple Intelligence Beta via Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and ensure your device language is set to US English.
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You’ll notice a few big Apple Intelligence features aren’t yet available. Apple is taking a cautious approach here, and it looks like we’ll get the image generation features like Genmoji and Image Playground in a later update, likely not until 2025.
Other changes
Apple Intelligence is the big selling point, here, but there are other changes in iOS 18 too.
Camera Control on the latest iPhones can now initiate selfie mode, while a new Spatial mode is added to supported devices.
Owners of AirPods Pro 2 now have access to new Hearing Test and Hearing Aid capabilities.
If you have Apple Watch Series 10 or Ultra 2, you can now turn on sleep apnea detection to look for breathing disturbances while you rest.
Control Center adds more options and a reset button in case your customization gets out of hand.
Siri is now contextually aware and has a better knowledge of Apple products, although it still can’t take action within apps or call upon ChatGPT.
How to get iOS 18.1
Note that even with Automatic Updates switched on in Settings, it’s often faster to manually trigger the update process. Go to Settings > General > Software Update to check for the latest version of iOS, and App Store > Account to see which apps are due an update.