one year on
Apple Intelligence ships with iOS 18.1, bringing AI writing tools and notification summaries to iPhones
Apple’s first wave of Apple Intelligence goes live today — minus the marquee Siri overhaul, which Apple says will arrive in later updates.
Apple today released iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, delivering the first set of Apple Intelligence features to users. The update includes systemwide Writing Tools that can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text in first-party and third-party apps; a redesigned Siri with a glowing edge light and type-to-Siri capability; Priority Messages in Mail; notification summaries on the Lock Screen; and Clean Up in Photos. The new Siri also answers thousands of product-knowledge questions and maintains context across requests.
The rollout comes after Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote, where the company promised a sweeping AI overhaul. Missing from this initial release: the promised Siri personal-context awareness, onscreen awareness, and app-intents capabilities, which Apple says will arrive in later updates. Also absent are Genmoji, Image Playground, Image Wand, and ChatGPT integration, all slated for December. Today’s features require an iPhone 16 model or an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max, an iPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later, or a Mac with M1 and later.
The record
One year later — open only if you can handle spoilers
The notification-summary bugs became a running joke for months, but Apple quietly improved the models. The full Siri overhaul didn't ship until iOS 18.4 in spring 2025, and Genmoji arrived on schedule in December 2024. By mid-2026, Apple Intelligence was seen as competent but not revolutionary, with many users still grumbling about the Siri delays.