Apple Intelligence has been a topic of speculation, with many people thinking it will take years to release. However, yesterday’s iOS 18.2 beta release tells a slightly different story.
Even so, there’s still a caveat here – a feature that’s in the beta doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll make it into the December release – but it does give us an idea of the planned pace…
Narrative of the slow rollout
Apple was asking for trouble, to be fair to the critics. Apple announced the iPhone 16 with much fanfare around Apple Intelligence features, but then blocked the screen with asterisks so it was difficult to see the new devices.
Apple Intelligence features were originally intended to be included in the new iPhone on day one, but iOS 18 development has fallen behind, so it had to make this awkward “trust us, it’ll be great later” announcement.
As a result of its annual iPhone releases for shareholder satisfaction, the company cannot simply release hardware before the software is ready.
The relentless schedule seems unnecessary for keeping customers happy. 9to5Mac readers, who often upgrade their devices, were glad to see the pace slow down.
The majority of respondents to our recent survey favored annual iPhone updates, but only 28% felt it was important. Most of you would prefer annual releases, and the next most popular option would be ad-hoc releases as the company has worthwhile updates to offer.
Apple could slow down iPhone releases, but shareholders would cry foul.
Apple had two problems as a result. The first was that not much was ready on day one.
In addition, Siri and Apple AI are synonymous for many people. We live for writing tools, and we love notification summaries when they’re not hilarious. What we really need is a smarter Siri. Currently, Apple Intelligence is moving very slowly, with some versions not expected before next year.
Apple Intelligence is merely a vague promise for the future, hence the narrative.
iOS 18.2 beta is big, though!
A 29-minute video walkthrough of all the new features was published yesterday.
New Features
- Apple has implemented text-to-image creation in Image Playground in a way that cannot be abused, as we mentioned yesterday. The Genmoji app also offers custom emoji functionality.
- Integrated with Siri and Writing Tools, ChatGPT provides a convenient way to communicate. The ChatGPT can be provided with instructions regarding how to compose new texts, as well as how to change any existing texts.
- You can use the Image Wand to draw a scruffy, barely recognizable scrawl, tell Apple Intelligence what it should’ve been (there’s not enough computer power for an AI to figure this out) and then see a picture of it. If you circle a blank area, the program will determine which image you need.
With the new Mail app, you can organize your emails into four categories, including primary, transactions, updates, and promotions, as well as view everything from a specific company in one place.- Lastly, audio recordings can identify and separate different elements in recordings. The feature was almost mentioned by Apple in passing during the keynote – enjoy recording separate tracks, and if you don’t do that, the app will separate them for you.
Single dot update New Features
- Non-beta users won’t be able to test iOS 18.2 until December, so we need to see how these new features work. Throughout my testing, I will share my impressions.
- Since this is a first developer beta, I fully expect it to be rough. In addition, I expect quality to improve rapidly as we respond to real-life user feedback. In the case of any of this stuff, there’s never an endpoint, only continuous improvement.
- Siri improvements annoy me as much as anyone else. Earlier this week, I expressed my embarrassment at how Siri can defeat even the most basic tasks, especially when Google Assistant demonstrates how to do it. The current iOS 18.2 beta, however, is a great step forward. I’m now willing to give Apple some slack.
