Looking at Apple’s recent hardware, iPhone17 to M5 MacBook ProIt’s clear that the company still considers AI processing to be a core feature, as the new processor inside provides a significant increase in processing power. Neural processing power. Although Apple Intelligence hasn’t been the huge success it touted last year, I found myself using several features almost every day.
We sat down to see which of the current features are in regular rotation. iPhone And Mac. It’s not necessarily flashy. image playgroundbut something that helps in small but important ways. I would like to share six features that I look at almost every day.
Which iPhone models are compatible? In addition to the latest iPhone 17 family, iPhone AirApple Intelligence runs on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Pro, or iPhone 16 Pro Max (or their Plus and Max versions).
More features will be added over time. Please note that Apple Intelligence is still official beta software, even after more than a year since its introduction. But Apple is now entering the AI era.
On the other hand, maybe you’re not impressed with Apple Intelligence or want to wait until the tool is more advanced before using it? You can easily turn off Apple Intelligence completely or use a small subset of its features.
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Receive priority notifications
This feature only came out recently, but it has become one of my favorites. When a notification arrives that you think is more important than others, the notification prioritization feature puts it at the top of your lock screen notifications list (complete with a colorful Apple Intelligence glow). In my experience so far, these include weather alerts, text messages from people I communicate with regularly, and email messages with calls to action or impending deadlines.
To enable it, go to: Settings > Notifications > Notification prioritization and turn on the option. You can also enable or disable priority alerts for individual apps from the same screen. It relies on AI algorithms to decide what to prioritize, but it appears to be off to a good start.
Apple Intelligence can prioritize notifications to get your attention.
Summaries bring TL;DR to communications
In a time when there seems to be so much that grabs our attention and less time to delve into long topics…sorry, what did I say?
Oh, and how much have you ever wanted a “too long to read” version of not just a long email, but a firehose of communication rushing at you? The ability to summarize notifications, email messages, and web pages is by far Apple Intelligence’s most pervasive and least annoying feature.
When you receive a notification, such as a text from a friend or a group of messages, iPhone creates a short one-sentence summary.
Apple Intelligence summarized two text messages.
Sometimes the summaries are vague, sometimes they’re unintentionally funny, but so far I’ve found them more useful than not. Summaries can also be generated from alerts from third-party apps, such as news or social media apps. However, I suspect the outside security camera captures multiple passersby over time, but doesn’t tell you there are 10 people piled up near the door.
No one told me there was a party at my house.
That said, Apple Intelligence doesn’t understand sarcasm or colloquialisms at all. You can also turn off summaries if you wish.
You can also generate longer summaries of your emails in the Mail app. summarize Click the button at the top of the message to get a summary of the content in a few dozen words.
When viewing a page where the reader function is available in Safari, page menu Tap the button in the address bar, Show leader Tap , then summary Button at the top of the page.
Summarize long articles in Safari’s Reader interface.
Siri shines and improves interactions
It was interesting to see that during the release of iOS 18 and iPhone 16, Apple Intelligence’s main visual indicator (the Siri animation with color around the edges in full screen) was noticeably missing. Apple even lit up the edge of a giant glass cube at Apple’s Fifth Avenue store in New York City to look like Siri Search.
Instead, iOS 18 used the same old Siri Sphere. Now, a modern Siri look has arrived, but it only applies to devices that support Apple Intelligence. If you’re wondering why you’re still seeing the old interface, we recommend a few steps to enable the new experience.
Siri under Apple Intelligence looks like a multicolored halo around the edges.
The new look includes several improvements to Siri interactions. Be more forgiving when you stumble in a query, such as saying the wrong word or interrupting yourself mid-thought. You can also listen to them after they give you their results and ask relevant follow-up questions.
However, the ability to personalize answers based on what Apple Intelligence knows about you has not yet been developed. What appeared as of iOS 18.2 is Chat GPTnow available as an alternative source of information. For some queries, if Siri doesn’t have an answer right away, you’ll be asked if you’d like to use ChatGPT instead. You don’t need a ChatGPT account to use this (though you can sign in if you have one).
Invoke Siri silently without triggering someone else’s device
Perhaps my favorite new Siri feature is the ability to silently summon the assistant by saying “Hey Siri.” In my house, I have a HomePod and my family uses their own iPhones and iPads, but I don’t know which device will answer my calls (though I’m sure they’re smart enough to do so).
Plus, let’s be honest, even after all this time, I still don’t always feel comfortable talking on my cell phone, especially in public. It’s annoying enough when people carry on conversations on the phone on speaker. I don’t want to make more noise by making a Siri request.
Instead, we turn to a new feature called Tap to Siri. Double-tap the bottom edge of your iPhone or iPad’s screen to reveal the Siri search bar and onscreen keyboard.
Double-tap the bar at the bottom of the screen to see Siri search without audio.
On Mac, go to: System Settings > Apple Intelligence and Siri Select a key combination with keyboard shortcutslike Press any command key twice.
Yes, this requires more typing work than just speaking it conversationally, but it allows me to type more specific queries so I’m never left wondering if my robot friend understands what I’m saying.
Stay on task with AI-powered, reduced-disruption focus mode
Focus mode on your iPhone can be extremely helpful, including turning on Do Not Disturb to protect yourself from outside distractions. You can also create personalized focus modes. For example, my podcast recording mode blocks outside notifications for all but a few people during scheduled recording times.
A new reduced-disruption focus mode is available when you enable Apple Intelligence. When activated, it becomes a smarter filter for what passes through your walls, suppressing extraneous notifications. Pop-ups may also appear if you are not specified in your criteria for allowed notifications, such as certain users. For example, my iPhone sometimes sends me messages from my bank about the weather or when I make a large purchase or transfer money.
To enable it, open Control Center and focus button and select reduce interruptions.
“Reduced Interruptions” focus mode (left) intelligently filters potential distractions. Turn it on in Control Center (center). When something comes in that might need your attention, it appears as a notification marked as “may be important” (right).
Remove distractions from your photos with Photos app Cleanup
Until iOS 18.1, the Photos app on iPhone and iPad didn’t have easy retouching features. Is there dust on your camera lens? Garbage on the ground? Unfortunately, you’ll have to deal with these and other distractions using the MacOS Photos app or a third-party app.
Apple Intelligence now includes Clean Up, an AI-powered deletion tool, in the Photos app. Edit the image and tap cleaning When you press a button, your iPhone analyzes your photos and makes suggestions, highlighting items you might want to delete. Tap on one or draw a circle around an area, and the app will erase those areas and use generative AI to fill in reasonable pixels.
Use Cleanup to remove distractions within the Photos app.
In this first incarnation, the cleanup is not perfect. You will often get better results using other specialized image editors. But it’s fine for quickly removing unpleasant parts from a photo.
Learn more about Apple Intelligence features and learn how to create one. source characterhow to use image wand We’ll also show you how to disable selected Apple Intelligence features if you want to scale back.
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