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So the iPhone 16 series just got officially unveiled, and unsurprisingly the Apple Intelligence feature took up a good chunk of the latest Apple event.
AI in general is the hottest topic of this year, as it's been a key talking point during pretty much every smartphone event thus far, and Apple's twist on it – Apple Intelligence – was next on the line.
iOS 18.1 is coming soon, likely in October, bringing Apple's artificial intelligence feature to the iPhone 16 series, as well as the 15 Pro models.
In addition, iPad and Mac users can also expect it soon, if their devices are M-powered, meaning they're running at least Apple's M1 chip on board.
Note that Apple Intelligence will be limited only to US users for now, though.
In any case – it's coming. So what are the best things to try out when you finally get your hands on Apple Intelligence? Well, here are some suggestions…
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Ask Apple Intelligence to make you an image out of thin air
It being generative AI, Apple Intelligence can generate images for you via a new experience called Image Playground – just ask. Or sketch a rough idea of what you envision.
For example, you're writing a note in the Notes app on your iPad. You draw a rough sketch of a building, or some other object, animal, or what have you. Using a new tool that'll be available soon, you could circle your sketch, and Apple Intelligence will almost immediately transform your sketch into a realistic, AI-generated image of whatever you had in mind!
You could also just describe what you envision to the AI, whether in text form or using your voice, and have such images generated for you whenever you need them, whatever you need them for.
It's fun, it can be super convenient, depending on your needs, and by the looks of it – pretty quick too.
Bear in mind that image generation is subject to certain limitations. One is purely technical – don't expect extreme realism or to get exactly what you had in mind, as current AI technology still struggles to understand complex scenarios, at least when it comes to turning those into an image. Other limitations have to do with the guidelines Apple has placed on its AI, in an effort to keep AI generation within certain reasonable boundaries.
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Have some more fun – ask it to make an entirely new emoji, then use it
Related to the above-mentioned image generation, Apple's new Genmoji feature is exactly what it sounds like – AI-generated emojis.
And you can make those right from the on-screen keyboard – just tap the emoji button and write something like "chef with beard and glasses" and voila – a new emoji of exactly that is ready for you to use.
Evidently you can even pick yourself or other people from your Photos library to serve as a baseline for the AI-generated emoji – pretty cool!
Keep in mind, however, that your friends who use Android phones will not be able to see your new emojis, but you can still stick to the already-available ones in those cases.
Are you writing an email, or a whole novel? Can't find the right words to express your thoughts? No worries, here's something you can try
With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, the company is boasting intelligent new writing tools integrated right into its apps.
Say you're writing a business email, but don't quite feel confident with the final thing. You can simply mark it, and ask Apple Intelligence to rewrite it for you. In several tones, no less, such as – "professional."
It's probably best to use this tool as a means of inspiration, or for small retouches, though, as a lot of people don't look too kindly on AI-generated emails and text works.
But if used sparsely, this could be an immensely useful tool for a lot of people, likely including you as well!
Using your iPad for school? Get a school lecture quickly and concisely summarized
Lectures can be long. Books can be super long. So if you're short on time, or perhaps need to do a quick research on what either of those is about, you can ask Apple Intelligence to summarize them for you into a short and concise piece of text.
No need to Google what the plot points of a book are, or to ask fellow colleagues to explain what the latest lecture was about – just do that and you're golden.
Obviously this works on any body of text; it can also be longer emails you may receive, and you want summarized, in order to save time while still grasping what the whole thing is essentially about.
Find super specific photos from your huge library, in a second
Since Apple Intelligence is integrated with a lot of your apps and content, and can understand context, as well as your speech or commands, you can ask it to find some very specific image from your library, instead of digging for it yourself.
Say you have thousands of pictures in your Photos library, as many of us do – countless shots of people, places and events.
Well, you remember your friend Tom wearing a cool golden watch in one photo, but you don't feel like scrolling for an hour to find it. Just ask Apple Intelligence to find it for you – write "Tom with a gold watch" – and it shall be found immediately!
Even cooler – this feature works with your videos too! Apple Intelligence can recognize what's happening in your videos, so you can search for stuff within them also (e.g. "me cooking with Becca" / "Becca riding a bike in Italy").
Remove objects or photobombers from your pictures
Apple Intelligence identifies background objects in your photos, obviously, in order for that previous feature to work, but here's another one – removing stuff.
Say you have a cool photo with your partner, and behind you is a nice sunny, refreshingly empty beach. Well, instead of that one person walking in the background, ruining the central focus of the image – you two.
It's okay – if your device has Apple Intelligence, you can use the Clean Up tool in the Photos app to mark that person, or any other distracting thing, and they will be removed.
Object removal from photos isn't a new thing by any means; Samsung and Google phone users have had it for a while, not to mention there's a free app called Snapseed available on all mobile platforms that also does the same thing… but hey, now it's integrated into the Photos app!
Try out Visual Intelligence as you're out and about!
Another new feature you might find helpful, called Visual Intelligence, does what its name suggests – you can use the Camera Control feature (coming later, evidently) to point your iPhone 16's camera at anything, and get immediate information about what it sees.
Whether you point it at a local store, to get its working hours and reviews, or at a dog, to see what its breed is, or at any other object – it will be recognized and searched for online instantly, so you can get more info about it. Handy!
Talk to the new Siri, it's night and day
With the arrival of Apple Intelligence, Siri gets a much needed upgrade. The virtual assistant will now be far more conversational and understanding of your natural speech and text prompts, finally able to follow a conversation and comprehend complex requests and questions. Even if you stumble on your words, supposedly.
No need to search for answers to questions online anymore, although it's always a good idea to double-check whatever advice or answer you might get from an AI.
Since this new Siri is also integrated with all the Apple apps, it will now be able to do a whole lot more for you than before within them. Being able to read and write stuff for you, see and understand the context of whatever's on your iPhone, iPad or MacBook's screen, it should – hopefully – be delightfully helpful.
Ask it to find a certain email and summarize it, ask it to find an image (as previously mentioned), or to set alarms for very specific dates or events – it should now handle it.
Again – night and day, compared to what Siri was until now.
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Rado, a tech enthusiast with a love for mobile devices, brings his passion for Android and iPadOS to PhoneArena. His tech journey began with MP3 players and has evolved to include tinkering with Android tablets and iPads, even running Linux and Windows 95 on them. Beyond tech, Rado is a published author, music producer, and PC game developer. His professional work on iPads, from producing songs to editing videos, showcases his belief in their capabilities. Rado looks forward to the future of mobile tech, particularly in augmented reality and multi-screen smartphones.
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