iPhone 16 series might ship without the most important new iOS 18 feature

When Apple first introduced its Apple Intelligence AI initiative at WWDC, the company gave a hopeful hint about a summer release on its Developer website. What Apple originally wrote, "Apple Intelligence will be available in an upcoming beta this summer," was changed in the middle of that month to remove any indication that some of the announced AI features would be available early by joining the iOS 18 Beta program.

Today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote that Apple is planning on rolling out Apple Intelligence through software updates that will arrive in October. Gurman said that people he spoke with who did not want to be identified because the information has yet to be released, told him that AI features will be made available a few weeks after the stable versions of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 are released in September.

Gurman added that Apple Intelligence will start rolling out to developers as soon as this week with iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 Beta releases. However, the October release for the stable version of iOS 18 could mean that early iPhone 16 units will ship without having Apple Intelligence pre-installed. Apple plans to release Apple Intelligence via multiple software updates to be released in late 2024 and the first half of 2025.

Only those iPhone models with 8GB of RAM will receive Apple Intelligence. Those models that qualify include last year's iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and this year's entire iPhone 16 series including the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Apple seemingly was gearing up to release some Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18 Developer Beta 3. In the XCode simulator for iOS 18 Beta 3, a new section titled Apple Intelligence & Siri was discovered in the Settings app. It was removed from the actual Beta release before it was dropped by Apple. Additionally, some iPhone users running iOS 18 Developer Beta 3 spotted a new option on the virtual QWERTY keyboard that said "Create New Emoji" when they opened the Emoji picker. This was removed in the revision to that iOS 18 Beta build.

With Apple Intelligence users will be able to create their own Emoji by writing out exactly what they want the Emoji to look like. An example suggested by Apple includes "T-Rex wearing a tutu on a surfboard."

The combination of some cool new iOS 18 features such as being able to customize app icons on the iPhone's Home Screen, the possibility of receiving Apple Intelligence early, and the elimination of the $99 fee to become an Apple Developer has more iPhone users installing the Developer Beta than the most recent stable version of iOS according to one poll.