More Apple intelligence features coming to upcoming iOS 18.1 beta releases

At the end of July, Apple released iOS 18.1 Developer Beta 1 which included the first Beta release for Apple Intelligence. The latter is Apple's AI initiative and while the Beta is missing some of the tastier AI features expected from Apple, it does offer some AI capabilities including Writing Tools which allows users to have an email, text, or letter rewritten using a different tone. Writing Tools will also proofread your content, summarize it, add a table or bullet points.

Another feature up and running will allow users to request a summary of a webpage, email, or text. This is a legitimate time saver and the summary goes right to the heart of the content. You can also ask the Photo app to search for specific images. For example, you can request to see all photos showing someone holding a phone. We recently took a fresher look at Apple Intelligence. 

Right now, Apple's AI capabilities require that an iPhone have at least 8GB of RAM which means that right now, AI features are limited to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. All four iPhone 16 series models will support Apple Intelligence and rumors call for the iPhone SE 4 to also do so.

Some of the AI features that Apple has yet to include in the Apple Intelligence Beta include Genmoji, which will allow iPhone users to create custom emoji, the Image Playground which will allow users to create images on-device, and chatbot ChatGPT. We also will see major improvements come to Siri helping the assistant handle queries. So far, the virtual digital assistant has received a minor cosmetic update to the UI and a more conversational tone. But the real changes will come later this year.

According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman in the latest edition of his weekly Power On newsletter, more Apple Intelligence features will be coming in upcoming iOS 18.1 Beta releases. Remember, Apple Intelligence did not appear for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users until the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta was launched. The stable version of iOS 18.1 might not arrive until October which will give Apple several weeks to drop more beta versions of the build previewing additional AI capabilities.

The most recent version of the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta to be released was the second version which Apple pushed out nearly two weeks ago.