Apple Intelligence is Apple’s biggest step into AI yet, promising to make everyday tasks smoother and smarter.
After months of using it across my iPhone, iPad, and Mac, I’ve come to appreciate some features while completely ignoring others.
It’s a mix of helpful, quirky, and occasionally frustrating—showing both promise and the need for refinement.
If you own an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, or any of their Pro, Plus, or Max variants running iOS 18.3, Apple Intelligence is now baked into your device.
Despite its beta label, this is Apple’s full-fledged entry into the AI space. While some features will roll out over time, it’s clear the company is making AI a core part of the experience.
If you’re curious, there’s plenty to explore. If you’re skeptical, you can turn it off completely or use only the tools that interest you. Either way, Apple Intelligence is here, and it’s worth seeing how it fits into daily life.
Summaries: The TL;DR You Didn’t Know You Needed
In a world where notifications, emails, and messages pile up faster than we can read them, who wouldn’t want a built-in TL;DR button?
Apple Intelligence’s summarization tool is easily one of its most useful features. It condenses text messages, emails, and web pages into bite-sized overviews.
Say you get a long-winded message from a friend or an email packed with unnecessary fluff—Apple’s AI distills it down to the essentials.
Sometimes, the summaries are spot-on; other times, they’re hilariously vague. But more often than not, they save me from wading through walls of text just to get to the point.
Summaries also work with third-party apps, from news alerts to social media notifications.
Though, I’ll admit, my security camera’s AI-generated notifications sometimes make it seem like I have a mob of people at my front door when it’s really just the same jogger passing by multiple times.
If AI summaries aren’t your thing, you can disable them, but if you live in constant information overload, they’re a lifesaver.
Siri’s Glow-Up: Looks Better, Works (Mostly) Better
Siri has felt like an afterthought for years—especially compared to Google Assistant or Alexa. But with Apple Intelligence, Siri finally gets a much-needed refresh, starting with its new glowing, full-screen animation.
When Apple updated its Fifth Avenue store in New York to mimic the Siri glow, I knew they were serious about rebranding their assistant.
Beyond aesthetics, Siri has become a bit more forgiving. You can stumble through a sentence, change your mind mid-query, and it’ll still get what you mean—most of the time. It also lingers longer, so you can ask follow-up questions without having to start over.
Perhaps the most interesting update is ChatGPT integration. If Siri doesn’t have an answer, it’ll ask if you want to consult ChatGPT instead.
No account required. Just a seamless handoff between Apple and OpenAI. It’s a clever workaround while Apple builds out its own AI smarts.
Tap to Siri: Finally, a Quiet Option
One of my biggest annoyances with voice assistants is talking to them in public. Nothing makes you feel more ridiculous than saying “Hey Siri” in a crowded coffee shop, only for your phone, iPad, and HomePod to respond simultaneously.
Enter Tap to Siri. A simple double-tap on the bottom of the screen pulls up Siri’s input bar, letting you type instead of speaking.
It’s a small change, but it’s a game-changer for those who don’t want to broadcast our every request.
Also: 5 brilliant iOS 18.3 features that help me declutter my lock screen and boost productivity
Clean Up: Apple’s Answer to Google’s Magic Eraser
Apple has finally added a native retouch tool to Photos. With Clean Up, you can circle unwanted objects—whether a trash can, a photobomber, or a smudge on the lens—and Apple Intelligence will erase them and fill in the gaps.
It’s not perfect, and you’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting Photoshop-level precision. But for quick fixes, it does the job well enough.
It’s essentially Apple’s answer to Google’s Magic Eraser, and while it’s a step in the right direction, I’d love to see it improve over time.
Also: Apple just brought one of its biggest services to Android—and it might be Netflix’s worst nightmare
Reduce Interruptions: A Smarter Do Not Disturb
I rely on Focus Modes to get through my day, whether silencing distractions while working or muting everything but emergency calls at night.
Apple Intelligence introduces Reduce Interruptions, a smarter version of Do Not Disturb that allows important notifications to pass through, even if they’re not on your pre-approved list.
For example, I didn’t have my bank’s fraud alerts set as priority notifications, but when a large purchase was flagged, Apple Intelligence deemed it “Maybe Important” and let it through.
That level of nuance is exactly what AI should be doing—filtering out the noise while ensuring I don’t miss something critical.
The Bottom Line
Apple Intelligence is an interesting mix of useful, quirky, and half-baked. Some features, like Summaries and Reduce Interruptions, already feel essential.
Others, like Clean Up, are nice-to-haves but need refinement. And while Siri’s improvements are welcome, it still has a long way to go before it can truly compete with the best in the business.
This is just the beginning of Apple’s AI push, and if history tells us anything, Apple plays the long game. What’s here today may not be mind-blowing, but it lays the foundation for what’s to come.
I want to hear your thoughts. Which Apple Intelligence feature has made the biggest impact on your daily routine, and is there one you find entirely unnecessary?
I find none of them to be useful. I simply keep Apple un-Intelligence off. On the other hand, I have the action button assigned to Google’s Circle to Search which is useful.