These Are the 5 Apple Intelligence Features I’m Using Regularly
Apple Intelligence summarized two text messages.
Sometimes summaries are vague, and sometimes they’re unintentionally funny, but so far I’ve found them to be more helpful than not. Summaries can also be generated from alerts by third-party apps like news or social media apps — although I suspect that my outdoor security camera is picking up multiple passersby over time and not telling me that 10 people are stacked by the door.
Summarize long articles in Safari in the Reader interface.
Siri gets a glow-up and better interaction
I was amused during the iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 releases that the main visual indicator of Apple Intelligence — the full-screen, color-at-the-edges Siri animation — was noticeably missing. Apple even lit up the edges of the massive glass cube of its Apple Fifth Avenue Store in New York City like a Siri search.
Instead, iOS 18 used the same-old Siri sphere.
Now, the modern Siri look has arrived as of iOS 18.1, but only on devices that support Apple Intelligence.
Double-tap the bar at the bottom of the screen to bring up a voice-free Siri search.
On a Mac, go to System Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and choose a key combination under Keyboard shortcut, such as Press Either Command Key Twice.
Yes, this involves more typing work than just speaking conversationally, but I can enter more specific queries and not wonder if my robot friend is understanding what I’m saying.
Remove distractions from your pictures using Clean Up in the Photos app
Until iOS 18.1, the Photos app on the iPhone and iPad has lacked a simple retouch feature. Dust on the camera lens? Litter on the ground? Sorry, you need to deal with those and other distractions in the Photos app on MacOS or using a third-party app.
Now Apple Intelligence includes Clean Up, an AI-enhanced removal tool, in the Photos app. When you edit an image and tap the Clean Up button, the iPhone analyzes the photo and suggests potential items to remove by highlighting them. Tap one or draw a circle around an area — the app erases those areas and uses generative AI to fill in plausible pixels.
The Reduce Interruptions Focus mode (left) intelligently filters possible distractions. Turn it on in Control Center (middle). When something comes in that might need your attention, it shows up as a notification marked Maybe Important (right).
For more on Apple Intelligence features, check out how to create Genmoji, how to use Image Wand and, if you want to scale things back, how to disable select Apple Intelligence features.
