Gaming

These Are the 6 Apple Intelligence Features I Regularly Use in iOS 18.5

May 15, 2025 Admin

Summaries bring TL;DR to your correspondence

In an era with so many demands on our attention and seemingly less time to dig into longer topics … Sorry, what was I saying?

Oh, right: How often have you wanted a “too long; didn’t read” version of not just long emails but the fire hose of communication that blasts your way? The ability to summarize notifications, Mail messages and web pages is perhaps the most pervasive and least intrusive feature of Apple Intelligence so far.

When a notification arrives, such as a text from a friend or group in Messages, the iPhone creates a short, single-sentence summary.

That said, Apple Intelligence definitely doesn’t understand sarcasm or colloquialisms — you can turn summaries off if you prefer.

You can also generate a longer summary of emails in the Mail app: Tap the Summarize button at the top of a message to view a rundown of the contents in a few dozen words.

In Safari, when viewing a page where the Reader feature is available, tap the Page Menu button in the address bar, tap Show Reader and then tap the Summary button at the top of the page.

With the new look are a few Siri interaction improvements: It’s more forgiving if you stumble through a query, like saying the wrong word or interrupting yourself mid-thought. It’s also better about listening after delivering results, so you can ask related followup questions.

However, the ability to personalize answers based on what Apple Intelligence knows about you is still down the road. What did appear, as of iOS 18.2, was integration of ChatGPT, which you can now use as an alternate source of information. For some queries, if Siri doesn’t have the answer right away, you’re asked if you’d like to use ChatGPT instead. You don’t need a ChatGPT account to take advantage of this (but if you do have one, you can sign in).

Invoke Siri silently without triggering everyone else’s devices

Perhaps my favorite new Siri feature is the ability to bring up the assistant without saying the words “Hey Siri” out loud. In my house, where I have HomePods and my family members use their own iPhones and iPads, I never know which device is going to answer my call (even though they’re supposed to be smart enough to work it out).

Plus, honestly, even after all this time I’m not always comfortable talking to my phone — especially in public. It’s annoying enough when people carry on phone conversations on speaker, I don’t want to add to the hubbub by making Siri requests.

Instead, I turn to a new feature called Tap to Siri. Double-tap the bottom edge of the screen on the iPhone or iPad to bring up the Siri search bar and the onscreen keyboard. 

In this first incarnation, Clean Up isn’t perfect and you’ll often get better results in other dedicated image editors. But for quickly removing annoyances from photos, it’s fine.

Stay on task with the AI-boosted Reduce Interruptions Focus mode

Focus modes on the iPhone can be enormously helpful, such as turning on Do Not Disturb to insulate yourself from outside distractions. You can also create personalized Focus modes. For example, my Podcast Recording mode blocks outside notifications except from a handful of people during scheduled recording times.

With Apple Intelligence enabled, a new Reduce Interruptions Focus mode is available. When active, it becomes a smarter filter for what gets past the wall holding back superfluous notifications. Even things that are not specified in your criteria for allowed notifications, such as specific people, might pop up. On my iPhone, for instance, that can include weather alerts or texts from my bank when a large purchase or funds transfer has occurred.

To enable it, open Control Center, tap the Focus button and choose Reduce Interruptions.