Apple Intelligence Is Out Now With iOS 18.1 Beta, Here’s What We Think

Apple has released iOS 18.1 to developers, as anticipated. This update allows iPhone 15 Pro Max users to experience Apple’s innovative generative AI feature, Apple Intelligence. I personally tried it out.

How To Install Apple Intelligence 

Before installing this on your iPhone 15 Pro, Pro Max, or any M1 or later iPad or Mac, you must first go to Settings, select General, then Software Updates, and choose the beta ring. You’ll be prompted to select the iOS 18.1 beta, iPadOS 18.1 beta, or macOS 15.1 beta. Ensure that your phone’s language is set to US English and the region is set to the US. Once you’ve done this, you’ll find a dedicated Apple Intelligence tab in the Settings menu. You’ll need to join the waitlist for it to download compatible models, and then turn it on.

This update won’t significantly impact your phone’s overall functionality, except for the correction of all grammatical errors to US English. For instance, colours will be spelled as colors, and optimised will be spelled as optimized.

However, it’s crucial to remember that this is still a beta version of software, possibly even an alpha version. This means that your battery life may decrease, and your phone may experience instability, lagging, and call drop issues. If you can tolerate these problems, you can install it on your secondary device. Nevertheless, since it’s a pre-release version, it’s advisable not to install it on your primary device, as there’s a risk of data loss.

Now, let’s delve into how it works:

Firstly, it’s important to note that this is not the fully functional version. Many features, such as image generation, emoji generation, automated photo cleanup, some Siri improvements, including the ability to use personal information and take actions inside apps, and OpenAI ChatGPT integration, are still in development. 

The new Siri redesign introduces a user interface and enhanced capabilities. Siri can comprehend users even when they struggle to find the right words. It also provides assistance in troubleshooting Apple products, offering a level of expertise comparable to an Apple Store Genius. Searching photos and creating movies has become more intuitive and enjoyable.

AI-generated summaries of mail, messages, and voicemails are now available. Additionally, voice calls now have live transcription, and voice memos can be transcribed.

Is it worth the hype ?

Apple has introduced writing tools, including its text generation service that operates on a system level. I’ve found these tools to be incredibly useful, and I’ve even used them to write this article with its proofreading capabilities. While having these tools at your fingertips on a system level is convenient, Apple is a bit late to the game. Samsung’s Galaxy AI phones have a prominent AI button for proofreading, and Microsoft SwiftKey on Android also offers similar functionality. Even before downloading Apple Intelligence, I’ve been using Elphas, a generative AI-based text generation service that also doubles as an iOS keyboard. I’ve used Elphas on my iPhone and found it to be impressive. However, after downloading Apple Intelligence, I haven’t felt that it’s been a significant upgrade. To access writing tools, you need to select the entire text and then long-press and swipe right to reveal the feature. The user interface could be improved by making it more prominent within the keyboard interface.

Does it work? Absolutely! It’s fast and doesn’t hallucinate as much as some other options, which means it won’t add unnecessary information. It’s also likely to have few factual inaccuracies. Additionally, a lot of the proofing happens in real time, so if you’re just looking for grammatical corrections, you’re rarely going to need to use writing tools. And the fact that this entire article was written in Apple’s Notes app is a testament to its effectiveness as a game-changer for writers.

The new Siri is functional and more modern. It understands my Indian English dialect well, even though I’ve set everything to US English. This suggests that most people won’t be bothered by this and will still set it up, even if their local English dialect isn’t being used. Sure, it understood me when I ran it through a set of queries with me stumbling over my words. But does it feel like a significant change? Perhaps not. However, we’re not yet seeing the full capabilities of Siri, which involve semantic learning that allows it to access all your personal data from the device in a private manner. This is the secret sauce that Apple is yet to reveal.

Apple claims that photos have become easier to search, but in my limited experience with Apple Intelligence, I didn’t find this to be the case. The user interface has been cleaned up, which was a significant improvement after the initial update to iOS 18.

As a journalist and writer, I’m impressed by the new call recording feature in the iPhone’s dialler. When you press a call button, a neat interface pops up, and the receiver gets a beep sound. Soon, the call is transcribed in real time. However, the transcription feature is a bit of a mixed bag. I found it to be quite inaccurate, and the same goes for voice memos. I even tried it on some older voice recordings, and it was hit or miss. But these are early days, and I expect Apple to improve it before iOS 18.1 comes out in October. They have over two months to fix the issues. This could also be a sign that the device is set to US English.

I haven’t had enough time to try the AI-generated summaries of emails and messages yet. When I downloaded the feature, it was late at night, so I couldn’t test it right away. Fortunately, I had a few friends who were awake and willing to give it a try.

Overall, this feature is impressive, but it’s not mind-blowing. It will definitely make the iPhone more helpful to use, and it could also help some applications like Elphas and Grammarly. What’s important is that even though it’s in US English, I was able to use the phone without any problems. When these features are localised for other languages, they will be significantly better than something like Galaxy AI, which is already slightly better without localisation at a developer beta stage.