Updated October 29 with Apple Intelligence waitlist and delay details.
Apple Intelligence, Apple’s take on AI, is now live. It has arrived on iPhone and will be deployed on Mac and iPad at the same time. For the phone, this depends on iOS 18.1 – but there is a waiting list for Apple Intelligence. Let’s get to that first.
Apple Intelligence comes with iOS 18.1 on iPhone.
Apple Intelligence Waiting List
When you have iOS 18.1 installed, if your iPhone is one of the six models that is compatible with Apple Intelligence (comprehensive list below), you can sign up to try out the AI features. Again, their full details are below.
The waiting list is a new feature in an Apple release, but it’s done to improve things and because Apple Intelligence is a feature that’s still in beta. Once you’ve signed up to join, the iPhone starts downloading some generative AI models from Apple, ready for you to use ChatGPT if you want. And if you do, it will have to contact Apple’s servers through a process that Apple says is highly secure: Apple Private Cloud Compute.
Registration can be a big part of the need for a waiting list. As content creator Brandon Butch says, “For those still wondering: ‘why is there a waiting list for Apple Intelligence?’ Here’s some good insight from a server engineer: ‘The real cause is almost certainly your Private Cloud Compute registration. This is the server side of Apple Intelligence. Some of your requests are handled locally, while more complex ones are sent to the cloud.’
So how long is the waiting list? Well, in the hours following the release of iOS 18.1, it was initially between 30 minutes and an hour between request and acceptance. As more people sign up, this could increase.
Which iPhones can run iOS 18.1?
Any iPhone that can run last year’s software, iOS 17, is good to go with iOS 18.1. That means everything from iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone Xr onwards. Any phone in the following series is included: iPhone 11, iPhone 12, iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 plus iPhone SE 2nd and 3rd generation models. Note that Apple Intelligence is only compatible with the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, plus this year’s entire iPhone 16 range.
While it’s always the case that some features are only available on select handsets, this time the caveat applies to a lot more. That’s because Apple Intelligence is only available for six iPhones: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Additionally, if you have one of these, you must have your language and Siri set to US English (this will change when iOS 18.2 arrives in December).
Wait, though, even if you don’t have one of those, there are still benefits in iOS 18.1.
How to get it
You’ll know the routine by now, but just in case: open the Settings app, click General, then Software Update. After that, click Download and Install and let the software work its magic.
What’s in the release?
We’ll come to Apple Intelligence in a moment. For all users, there are call recordings. You can now record live calls or FaceTime audio. There are also updates to the Control Center, fixes for Podcast issues and video recording issues found in certain situations, plus fixes for the digital car keys. New listening features are coming to AirPods Pro 2.
For iPhone 16 series users, there’s a fix for a random restart bug and improvements to Camera Control.
And then there’s Apple Intelligence. This is coming bit by bit, but the first features are now live. These include writing tools to help you proofread or improve what you’ve written, and a new look for Siri, which now has extensive knowledge of Apple products so you can ask your iPhone questions your for, well, your iPhone for starters.
Clean Up comes to Photos to remove unwanted objects from images and the ability to create slideshows from words in Memory Movie.
There’s a new Focus mode to reduce interruptions, and you can now summarize emails and messages. Much more to come, but this is a strong start.
