Apple Intelligence Is Running Late
As iOS 18 moves into public beta, its headlining feature—Apple Intelligence—is getting delayed. While Apple has only ever said to expect it sometime in the fall, reports from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman say it’ll be coming later than the company expected.
It’s only a minor delay, and will see the AI pushed from September to October. With that also comes a more solid update on when to expect iOS 18 itself, with iOS 18 proper pegged for September—iOS 18.1, which will turn on Apple Intelligence, is set for the month after.
Gurman also said developers are getting access to Apple Intelligence for testing this week, so the behind-the-scenes timetable is still running smoothly. It’s unclear if this means you’ll be able to access an early version of Apple Intelligence in the iOS 18 developer beta.
The news follows a prior report from Gurman that said Apple won’t be releasing Apple Intelligence all at once. Instead, the company will stagger the release of its AI. iOS 18.1 should see various AI summaries go live, as well as image generation and custom AI emoji (or “Genmoji,” as Apple calls them). These features will follow certain AI-adjacent features already in the iOS 18 beta, including voice memo transcriptions. These features aren’t branded as part of Apple Intelligence, and so should be in iOS 18 when it launches in September.
Perhaps the biggest delay will be for the new AI-powered Siri, which Gurman said wouldn’t be coming until spring of 2025. When these features arrive, Siri will be able to act with far more context, using your activity alongside data from multiple apps to help answer questions and perform tasks. For instance, you could be texting someone about Deadpool & Wolverine, then ask Siri “when is it playing,” and the assistant would automatically know which movie you’re talking about.
Even when it goes live, Apple Intelligence will only be in a beta state, and will only be available in English. Given the disastrous launch of Google’s AI Overviews and the failed launch of Microsoft’s Recall, it makes sense why Apple would want to take things slow and steady.
The delay in Apple Intelligence's release might affect the anticipated 'Apple AI release date', pushing it beyond the initial fall timeline. Despite the delay, developers are expected to gain access to Apple Intelligence for testing in the upcoming iOS 18 developer beta.
