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Apple has officially rolled out the iOS 18.1 update, introducing its new suite of AI-powered tools, Apple Intelligence, to iPhones and other Apple devices. Initially unveiled at the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, these features had not been available to the public until now. The iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 updates now offer users powerful tools like Writing Tools, Clean Up, and automatic movie creation.
The new Apple Intelligence suite is compatible with the iPhone 16 series, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max, as well as iPads with the A17 Pro or M1 and later models, and Macs with M1 or newer chips.
The iOS 18.1 update highlights include Writing Tools, an AI-driven feature that assists users with grammar and spell-check, summarization, and tone adjustments in documents. It can rewrite text to appear concise, friendly, or professional and can also format text into tables or lists across various apps, including Mail, Messages, Notes, Pages, and even WhatsApp.
Another major addition is the Photos app’s Clean Up tool—an AI-based object removal feature that lets users eliminate unwanted people or objects from photos. The Photos app also features automatic movie creation through the new Memory Movie option and enhanced natural language search, which simplifies locating specific media using everyday language.
iOS 18.1 also introduces a refreshed Siri experience, with a glowing UI around the screen’s edges when activated and a new type-to-Siri function. Siri’s capabilities have been enhanced for managing device settings and responding to complex queries. Additionally, Apple has added a call recording feature to the Phone app, which saves recordings in the Notes app, along with transcriptions.
Apple has hinted at even more powerful AI tools, such as ChatGPT integration in Siri, Image Playground, Image Wand, Genmoji, and Visual Intelligence with Camera Control, set for a December release.
