Apple Intelligence is expected to arrive with iOS 18.1

iOS 18 will be available soon, but Apple Intelligence will take several months to roll out.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, citing anonymous sources, reports that the core of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will be released as promised in September 2024. The report claims that the first of the Apple Intelligence features won’t arrive until October — likely as part of a version 18.1 update.

Apple Intelligence includes new features such as intelligent notification management, voice and text message summarization capabilities, new writing tools, ChatGPT integration, an improved Siri assistant, and more.

iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 will launch as planned on a wide range of devices, both old and new. iOS 18 compatibility extends all the way to the 2018 iPhone XR and newer models.

iPad Pro models from 2018 are compatible with iPadOS 18. iPad Air and iPad mini models from 2019 and later, and iPad models from 2020 and later are also compatible.

Delaying the rollout of Apple Intelligence, which will not run on any device before the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, will give developers more time to incorporate Apple Intelligence features into their own apps. The move will also give Apple more time to fix bugs found in the technology.

Apple has previously concluded that Apple Intelligence will not be part of the initial releases of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. Apple Intelligence features are expected to debut in a phased manner in the last quarter of 2024, and the rollout could take until early 2025.

Developers will soon see the new AI features in the iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 betas. Testing the new features is expected to take longer than usual due to the relatively small number of currently compatible devices.

Apple has been treating iOS 18 and related updates and Apple Intelligence as two related but separate technologies since their debut at WWDC in June 2024. During the initial presentation, the operating system and Apple Intelligence features were highlighted in two completely separate parts of the presentation due to the high hardware requirements for the latter technology.

The delay would likely mean that initial shipments of the upcoming iPhone 16 models will have iOS 18 on board, but will not initially have Apple Intelligence features. Apple could be emphasizing familiarization with iOS 18 features as a way to set the stage for later Apple Intelligence updates.