Hello friend,

With the public release of iOS 18.1 looming, I thought it was time to share a few of my thoughts, having used the Apple Intelligence features throughout the beta. I am listing them according to their utility (at least to me).

Apple Intelligence and Photos

The photos-related AI features in 18.1 are my favorite. The Clean Up feature is way more powerful than I expected and ridiculously easy to use. Here is a video I made about it for the MacSparky Labs members.

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The Memories on demand feature is equally impressive. Type in a subject and create a little movie from your photos based on that subject. It’s really that easy.

The Writing Tools

Surprisingly, the writing tools are not at the top of my list. It’s nice having them integrated and not requiring you to send your words to the internet somewhere for artificial intelligence, proofreading, and assistance. However, I felt like the proofreading tools weren’t aggressive enough. It caught obvious errors but did not make stylistic suggestions to any degree. For example, what if I use the word “very” twice in a sentence? Grammarly would have fits if I did that, but Apple Intelligence ignored it. I hope that they turn up the dial on the proofreading tools in the future.

Having it write for me is not something I’m interested in, but the tools work good enough. One of my Labs members explained he wrote a work email “in anger” and had the AI writing tool make it more “professional” before sending it, to great effect. I don’t dislike the writing tools. I’m glad they exist. However, I’d like to see them evolve even more so I can use these features more effectively.

Summarization

There are various summary features throughout the operating system. You get notification summaries for incoming messages, which are sometimes spot-on and other times hilariously wrong. There’s a similar feature in Apple Mail. I like these and want to rely on them. They still need to get better, and I believe they will as Apple refines the models.

Reduce Interruptions Focus

There’s also a new Reduce Interruptions Focus, which is an Apple Intelligence-generated mode that creates itself dynamically using AI. I ran this for a few days, but it was never exactly what I wanted. When it comes to Focus modes, I still prefer generating them myself.

None of these new features are earth-shattering. The 18.1 Apple Intelligence implementation is still at the shallow end of the pool, but it’s nice initial effort. I’m not blown away by any of them, but I’ve already become accustomed to all of them. I think Apple’s on the right track with these, but I hope they continue to refine them even after the release. The Apple Intelligence features we are supposed to be seeing with 18.2 look to be a little deeper, and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on those.

David

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