Apple Intelligence finally made its official launch via the release of iOS 18.1, iPad OS 18.1 and MacOS Sequoia 15.1, and is now also available in Malaysia. Here’s how to activate it.

Change your language setting to American English

At the time of launch, Apple Intelligence is only available in US English. However, Apple promises to roll out more language support for its AI suite in the near future, but more on that later.

So, to use Apple Intelligence, you’ll first need to set your Siri request language to US English, via the Apple Intelligence & Siri setting in your Settings app. However, this is still not enough, as you will need to go to your language and region settings and set English (United States) as your primary preferred language. After doing all that, you can now go back to Apple Intelligence and Siri settings to enable it. Interestingly, Apple Intelligence is still labeled as being in beta form.

Just before this article was written, users were first required to sign up for a waitlist, before Apple Intelligence was officially ready to be activated. However, it turned out that the waiting period was not as long as we had initially imagined, which is definitely good news.

Write better with Apple Intelligence writing tools

Based on the announcement hosted by Apple, its AI suite comes with a system-wide writing tool that is supposed to be deeply integrated into iOS, iPadOSAnd MacOS.

Writing tools can help you refine your language by rewriting it and allow users to change the tone of their text to appear more professional, concise, or friendly. This feature will also suggest edits, along with explanations about the edits.

It can also help you proofread your texts and check your grammar, word choice and sentence structure. Is your work a little too wordy? Writing tools can help summarize it in a more understandable paragraph, table, list, or bulleted key points.

Siri has had a makeover and is now smarter too

What caught most people’s attention from previous Apple Intelligence announcements has to be the redesigned Siri, complete with its Samsung Edge Lighting-like glowing light.

In addition to its facelift, Siri now offers richer language understanding capabilities and is said to be able to track even when users stumble over their words and maintain context from one query to the next.

Siri can also answer questions about features and settings related to Apple products, making it especially useful for those who are less familiar with their devices. For example, you can ask Siri to guide you on how to make a screen recording or share your Wi-Fi password with your guests.

Smarter Photos app with natural language search and cleaning

Apple has also injected its AI genius into its Photos app, including natural language search. This allows users to search for just about anything by simply describing what they’re looking for, for example “Daniel straps his white vans onto a stool.” This feature also works on videos, where users can search for something that happened in a specific segment of the video and jump to it directly.

Do you always have annoying friends photobombing your selfies? Apple now allows you to delete them via Clean Up. But of course you can also delete other objects. This feature is also common in many recent AI-enabled systems. Android telephones.

You can also create a movie using the Memories feature by simply typing a description. Apple will then select the best photos and videos based on a user’s description, create a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and organize them into a movie.

Reduce distractions while staying informed

Sometimes we wish we could turn off our notifications, but we always worry about missing the most important ones. Apple Intelligence can help by summarizing long or stacked notifications, leaving only key details on the lock screen.

This is especially useful when a group chat is particularly active. This helps reduce distractions while keeping the user informed of important things. Users can enable the new Focus mode to reduce interruptions while still having their devices show notifications that may need immediate attention.

Apple Intelligence has also made its way into Apple’s Mail app, via the Priority Messages feature. Featured in a new section at the top of the app’s inbox, Priority Messages only shows the most urgent emails, like a same-day lunch invitation or a boarding pass.

Users can see summaries without needing to open the message. For long threads, users can tap or click the Sumamrise feature to view relevant details. There is also the Smart Reply feature which provides users with quick reply suggestions. It can even identify questions contained in an email to ensure all answers are provided.

Apple’s Notes and Phone apps now also offer the ability to record, transcribe and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated during a call, participants will be immediately notified of the recording. Once the call is over, Apple Intelligence will generate a summary of the key points mentioned in the call.

More AI features and language support coming starting December 2024

Apple says the features included in the initial Apple Intelligence rollout are just the beginning, as more features will be offered starting in December this year (2024). These features include the ability to create an original Genmoji by simply typing a description. The Genmoji can also be personalized using a friend or family member’s photo.

Image Playground and Image Wand, along with other features for writing tools, will also roll out later this year. This includes the ability for users to describe a specific change they want to make to their copy, such as creating a dinner invitation that reads like a poem or adding more dynamic option words to a resume. Users will also be able to learn more about things and places using their iPhone 16’s camera and its camera control button.

As mentioned above, Apple Intelligence is only available in US English at the time of writing. However, the Cupertino-based company says it will introduce other English localized media, such as Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and more by the end of 2024.

Other languages ​​such as Chinese English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese and more Other languages ​​will be supported from April 2025.

Devices supporting Apple Intelligence include the iPhone16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro MaxiPad with A17 Pro or M1 and later, and Mac with M1 and later.