What to know

  • A new Bloomberg report claims Apple Intelligence won’t arrive with the launch of iOS 18. 
  • AI features are likely to be delayed by a few weeks, the release of many could stretch well into 2025.
  • Several Apple Intelligence features are expected to become available to developers for testing purposes this week via iOS 18.1 beta.

It’s been clear for a while that Apple’s artificial intelligence features won’t be available with the launch of iOS 18 – the upcoming software overhaul that is slated to be the biggest in recent years.

While a Bloomberg report only a fortnight ago claimed the features could take as long as Spring 2025 to reach users, a more recent report by the same group expects the launch to arrive as early as update 18.1. This could mean the delay of only a few weeks after the release of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18, which are set to arrive in September. However, the release of several other features that were showcased in this year’s WWDC, such as an improved Siri, could stretch well into 2025. 

The delay will allow Apple to iron out the bugs and other issues on its Apple Intelligence features while maintaining a smooth rollout for the highly anticipated iOS 18, even without AI. 

Still, developers and early adopters will be able to start testing Apple’s AI features on the beta for iOS 18.1 as early as this week. Although the actual, final release of these features is still a matter of speculation, the state of these features on the beta will provide better clues into when the general user will start getting the benefits of Apple Intelligence features, some of which include the ability to summarize web content and voice notes, use AI to write, get ChatGPT in Siri, and several other goodies. 

Expect more such reports, rumors, and leaks as we get closer to launch of iOS 18.