What is Apple Intelligence? A complete beginner's guide

What is Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence is Apple's name for the generative AI features it builds into iOS, iPadOS and macOS. It is not a separate app you download. It appears inside the apps you already use: a rewrite button when you select text in Mail, a summary at the top of a long notification stack, a search box in Photos that understands full sentences.

If you have used ChatGPT or Google's AI tools, the idea is familiar. The difference is where the work happens. Apple designs these features to run on your device's own chip wherever possible, and to send a request to Apple's servers only when the task is too big for the phone.

You have used smaller pieces of this for years. The Photos app recognises faces, the keyboard predicts your next word and Siri answers voice commands. Apple Intelligence builds on those habits with larger language and image models.

What can Apple Intelligence do?

Apple Intelligence handles everyday tasks rather than replacing a full chatbot. These are the features most people notice first.

Writing Tools

Select text almost anywhere you type, including Mail, Messages, Notes and many third-party apps, and Writing Tools offers to proofread it, rewrite it or change its tone. You can make an email more formal, a message friendlier or a long paragraph shorter, without copying text into another app. The results are not always right, so read them before you send. Our guide to writing and editing with Apple Intelligence shows each option.

Natural-language photo search

In Photos you can search the way you would describe a picture to a friend, such as "beach photos from July" or "my dog in the park". The models recognise objects, people, places and activities, and the analysis happens on the device. A related tool, Clean Up, removes unwanted objects from a photo. Our Clean Up tutorial walks through it.

A more natural Siri

Siri copes better with ordinary speech. If you stumble or change your mind mid-sentence, it is more likely to follow, and follow-up questions work more reliably. It is an improvement, not a transformation. Siri still misunderstands requests.

Notification and message summaries

When a group chat or email thread piles up, Apple Intelligence can summarise it in a line or two so you can decide whether to read the lot. Summaries are handy but uneven, and sometimes miss the point of a conversation. Treat them as a preview, not a replacement for reading anything important. Mail summaries are covered in our guide to Apple Intelligence for email.

Smart replies

In Messages, Apple Intelligence suggests short replies based on what the other person wrote. Ask "Dinner Tuesday?" and you may be offered a yes, a no and a counter-suggestion. Quick replies existed before, but these follow the context better.

Images and Genmoji

Image Playground creates pictures from a text description, and Genmoji makes custom emoji from a prompt. Both are more playful than practical. Our Genmoji tutorial shows how to make your first one.

Which devices get Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence only runs on recent hardware, because the models need a lot of processing power and memory on the device. On iPhone, the dividing line is the A17 Pro chip.

The cut-off catches people out because the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro were sold side by side. Both run iOS 27, but only the Pro models have the chip for Apple Intelligence. If you own a standard iPhone 15, our guide to iOS 27 on iPhone 15 explains what you do and don't get.

On iPad, Apple Intelligence needs an M-series chip or the A17 Pro. That means iPad Pro and iPad Air models with M1 or later, and the iPad mini (A17 Pro). On Mac, any Mac with Apple silicon qualifies, from M1 onward. Intel Macs do not.

How does Apple Intelligence protect your privacy?

Privacy is the main way Apple sets its AI apart. The approach has two layers.

On-device processing

Many features run entirely on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. When you ask Writing Tools to rewrite an email or search Photos for a sunset, the work happens on the device's own chip. The text or photo is not uploaded to do it.

Private Cloud Compute

Some requests need a bigger model than a phone can run. For those, Apple uses Private Cloud Compute, a set of servers it runs itself. Your device sends only the data needed for that request. Apple says the servers process it, return the result and do not keep it, and that independent researchers can inspect the software running on them.

You are still trusting Apple, both with the security of your device and with how those servers behave. The design does mean your requests are not stored to build an advertising profile, which separates it from many cloud AI services. You can read Apple's own explanation on the Apple Intelligence page.

Languages and regions

Apple Intelligence launched in English only and has been adding languages since. If your device or Siri language is not supported, the features do not appear, even on a compatible iPhone. Availability also depends on region. For example, regulation delayed the arrival of Apple Intelligence in the European Union. Apple keeps the current list of supported languages and regions on its website, and it changes with each release. Our Apple Intelligence availability guide covers devices and regions in more detail.

Does Apple Intelligence affect battery and storage?

The biggest one-off cost is storage. When you first switch Apple Intelligence on, the device downloads several gigabytes of models in the background, and features show as "preparing" until that finishes. Keep the iPhone on Wi-Fi and power while it does.

Day to day, the features run on the Neural Engine, the part of Apple's chips designed for this kind of work. Light use should not change your battery life much. If you notice heavy drain right after enabling it, the model download and indexing are the usual cause and settle down once complete.

How to turn Apple Intelligence on or off

You control Apple Intelligence from one menu.

1. Open Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri.
2. Turn Apple Intelligence on or off.
3. If you turned it on, keep the device on Wi-Fi until the models finish downloading.
4. To fine-tune, turn individual features such as notification summaries on or off in the same area.

Turning Apple Intelligence off frees the storage its models use. Turning it back on downloads them again. The step-by-step version, with fixes for when the menu is missing, is in our guide to enabling Apple Intelligence on iPhone.

Is Apple Intelligence worth using?

If your device supports it, try it for a week. It costs nothing, and you can switch off the parts you don't like. It suits people who write a lot of email and messages, keep large photo libraries, or prefer AI that runs on the device.

It is not a good reason on its own to buy a new phone. The features are useful, but they will not change how you use an iPhone. If you were going to upgrade anyway, Apple Intelligence is a bonus.

Apple Intelligence in iOS 27

Apple Intelligence continues in iOS 27 on the same iPhones: every model with an A17 Pro chip or newer. Before WWDC 2026, a lot was reported about Apple's AI plans for iOS 27. Our iOS 27 features list is where to check what the update actually includes. If you are trying the beta, the current build is iOS 27.2 beta 4 (24B5110a).

What to do next

Check whether your iPhone is on the supported list above, then switch the feature on in Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri. Once the models download, start with Writing Tools on your next email. It is the quickest way to see whether Apple Intelligence earns a place in your routine.

Frequently asked questions