Apple Intelligence is the marquee feature for this year’s iPhones (and iPads and Macs) and the first features have just arrived in the iOS 18.1 release—full details of that here. But much more is coming in iOS 18.2, and a new report says that is less than a month away.
Apple Intelligence’s big update comes in iOS 18.2.
Apple has already said the update would arrive in December, but given that iOS 18.1 was scheduled for October and only landed on Monday, Oct. 28, many had assumed that late December was likely. Now, we’re told that it “likely to arrive on the earlier side of December, I’m told. How early? The week of Dec. 2, barring any unexpected delays,” according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in his latest Power On newsletter.
Apple likes to release its software updates on either Monday or Tuesday if it can, so that points to Monday, Dec. 2 or Tuesday, Dec. 3 as the most likely release dates.
Apple iOS 18.2 has a lot of big Apple Intelligence upgrades, including the introduction of Genmoji, where users can create original emoji on the fly. There’ll also be the Image Playground app and enhancements to writing tools. And for iPhone 16 users there’ll be Visual Intelligence so that with one press of the Camera Control, the iPhone can grab information about what it’s looking at. Oh, and ChatGPT integration will arrive.
Beyond that, it will be the first time English-speaking users outside the U.S. will have access to Apple Intelligence. It will be available to if your iPhone is set to English for New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Canada and the U.K.
A lot to look forward to, then, and once iOS 18.2 has arrived, it will be the last Apple Intelligence update for about four months, according to Gurman. He says, “The next major update to Apple Intelligence after that will come in April as part of iOS 18.4 and will include improvements to Siri. It should let the digital assistant tap into people’s data and respond to queries based on the information on their screens.”
April will also be the time that Apple Intelligence will be accessible to users in the European Union, Apple says.
If, like me, you’re waiting for use Apple Intelligence in one of the countries that won’t get it until December, an early release in that month will likely be welcome.