Apple Intelligence release date: Some parts of major iPhone update may not arrive for some time, rumours say

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Some of Apple’s upcoming AI features for the iPhone might not arrive until March.

That is according to new rumours that indicate that the new Apple Intelligence tools will roll out through a gradual process that will see some not arrive for a few updates.

Apple has said publicly that the first updates will be released in October. That is due to come with iOS 18.1, the next major update.

That will bring many of the features that were shown off as part of the reveal of Apple Intelligence. It will include better understanding for Siri, writing tools that can be used to manipulate text, summaries of notifications and a tool to remove people from photos.

iOS 18.1 is already available in an early version, which can be downloaded by signing up to Apple’s public beta programme. But that comes with warnings about compatibility and other potential issues that should be solved before the update is released.

In both its early and final versions, iOS 18.1 is only expected to bring Apple Intelligence to phones that have their device and Siri language set to US English. It does not however require users to actually be in the US, since that option can be chosen from Settings.

iOS 18.2 is then expected to be released in December – the same time that Apple said that extra countries including the UK would get Apple Intelligence.

That same update will also bring Image Playgrounds and Genmoji, two generative AI tools that Apple has talked about at length. Image Playgrounds allows people to ask for a picture and then have it generated in seconds, while Genmoji allows people to create a new emoji just by asking for it.

But some of the biggest Apple Intelligence updates will not actually arrive until iOS 18.4, which is not likely to arrive until March, according to a new report from Bloomberg. That is when the perhaps most highlighted feature of Apple Intelligence will come: updates for Siri that are intended to make it far more useful.

It is then that Siri will be able to understand its owner’s personal context to provide responses that are individual to them, for instance. It will also get features such as the ability to know more about what is happening on screen, so that users can ask about a given set of information, for instance.

Apple has also said that other languages will be coming to Apple Intelligence some time next year. But it did not say when.