Here’s what you can expect from the new update
If you’re an iPhone 16 user, the iOS 18.2 update is likely the one you’ve been waiting on for a long time. iOS 18.2, which arrived on 11 December, brought with it many of the Apple Intelligence features that were announced in September. Alongside the usual bug fixes and performance enhancements, of course.
Apple Intelligence, the term Apple is using to describe a new suite of artificial intelligence powered features, is the headlining feature of the series, and one of the most significant reasons to upgrade. Here’s a closer look at what to expect from the update.
Disclaimer: While Apple Intelligence came with iOS 18.2, the features will only activate when you switch to region specific English language settings. It is not officially supported for Indian users just yet.
Image Playground: Image Playground can be thought of as an on-device image generator. Simply describe the image you want to create, and your iPhone will create a cartoonish version (but in 3D) of that image for you. It can even create a cartoon-like likeness of friends and family by referring to your photo library.
This service is integrated everywhere in iOS, including Messages, Notes, and Pages. You can also use it as a dedicated app.
Genmoji: Like Image Playground, Genmoji is an AI-powered feature that generates emojis based on user prompts. These can be inspired by friends or family and are integrated into Messages and other messaging apps.
Image Wand in Notes: Image Wand is another feature built on Image Playground. Essentially, you describe the kind of image you want within the Notes app and the iPhone will generate an image for you. It can also add effects like simple animations and illustrations with the Sketch Style option.
Writing Tools: This is an AI feature-set that can help improve your writing, change the tone of your messages and email, and summarise large documents or conversations. You simply select the text you want to edit and describe the change you want. AI will do the rest.
Visual Intelligence: With iOS 18.2, you will be able to summarise and copy text from images and the camera, translate in real-time, and more. You can also use the camera to look up objects on Google, solve problems and complex diagrams, and more.
ChatGPT integration: With more powerful ChatGPT integration, you’ll be able to tap into the power of one of the most powerful LLMs out there to help enhance writing and analyse data better. This version of ChatGPT for Apple Intelligence is designed to be more private and secure by not saving data on OpenAI’s servers.
It’s nice to see Apple Intelligence finally running on the iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and the iPhone 16 Pro Max with the iOS 18 update. That said, we’ve yet to see the full feature-set that was announced in September. The features that we do have are useful, but they’re still in need of refinement. Plus, we’re missing support for regions outside the US.