Apple Intelligence May Not Be Ready in Time for iOS 18, iPadOS 18 Public Release in September: Report

Apple Intelligence is expected to be a much-awaited addition to the current suite of new features and upgrades that will arrive on iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia in fall this year. The Cupertino tech giant promised a ton of useful new features and integrations to be available both at launch and in the months following the above-mentioned updates (said to arrive in September). The AI integrations which are deeply integrated into the software, bring a ton of added features for users that currently own the latest generation of Apple silicon-powered devices. However, it now seems that Apple may have to hold back on releasing Apple Intelligence features entirely for a later date.

A report by Bloomberg states that Apple will delay the release of its much-awaited Apple Intelligence AI-integrations in all of its operating systems that were set to arrive with it in some form or the other.

Apple made it clear at its WWDC 2024 announcement that not all features would arrive at the launch of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia when these milestone updates would be released for supported devices in September this year.

At the time, Apple clarified that only users with their device language set to US English would be able to use Apple Intelligence. While many features were expected to show up with the above-mentioned updates, Apple also stated that “Some features, software platforms, and additional languages will come over the course of the next year.” without giving out any timeline.

The Bloomberg report (which sort of corroborates a previous report on the same) now states that Apple Intelligence isn’t expected to be ready in time for the public release of its new software updates expected to hit supported devices this fall. This hints that iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia would arrive with everything that was promised at WWDC 2024 sans Apple Intelligence.

The author of the report, Mark Gurman states that Apple is planning to introduce its AI features and integrations in the next update (iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1) which it plans to bring out by October. This is indeed just a month away from the public release date. The beta software for the features to be released in this consecutive update will reportedly be available this week for developers as a part of the ongoing beta release cycle.

Gurman even states that many Apple Intelligence-related features would be pushed to the following year as well and that some of these will help sell the next line-up of iPhone 16 devices. Apple’s short list of Apple Intelligence supported devices mandates an A17 Pro processor (available only on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max or an M-series chip for its iPad, Macbook and Mac-computing devices.

Even without the new AI-integrations, Apple’s latest software updates still have plenty of new features for users. This would include a more customisable and personalised home screen, with new theming options for app icons, a massive update to Control Center, a completely redesigned Photos library, the ability to send messages via satellite connectivity, and plenty more.