Apple Intelligence will not be released to the public until the release of iOS 18.1 in October, as Apple needs more time to fix bugs, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
The company is planning to begin rolling out Apple Intelligence to customers as part of software updates coming by October, according to people with knowledge of the matter. That means the AI features will arrive a few weeks after the initial iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 releases planned for September, said the people, who declined to be identified discussing unannounced release details.
Still, the iPhone maker is planning to make Apple Intelligence available to software developers for the first time for early testing as soon as this week via iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1 betas, they added. The strategy is atypical as the company doesn’t usually release previews of follow-up updates until around the time the initial version of the new software generation is released publicly.
The reason for the delay is that Apple is said to be concerned about the stability of Apple Intelligence features and the need for developers to have sufficient testing time.
Gurman says Apple Intelligence will first become available to developers with the first betas of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, which could be released within the next few weeks. This is a bit unusual, as Apple doesn’t normally release previews of software updates until the first version has been released to the public.
Gurman notes that this means the iPhone 16 lineup will likely launch without Apple Intelligence features and will require an update at a later date. Apple is said to be targeting to finish iOS 18.0 by the end of July.
Even though Apple Intelligence will arrive with the public release of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, there will still be quite a few Apple Intelligence features missing, including the revamped version of Siri, which will not arrive until the first half of 2025.