iOS 18.2 – which will include Image Playground, ChatGPT, and more – will be released to the public the first week in December, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Gurman’s comments came in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter.
Apple’s next slate of AI features is scheduled to arrive in early December. The iOS 18.2 operating system update, which includes major improvements to Apple Intelligence — like ChatGPT chatbot integration, the Image Playground app and custom emoji known as Genmoji — is likely to arrive on the earlier side of December, I’m told. How early? The week of Dec. 2, barring any unexpected delays. 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.
iOS 18.2 is currently in the beta testing phase, although developers are required to join a waitlist to gain access to the upcoming graphics features. Once granted access, developers will be able to try the Image Playground image generator, Genmoji custom emoji engine, testers will also be working with Image Wand and ChatGPT integration.
Some Apple Intelligence features will not become available until early 2025. Gurman has previously said iOS 18.3 will likely be a bug-fix release and will possibly be released to the public either in late 2024 or early 2025.
Apple’s iOS 18.4 and later betas are expected to begin arriving in March or April 2024 and will continue adding new features to Siri. iOS 18.2 and later will also start rolling out Apple Intelligence features to other countries and languages.