Apple's iOS 18.1 developer beta includes the first 'Apple Intelligence' iPhone features

Apple has released developer betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, giving users access to the company's first set of artificial intelligence features. According to 9to5Mac, Apple Intelligence features available in the beta include a redesigned Siri and the ability to maintain context across multiple queries, new Mail features like Smart Reply and Email Summaries, natural language search in Photos, and other tweaks.

Bloomberg reported that Apple is likely to release some Apple Intelligence features, including a major AI overhaul for Siri, in the second half of 2025. To install these updates, you'll need an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max, or, in the case of iPads and Macs, a system with an Apple Silicon chip. Once installed, users will need to join a waitlist from their device's Settings menu and wait for a notification that they are ready to join, as shown in this screenshot .

At the same time that the first previews of 18.1 were released on Monday, 9to5Mac reports that Apple also released a second public beta for iOS 18, with some of the features seen in a recent developer beta, like support for RCS on more carriers, a new set of CarPlay wallpapers, and the ability to use dark mode widgets in light mode. Apple first announced an AI function on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac at the June World Wide Developer Conference. The Public IOS 18 beta version was released on July 15. Apple typically doesn't release beta versions of subsequent software updates before the public launch of the initial version, which is set to accompany the iPhone 16 launch this fall. But splitting the AI ​​updates into the 18.1 update and starting to test them with developers now could help the company iron out bugs and test features before they're widely available, without any potential impact on the launch of phones and tablets when they start shipping with iOS and iPadOS 18.