Apple Intelligence launches with iOS 18.1 beta, includes call recording and transcribing

Yesterday a report told us Apple Intelligence wouldn't be launching with the new iPhone 16 family in September, instead arriving as a software update in October. Now, Apple has basically confirmed this without saying anything.

That's because today the company has released the first developer beta of iOS 18.1, and this includes the first Apple Intelligence features. That's iOS 18.1, by the way - iOS 18 is also being beta tested currently, and that's the version that's supposed to go out in September. iOS 18.1 will be the first major update to iOS 18, and it stands to reason that it could arrive in October.

Anyway, logistics aside, with the first betas of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, Apple is finally unleashing the Apple Intelligence suite. To turn this on, you need to go to Settings and join a waitlist, just as previously rumored. Currently, the wait is just a few hours long, but this is a developer-only beta, so this is the best case scenario we're ever going to see. It will probably take much more than a few hours for the general public to get access come October, but we digress.

Writing Tools (rewrite, spell check, grammar check, summarize text in Messages, Notes, Mail, Pages, and other apps), Siri's new look with a glow around the edges of the screen and the ability to type to it, summaries for transcripts and other content, new Mail categories and smart replies, as well as smart replies in Messages - they're all in.

Joining is the ability to record and transcribe phone calls. Once you're on a call you can tap the record button in the top left corner. Everyone on the call will be notified through an audible message that it's being recorded, and then the audio is saved to the Notes app. After the call you can re-listen to the call, view a full transcript, and get a summary of the transcript.

A public beta of iOS 18.1 is surely coming in the next few weeks.

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