Robert Triggs / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Two Apple Intelligence features might only arrive with the iOS 18.2 update in December, according to a journalist.
- These features are the Image Playground app and the Genmoji capability.
- The first Apple Intelligence features are tipped to arrive as part of iOS 18.1 in October.
Apple previously confirmed that its Apple Intelligence AI features would be available in the fall as a beta. However, it’s believed these features might not be available on iPhone 16 devices out of the box and could instead arrive with the iOS 18.1 update in October. Now, a trusted source has claimed that two AI features might arrive even later.
Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman noted in his Power On newsletter that Apple has delayed two image-generation features in iOS 18.2. According to the journalist, this update is only expected to arrive in December.
These two iOS 18.2 features are said to be the Image Playground app and Genmoji feature. The former is an image-generation tool that lets you generate images based on concepts, although you can also use prompts if you’d like to be more specific. Meanwhile, the Genmoji feature lets you generate new emojis via your keyboard. You can even generate emojis based on people in your photos.
Apple Intelligence: A drip-feed of features?
The news comes a while after reports that the upgraded Siri would only be available in spring 2025. The upgraded voice assistant will offer better natural language processing, the ability to remember context between requests, and support “hundreds of new actions.” Either way, you shouldn’t expect all Apple Intelligence features to be available when the iPhone 16 series launches.
This news also comes after Google upped the AI ante with the Pixel 9 series. In addition to existing summarization and transcription features, the new flagship phones also offer the Pixel Studio app for image generation, the more intuitive Gemini Live assistant, phone call summaries, and the Pixel Screenshots app to organize and recall info from screenshots.
