How to Get Apple Intelligence on Your iPhone, iPad, or Mac

Apple Intelligence is a set of AI features that Apple is rolling out in beta, and will debut to a larger set of Apple device owners in the fall. Apple Intelligence offers many features from writing and creating text and emails, to taking actions and operating across different apps, to image generation, document and text summarization, and much more.

If you’re interested in the AI Apple Intelligence features, you will find it’s now available on select models of iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but first you have to join the beta program to test Apple Intelligence and meet the system requirements.

Apple Intelligence AI System Requirements

Apple Intelligence AI features have very strict system requirements. The following hardware is compatible with Apple Intelligence:

• iPhone: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or newer
• iPad: Any iPad model with an M1 chip or better (including iPad Pro and iPad Air with M1 chip or better)
• Mac: any Apple Silicon Mac or better

For iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, yes that means standard iPhone 15 models that are currently for sale by Apple as the newest devices do not support Apple Intelligence.

For iPad, that means any while any M1 or better iPad model will get Apple Intelligence, there are multiple devices actively sold by Apple right now, including iPad Mini and iPad base model, that do not support Apple Intelligence.

Why Apple is creating a feature that some of the current model iPhone and iPad devices they sell as the newest and best do not support is unclear.

Fortunately, on the Mac side of things, Apple only sells new Mac models with Apple Silicon, therefore all new models of Apple Silicon Macs that are actively for sale on the Apple website do support Apple Intelligence. There is no support for Apple Intelligence on Intel Macs.

You must be running iOS 18.1 beta, iPadOS 18.1 beta, or MacOS Sequoia 15.1 beta, or later, to have access to this feature as well.

How to Get Apple Intelligence On Your iPhone, iPad, Mac

1. Open the “Settings” app (or System Settings on Mac)
2. Go to “Apple Intelligence & Siri”
3. Choose “Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist” and confirm
4. Some users get instantly accepted into the waitlist, while some may take a bit longer but you’ll receive a notification on your device(s) when accepted
5. Return to Settings > Apple Intelligence > and make sure the Apple Intelligence feature is turned on

Once you’re accepted you’ll find the Apple Intelligence tools available with Siri, as well as when accessing contextual menus for text in many apps, when writing/typing, and elsewhere.

What is Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence is Apple’s AI feature set that is coming in iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, MacOS Sequoia 15.1, and later operating systems.

Apple Intelligence will allow things like writing or rewriting messages and emails, “create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks” according to Apple.

If you’re already familiar with ChatGPT, Dall-E, and AI tools, then you’ll find many of the Apple Intelligence features to be similar.

The video below, from Apple on YouTube, shows what Apple Intelligence is in 5 minutes:

My iPhone, iPad, or Mac doesn’t support Apple Intelligence, what can I do?

Given how strict the system requirements are for Apple Intelligence, there will be many Apple users that won’t have access to these features on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad.

However, Mac users can get the official ChatGPT client or use any of the myriad unofficial clients, or use the web version of ChatGPT, while iPhone and iPad users can also get ChatGPT app on their devices with broad compatibility, or use the web app too. There are also many dozens of other AI tools available, including in the Edge web browser, Microsoft Office suite, Google Gmail and Google Docs suite, myriad other LLM’s, and writing tools like Grammarly.