Report: Apple Intelligence Delayed to iOS 18.1 in October

Apple Intelligence will miss its initial expected launch date to give Apple more time to fix bugs, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports.

According to individuals with knowledge about Apple's plans, the company now plans to start rolling out ‌Apple Intelligence‌ in software updates by October, arriving several weeks after the launch of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia. This means that ‌Apple Intelligence‌ will now effectively be split out of the initial launch of the new software updates. The reason for the delay is said to be concern about the stability of ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features and need for developers to have sufficient testing time.

‌Apple Intelligence‌ will still be made available to software developers for the first time as soon as next week with the first betas of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1, which would be extremely unusual as the company does not normally release previews of follow-up software updates until the first version has been released.

Gurman notes that the new release strategy for ‌Apple Intelligence‌ means that the iPhone 16 lineup will likely launch without ‌Apple Intelligence‌ features and require a software update to obtain them at a later date. The company is now said to be aiming to have development of iOS 18.0 completed by the end of July.

Even when ‌Apple Intelligence‌ arrives with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, it will be missing aspects such as the overhauled version of Siri that uses on-device data to answer questions and understands what is on a user's screen. These features are expected to arrive in the first half of 2025.