Apple Intelligence — a game changer for your iOS startup or not? Learn how Apple Intelligence transforms the app ecosystem, introducing fresh features and possibilities for developers and founders.

What is Apple Intelligence?

Apple Intelligence is an AI platform created by Apple Inc. It integrates on-device generative and diffusion models with ChatGPT capabilities. Apple Intelligence deeply understands users’ personal context and is fully integrated into various system features and apps.

Key features

Here’s a quick summary of the most critical functionality introduced by Apple Intelligence:

Writing Tools. Users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text across Mail, Notes, Safari, Pages, Keynote, and third-party apps. They can also adjust the tone to be friendly, professional, or concise with a single click. Additionally, it can automatically generate a bulleted list of key points from the text. These writing tools integrate with ChatGPT.

Audio Transcription. Users can also record, transcribe, and summarize audio in the Notes and Phone apps.

Smart Reply in Mail.This feature offers suggested responses based on the content of the incoming message. Users can quickly select the best options, allowing them to send a response quicker.

Image Playground. It is a standalone app, but it is available across Messages, Notes, Freeform, and Keynote. It allows users to generate custom images based on their ideas or photos from the library. Image Playground enables the design of personalized Genmoji using descriptions or photos.

Image Wand, Custom Memory Movie, and improved Siri – Apple Intelligence introduces tools to boost user productivity and creativity across Apple’s ecosystem.

What differentiates Apple's vision from other tech companies?

Apple's approach to artificial intelligence sets it apart from other tech giants such as Google and OpenAI. Whereas these companies have concentrated on creating large language models (LLMs) like Gemini and ChatGPT, Apple has taken a more integrated and privacy-focused strategy:

Privacy-Centric Approach: Apple Intelligence is built with a strong focus on user privacy. Unlike other LLM models, Apple’s model operates mainly on-device, ensuring your information stays local and protected. Additionally, Apple has used Private Cloud Compute, a dedicated server designed to manage ChatGPT requests securely.

Tight Hardware Integration: Apple IntelligenceI is deeply integrated into Apple’s hardware system to ensure that their combination enables better speed and performance.

Focus on User Experience: Apple has primarily concentrated on empowering its apps with Apple Intelligence. This approach ensures that the AI is customized to fit specific Apple services, resulting in a more relevant and valuable user experience.

Apple Intelligence is targeted to improve user productivity by offering a context-aware smart assistant and caring about user privacy. It’s a strategy that positions Apple for success and empowers users with choice and control.

What’s new for iOS Developers?

On September 9, Apple announced that Apple Intelligence, a new suite of AI-driven tools, will start rolling out with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. First, Apple Intelligence would be available for document management apps, browsers, cameras, photos, books, mail, photos, spreadsheets, notes, and similar categories.

As an early adopter, you can boost your app's user acquisition and engagement if you are the first in your category to integrate their app with Siri. Early adopters typically gain more media attention because people like to see how others take a risk. In return, you can stand out in the market as an innovator. Of course, it’s “a bug opportunity” as well, so consider announcing this out loud, but deliver to a small user group or invite users to join a testing group.

The AI functionality will be integrated into the App Intents framework, which is being improved with new intents for developers that allow Siri to take actions in your app. With App Entities, Siri can use content from your app to answer user questions. Siri can request third-party apps' information that varies in user scenarios and use cases.

Apple Intelligence Expands iOS Developer Tools

Apple Intelligence empowers iOS developers to create innovative and engaging apps that cater to the evolving needs of users. Let’s go over the new opportunities of the iOS ecosystem and how those can improve the user experience:

App Intents. Siri is getting smarter this year. Thanks to improvements in App Intents, it can now do hundreds of new things in and across apps. This framework lets apps interact with Siri, Shortcuts, and other Apple experiences. Initially, Apple Intelligence will support these app categories: books, browsers, cameras, documents, files, journals, mail, photos, presentations, spreadsheets, whiteboards, and word processors. More categories will be added in the future.

App Entities. App entities allow Siri to understand content from an app and provide users with information from the app from anywhere in the system. Together, App Intents and App Entities allow users to connect content from different apps. For example, a user can add a summary from Notes to an email in Superhuman.

Image Playground API. With this API, you can empower your users to create unique images right within your app. No need for external models or servers. This can add a fun and personalized touch to your app, like allowing users to generate custom avatar pictures.

New UITextViewDelegate methods. With these, developers can have better control over user interactions with text, allowing them to respond to changes dynamically, track text modifications, or even customize the app’s response to Writing Tools' behavior. It also gives developers control over which writing assistance features are available within a UITextView and how they behave in different contexts.

Limitations and risks for developers

While Apple's AI offers benefits, remember its limitations before making a decision and adding an integration to your product backlog:

Device Limitations: While Apple Intelligence is designed to run on-device, it requires the latest hardware and excludes users with older devices.

Data Privacy Concerns: Although Apple prioritizes privacy, there are always concerns about the collection and use of user data, even if it’s processed locally. Developers must be mindful of how they handle and protect user data.

Developer Learning Curve: Learning to effectively utilize Apple Intelligence’s capabilities may require a significant investment of time and effort for developers. This could be especially challenging for those who are new to AI and machine learning.

Integration Challenges: Integrating Apple Intelligence into existing apps can be complex, especially for apps with large codebases. Developers may encounter technical difficulties or compatibility issues.

Potential for Misuse: Like any powerful technology, Apple Intelligence could be misused. For example, it could be used to generate misleading or harmful content. Developers must factor in these risks.

To make the right decision, compare the costs of integrating Apple Intelligence against the potential business value you can get.

Another factor to consider is the user's geography and device language. From the start, Apple Intelligence will be available for users with the device & Siri language set to U.S. English, and more languages will be added in the future. The more your app's users fancy Apple Intelligence, the more it is necessary to prioritize integration. Nevertheless, it's unclear when users in China and the European Union will have access. To plan your backlog, stay updated on Apple's news. Also, consider shortlisting software development vendors like Redwerk to implement those handy features.

Bottom Line

Apple Intelligence offers iOS developers groundbreaking opportunities to enhance app experiences and drive innovation. However, its future impact depends on overcoming challenges such as device limitations, integration complexity, and privacy concerns. Early adopters are poised to lead the way in shaping the next generation of AI-powered applications as the technology evolves and expands globally.