Apple has started rolling out iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 to iPhones and iPads. The updates bring major improvements to the company's ai feature set and are likely the final software releases Apple has planned for 2024. More Apple Intelligence features are available through macOS 15.2. However, please note that access to all ai features mentioned below is limited to users in the US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK for now, and support is limited additionally to devices with the language set to English.
As long as you have an iPhone 15 Pro, 16, or 16 Pro, one of the highlights of iOS 18.2 is Image Playground, which is available as a standalone app and as a Messages extension. If you go through the latter, the software will generate image suggestions based on the content of your conversations. Naturally, you can also write your own prompts. It's also possible to use a photo from your iPhone's camera roll as a starting point. However, a limitation of Image Playground is that it cannot produce photorealistic images of people. This is by design so that the resulting images do not cause confusion. You can also import any images you generate with Image Playground to Freeform, Pages, and Keynote.
Another new feature, Genmoji, allows you to create custom emoji. From your iPhone's emoji keyboard, tap the new Genmoji button and then enter a description of the character you want to create. Apple Intelligence will generate a few different options, which you can swipe to select the one you want to send. It's also possible to use photos of your friends as a starting point for a Genmoji.
The new update also brings improvements to Siri and Writing Tools, which can now request help from ChatGPT. For example, if you ask the digital assistant to create an itinerary or training plan for you, it will ask for permission to use ChatGPT to complete the task. You do not need a ChatGPT account to use the chatbot in this way, although according to the information on the iOS 18.2 betaThere will be a daily limit on the number of queries iPhone users can send to OpenAI servers.
These are just some of the most notable Apple Intelligence features coming with iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2. If you don't own a recent iPhone or iPad, the good news is that both versions offer more than just new ai tools. A nifty addition is the inclusion of new AirTag features that let you share the location of your lost item trackers with friends and airlines. If you're a News+ subscriber, you'll also have access to daily Sodoku puzzles. Also new in iOS 18.2 is a feature that Apple removed with iOS 16. A new menu item in the operating system's Settings app lets you add volume controls to the lock screen.
If you don't see a notification to download iOS 18.2 on your iPhone and iPadOS 18.2 on your iPad, you can manually check for updates by opening the Settings app on your device and navigating to “General” and then “Software Update.” The same goes for macOS: simply open the System Settings app, navigate to “Software Update” and start the download.
If you live outside of one of the countries listed above, support for additional countries and languages, including Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese, will roll out over the next year, with a scheduled initial update. for April.
