Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1 and 18.2: Revolutionizing iPhone Notifications and Mail Management

Apple Intelligence is coming to fix the iPhone notification mess -- finally

iOS 18.1 brings the notification management fixes iOS desperately needs. With iOS 18 introducing a slew of new system customizations, the iPhone has become more Android-like than ever. Nevertheless, a prominent flaw continues to hold back numerous green-bubbled users from switching. For years, the iPhone has suffered from a notification management problem that makes it hard to focus on the matters that matter. While Android has granular, per-app notification channels, iOS applications generally deliver their alerts as regular or time-sensitive notifications -- and that's not enough to keep things under control. Fortunately for those receiving a ton of digital noise, Apple Intelligence on iOS 18.1 addresses the notification problem plaguing our iPhones. While it doesn't introduce any of the wholesale changes that the notification system desperately needs, its built-in smarts help reduce clutter and help make sure you don't miss anything important. Despite being outshined by other Apple Intelligence features coming to your iPhone with iOS 18.1, the notification summarization feature is the one that will impact your digital experience the most. Once enabled, the tool automatically scans all alerts and displays a one-line summary encompassing each notification stack's essence. Here's how it works: When your friends send you multiple or lengthy texts, you'll see a summary of what was said so you can gauge how urgent the topics are. Without Apple Intelligence, you have to take time to skim through numerous, sometimes long messages to evaluate their importance. The best part about notification summaries in iOS 18.1 is that they work with all apps, including third-party ones, and require no developer involvement. So, even if you don't rely on Apple Messages or Mail to communicate, Apple Intelligence will still analyze the content of your conversations and shrink the volume of your alerts in the Notification Center to an easily digestible bite-sized chunk. While you can technically do this now by pasting a long message into ChatGPT and asking for a summary, Apple Intelligence's system-level implementation is what makes all the difference. It enables you to just glance at your Lock Screen to get a sense of the context without any user input -- even when offline. While notification summaries reduce lengthy texts to a single line, your iPhone will continue to buzz whenever someone spams you with their latest life drama. Thankfully, Apple Intelligence's notification management perks don't stop there. As of iOS 18.1, users can toggle a new Reduce Interruptions Focus mode that aims to increase productivity. Reduce Interruptions works by analyzing push notification content. When the AI detects a sense of urgency in an alert, it notifies you. Otherwise, it delivers them quietly. Like other Focus modes, you can allow apps and contacts you want to alert you regardless of how critical their topics are. Beyond Reduce Interruptions, Apple Intelligence also introduces a relevant toggle that optionally applies this AI filter to any of your existing Focus modes. Before installing iOS 18.1, I'd always hesitate to enable Do Not Disturb mode while working in case I missed out on an important alert. While I have always let notifications marked as time-sensitive come through, the categorization isn't always accurate. Some "time-sensitive" alerts can wait and vice versa. The AI filter addresses this shortcoming by scanning each alert individually and evaluating its priority based on its content -- not binary indicators set by app developers. As a result, I now keep Reduce Interruptions enabled at all times during work hours. This has significantly boosted my productivity, as random alerts no longer distract me. The same contact could use the same app to send me a meme and later ask a serious question, and, for the first time in iOS' history, the system can distinguish between the two messages and only deliver the latter's notification. It's a game-changer. Beyond notification summaries and Reduce Interruptions, Apple Intelligence on iOS 18.1 also includes some exclusive, in-app perks for Mail and Messages users. If you accidentally dismiss the relevant notifications before reading their summary, Mail, and Messages will display similar summaries for each thread in the apps themselves. To help users maximize their productivity, Apple Intelligence also suggests relevant replies in these apps. Expectedly, smart replies in Messages are generally shorter and less formal than those in Mail, and you can always rely on Writing Tools (another Apple Intelligence feature) to rephrase a suggested response if it doesn't match your expectations. Apple Intelligence on iOS 18.1 fixes the iPhone's notification problem by pretending it doesn't exist. Instead of overhauling the device's notification management, the system can now rely on AI to deliver irrelevant alerts quietly while offering summaries that capture the gist of each notification stack. While this workaround won't be ideal for some users, it certainly makes the issue more bearable. I've been actively relying on the AI notification features for a few weeks now, and they have significantly impacted my productivity and how I deal with everyday digital noise. After all, most alerts aren't worth my immediate attention, and Apple Intelligence now intuitively scans them on my behalf so I can dedicate my time to more fruitful tasks.

Notifications in iOS 18.1 could be the first killer Apple Intelligence feature - 9to5Mac

Something rings true about Apple's catchphrase for Apple Intelligence: 'AI for the rest of us.' AI can do some really impressive (and problematic) things. But sometimes it's the boring, practical improvements that are actually most useful. For example, every day 'the rest of us' endure the tedious task of notification management. And in iOS 18.1, Apple has made notifications so much better thanks to AI summaries. More Apple Intelligence capabilities will roll out gradually over the year ahead, but notification summaries are one of several features included in this week's iOS 18.1 debut. If you have a supported Apple Intelligence device, then iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 will make your app notifications more informative and helpful than ever before. I've been using Apple Intelligence since it first launched as a beta in July. In that time, notification summaries are easily the Apple Intelligence feature I've gotten the most benefit from. Better notifications might sound too boring to be a killer AI feature, but that's exactly what they have been for me. Notification summaries can be enabled for any app, but they are designed primarily for communication apps. When you receive an email, for example, AI will provide a summary of that email's contents in the notification. The same is true for messages. If someone sends you a brief message, you'll see the actual message contents in the notification -- like always. But if a message is a little longer, Apple Intelligence summarizes its content in the notification you receive. You won't see the actual message's text in your notification, but what you get is actually much better. This also works when the group chat blows up. Your top notification will provide a summary of what the conversation is all about. All summarized notifications are denoted by a small icon, so you know it's not the actual message content being displayed. Though this feature may not sound the most cutting edge, it's provided a meaningful productivity and attention benefit for me. All throughout my day, whether I'm working or I'm hanging out with family and friends, notifications fill my devices. When a notification arrives, I have to make a judgment call: is this something important, or not? This key decision point -- which we all experience many times every day -- is made so much easier with Apple Intelligence. Previously, notifications for emails and longer messages were often entirely useless. By including only an excerpt of the start of a message, they rarely provided enough info to help me make an informed decision around engagement. Instead, what would often happen is one of two things: AI notification summaries have made this problem a thing of the past. Now, my devices provide much more informative notifications, which I can quickly glance at and decide whether to address or ignore. One nice detail: if you have a compatible iPhone, your Apple Watch will benefit from AI summaries too. There's no need to open a full app unless something is truly important. Thus, the flow of my day and my thought pattern is minimally disrupted. Notification summaries are available in any app, and you can turn them on or off for different apps inside Settings. Notification summaries are only available with Apple Intelligence. That means you need a compatible device, such as iPhone 16, and M1 Mac or later, and so on. Have you used AI notification summaries? What's your experience been like? Let us know in the comments.

These 3 Apple Intelligence Features in iOS 18.1 Are the Ones You'll Actually Use

With the release of iOS 18.1 on Monday, Apple Intelligence finally arrives on the iPhone for the general public -- that is, if you own an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro (or their Plus and Max variants). Given Apple's advertising push, you'd think this new technology will change how you use your iPhone in fundamental ways. (It's also available in MacOS 15.1 Sequoia and iPadOS 18.1 on Macs and iPads with M-series processors, plus the latest iPad mini.) But you shouldn't expect your iPhone to feel radically different. I've been using Apple Intelligence features in the developer and public betas for a few weeks, and although there are definitely some promising future features, what we're starting with is quite modest. After you install iOS 18.1 and gain access to Apple Intelligence, here's what you can realistically expect. More features will be added as time goes on, and Apple Intelligence is still officially beta software. But this is where Apple is starting its AI age. In an era when there are so many demands on our attention and seemingly less time to dig into longer topics...Sorry, what was I saying? Oh, right: How often have you wanted a "too long; didn't read" version of not just long emails but the fire hose of communication that blasts your way? The ability to summarize notifications, Mail messages and web pages is perhaps the most pervasive and least intrusive feature of Apple Intelligence so far. When a notification arrives, such as a text from a friend or group in Messages, the iPhone creates a short, single-sentence summary. Sometimes summaries are vague, and sometimes they're unintentionally funny, but so far I've found them to be more helpful than not. Summaries can also be generated from alerts by third-party apps like news or social media apps -- although I suspect that my outdoor security camera is picking up multiple passersby over time and not telling me that 10 people are stacked by the door. That said, Apple Intelligence definitely doesn't understand sarcasm or colloquialisms -- you can turn summaries off if you prefer. You can also generate a longer summary of emails in the Mail app: Tap the Summarize button at the top of a message to view a rundown of the contents in a few dozen words. In Safari, when viewing a page where the Reader feature is available, tap the Page Menu button in the address bar, tap Show Reader and then tap the Summary button at the top of the page. I was amused during the iOS 18 and the iPhone 16 releases that the main visual indicator of Apple Intelligence -- the full-screen, color-at-the-edges Siri animation -- was noticeably missing. Apple even lit up the edges of the massive glass cube of its Apple Fifth Avenue Store in New York City like a Siri search. Instead, iOS 18 used the same-old Siri sphere. Now, the modern Siri look has arrived in iOS 18.1, but only on devices that support Apple Intelligence. If you're still tapping your fingers in the Apple Intelligence waitlist queue, you'll also see the Siri sphere for now. With the new look are a few Siri interaction improvements: It's more forgiving if you stumble through a query, like saying the wrong word or interrupting yourself mid-thought. It's also better about listening after delivering results, so you can ask related followup questions. However, the ability to personalize answers based on what Apple Intelligence knows about you is still down the road. iOS 18.1 also doesn't yet tie in ChatGPT as an alternate source of information -- that interaction has only just rolled out in the iOS 18.2 developer beta. Until iOS 18.1, the Photos app on the iPhone and iPad has lacked a simple retouch feature. Dust on the camera lens? Litter on the ground? Sorry, you need to deal with those and other distractions in the Photos app on MacOS or using a third-party app. Now Apple Intelligence includes Clean Up, an AI-enhanced removal tool, in the Photos app. When you edit an image and tap the Clean Up button, the iPhone analyzes the photo and suggests potential items to remove by highlighting them. Tap one or draw a circle around an area -- the app erases those areas and uses generative AI to fill in plausible pixels. In this first incarnation, Clean Up isn't perfect, and you'll often get better results in other dedicated image editors. But for quickly removing annoyances from photos, it's fine.

My inbox was a mess, but iOS 18.2 has revolutionized the Mail app

iOS 18.2 developer beta is here and the new Apple Intelligence-powered Mail app is one of the standout updates coming to your iPhone. While it may not be as headline-grabbing as ChatGPT-integration with Siri, Visual Intelligence, or Genmoji, it's the mundane use of AI that I think the average consumer will appreciate most. I've been using the new Mail app in iOS 18.2 developer beta for roughly 24 hours now, and while it's still in development it makes me optimistic about Apple Intelligence. With new categorization, incredible summarizing tools, and a fresh look, Mail on iOS 18.2 could be the answer to my mess of an inbox and it could be for yours too. Before I begin, I just want to emphasize that iOS 18.2 is in its very early stages. This isn't software you should install on your primary device, and I advise you to wait for the official launch later this year to try out any of the Mail improvements I'm writing about. If you can't wait to use Apple Intelligence, you'll be able to install the official release of iOS 18.1 shortly and that should give you enough new features to tide you over until 18.2 finally arrives. Now that we've got that out of the way, let's talk Mail. iOS 18.1 had the rumblings of Apple Intelligence Mail features, but apart from some basic summaries, there wasn't anything to write home about. Fast forward to iOS 18.2 and Apple Intelligence is incredibly prominent in the Mail app, and it rules. The first thing you'll notice when opening Mail on iOS 18.2 is Categories, powered by Apple Intelligence. Mail will automatically organize your emails into multiple categories ranging from Primary for emails that matter, Transactions for purchase receipts and delivery info, Updates for subscription info, social media emails, and newsletters, and Promotions for all your deal emails and special offers from websites. Any email that is time-sensitive, regardless of the category it falls under will also show up in Primary. This has been a life-saver already, considering my email inbox is usually cluttered with more newsletters and spam than any important information - now however, I can actually see the messages that I need to. This simple but effective change to the Mail app is visible from the new menu bar and even just using it for a day makes me wonder how I lived without it. I've always wanted an AI tool to help me stay on top of my life and counting on Apple Intelligence to filter my emails takes away the constant worry that I'm missing important information because of my cluttered inbox. Up until yesterday, I feared opening the Mail app, but now I understand how it works and I'm happy to check my emails. Not only does Apple Intelligence filter your emails into categories automatically, but you can help it understand your priorities a bit better by manually categorizing contacts. I had a couple of emails pop into Transactions that should've been in Updates, but it was quick and easy to make sure they go into the category I want next time. The Mail app now also groups emails within these categories by sender, completely decluttering any mess. Aside from the new look given by Categories, summaries also worked great in my short time testing the feature. I used Apple Intelligence to summarize seven emails in a thread and it was impressive how many details it managed to pick up. While I'm still not sure how often I'd use summarization like this, it's impressive to see it in action and I'm sure many people will love it. Where I will use summaries, however, is in the way the Mail app breaks down an email into one or two important bullet points - it's very useful when you just want to glance at your inbox rather than open every email to determine if it's worth your time. It's the decluttering that Mail that iOS 18.2 does best. No longer are you met with an endless list of emails that always feel on top of you. I know apps like Gmail have done similar things for a while, but it's the trust I have in Apple Intelligence to do a good job that makes Mail feel different. With more Apple Intelligence features coming over the next months and a smarter Siri with personal context and on-screen awareness arriving at the end of the first wave, I'm hopeful that this is just the start of an AI-powered iPhone that works as a personal assistant in my pocket. Emails have plagued my life for years, and they've gotten increasingly hard to keep on top of. If Apple Intelligence can sort my online clutter and make the mundane easier then I think Apple is onto something. Maybe this actually is "AI for the rest of us."