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iOS 18.1 beta features: Apple Intelligence and everything new coming to your iPhone

Published Jul 30th, 2024 8:56AM EDT
iOS 18 Home Screen iPhone customization
Image: José Adorno for BGR

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iOS 18 is still in the middle of its beta cycle. However, Apple decided to seed iOS 18.1 beta so developers could start testing the upcoming Apple Intelligence platform.

Even so, there are a few requirements for developers to try iOS 18.1, such as having devices compatible with Apple Intelligence. The compatible devices are iPhone 15 Pro, M1 iPad, and M1 Mac, or newer.

In this article, we’ll share what’s changing with every iOS 18.1 beta.

iOS 18.1 beta 1 features

Writing Tools: Proofread your text, rewrite different versions until the tone and wording are right, and summarize selected text with a tap.

Improved Siri: With a new design, Siri can maintain context between requests. Even if you stumble over words or shift what you’re saying mid-sentence, Siri can understand what you actually want.

Priority notifications: They appear at the top of the stack, letting you know what to pay attention to at a glance. Notifications are summarized, so you can scan them faster.

Priority messages in Mail: Elevate time-sensitive messages to the top of your inbox, like an invitation that has a deadline today or a check-in reminder for your flight this afternoon.

Apple Intelligence running on M4 iPad ProImage source: José Adorno for BGR

Email summarization: Tap to reveal a summary of a long email in the Mail app and cut to the chase.

Record and transcribe calls in the Notes app: Just hit record in the Notes or Phone apps to capture audio recordings and transcripts. Apple Intelligence generates summaries of your transcripts, so you can get to the most important information at a glance.

Reduce interruptions: With iOS 18.1 beta 1, an all-new Focus Mode understands the content of your notifications and shows you the ones that might need immediate attention, like a text about picking up your child from daycare later today.

Smart Reply in Mail: Quickly drafts an email response with all the right details. Apple Intelligence can identify question you were asked in an email and offer relevant selections to include in your response.

Wrap up

This is everything new coming to iOS 18.1 beta so far. BGR will keep following this testing cycle, and we’ll make sure to update this article as we learn more about new Apple Intelligence features, including how to test it already.

José Adorno Tech News Reporter

José is a Tech News Reporter at BGR. He has previously covered Apple and iPhone news for 9to5Mac, and was a producer and web editor for Latin America broadcaster TV Globo. He is based out of Brazil.

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