Gurman: iOS 18.1 beta with Apple Intelligence launching as soon as this week

After some speculation on whether or not Apple Intelligence would launch in iOS 18.0, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that Apple will indeed be delaying the features until iOS 18.1, which should release to the public in October.

According to Gurman, Apple will be delaying Apple Intelligence to iOS 18.1, although a developer beta with some of the features should be launching as soon as this week for iPhone and iPad users. Features like Image Playground and Genmoji are more likely to ship first, while other features like the new Siri and ChatGPT integration are not expected until next Spring.

With this new report, we now know that Apple Intelligence features will not be available with iOS and iPadOS 18.0 in September, including on the iPhone 16 models, although they should be available a few short weeks later. Apple Intelligence was initially expected to provide a boost in sales for iPhone 16 models, although Ming-Chi Kuo casted doubts on those claims.

Gurman writes that Apple has been aiming to complete development of iOS and iPadOS 18.0 by the end of July, and the shift of Apple Intelligence to 18.1 will allow the company to spend more time on bug fixes and stability.

This move is a bit unusual, as Apple usually doesn’t release developer betas for upcoming versions before the public release of the initial version, although this has happened before. With iPadOS 16 and Stage Manager, where Apple released the first beta of iPadOS 16.1 in August, prior to any release of a final iOS 16 version.

It’s not quite clear what this means for Apple Intelligence in macOS Sequoia, as Gurman never stated anything regarding it, however I’d guess that we’ll also see the features in a macOS Sequoia beta as early as this week, although I doubt it’d be with a 15.1 beta. Apple typically releases the first macOS version to the public in October, so it’d align with the iOS 18.1 release timeline.

It remains to be seen how Apple will handle shipping this new beta. Will there be a new iOS 18.1 release track to choose from in Settings, or will there simply be no more iOS 18.0 developer betas? Only time will tell.

Are you excited for this week’s potential launch of Apple Intelligence? Let us know in the comments below.