The real power of Apple Intelligence will show up in third-party apps
Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker's new set of AI capabilities arriving in iOS 18, is laying the groundwork for a new way to use apps.
Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s new set of AI capabilities arriving in iOS 18, is laying the groundwork for a new way to use apps.
Today, the dated App Store model is under constant regulatory attack. Meanwhile, users can accomplish a lot of tasks with fairly simple questions to an AI assistant like ChatGPT. Proponents believe AI could become the preferred way we’ll search for answers, be productive at work, and experiment with creativity.
Where does that leave the world of apps, and the growing services revenue (more than $6 billion last quarter) they generate for Apple?
The answer cuts to the core of Apple’s AI strategy.
Apple Intelligence itself only offers a small set of capabilities out-of-the-box, like writing helpers, summarization tools, generative art, and other baseline offerings.
But earlier this year at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, Apple presented new features that will allow developers’ apps to connect more deeply with both Siri and Apple Intelligence.
Improvements to the smart assistant will allow Siri to invoke any item from an app’s menu without additional work on a developer’s part. That means users could ask Siri to “show me my presenter notes” in a slide deck, for instance, and Siri would know what to do. Siri will also be able to access any text displayed on the page, allowing users to reference and act on what’s on their screen.
So, if you were looking at your reminder to wish a family member a “happy birthday,” you could say something like “FaceTime him” and Siri would know what action to take.
That’s already an upgrade from the basic functionality today’s Siri offers, but it doesn’t end there. Apple is also providing developers with tools to use Apple Intelligence in their own apps. At WWDC, the company indicated that Apple Intelligence would first be made available to certain categories of apps, including Books, Browsers, Cameras, Document readers, File management, Journals, Mail, Photos, Presentations, Spreadsheets, Whiteboards, and Word processors. Over time, Apple is likely to open up these capabilities to all developers across the App Store.
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