Stage 2 of the Apple Intelligence Rollout Begins, With Developer Betas of iOS 18.2 and MacOS 15.2 Sequoia

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 updates to developers for testing purposes. The betas have been released while Apple is still working on iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, updates that are set to be released next week.

Apple is rolling out Apple Intelligence features in waves, and while the first wave coming next week is relatively small, the next one is pretty big. These first developer betas of iOS 18.2 and MacOS 15.2 include: categorization and priority inbox sorting in Mail, Genmoji, Image Playgrounds (including Image Wand, where a rough sketch in Notes can be transformed into a detailed image), and ChatGPT’s integration for more complex “world knowledge” requests. And, for iPhone 16 users, Visual Intelligence.

These developer betas also contain new APIs for third-party apps: the Writing Tools API (which will allow any text app to support the features only Apple’s first-party apps have access to in iOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1), Genmoji API (so third-party messaging apps can support them like Messages will), and Image Playground API.

With the initial wave in next week’s public releases of iOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1, most Apple Intelligence features announced at WWDC are still missing. With these new developer betas, only a few features remain absent: priority notifications, and Siri’s more advanced features like in-app actions and personal knowledge context (the “When’s my mom’s flight arriving?” feature).

★ Wednesday, 23 October 2024