The first few Apple Intelligence features are rolling out this week with iOS 18.1.¹ I’ve been using the betas of this for a few months now, and it’s a good upgrade overall.

The marketing blitz for Apple Intelligence has been very aggressive. If you’ve watched any live TV over the past month you’ve likely seen dozens of Apple Intelligence ads.

I can’t help but think most casual phone users will be very confused by what Apple Intelligence actually does. Is it useful? Sure! Especially the notification summaries feature, it’s very handy. But is it worth buying a new phone just for this? I’d say no. Handy features, not life changing.

This is the first of a few batches, and things will certainly get better and more robust over time.