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Today ended up being a big day for iPhone and Apple fans. Why? Apple kicked off the week by releasing its iOS 18.1 developer beta — aka, the first iOS 18 beta with Apple Intelligence features included.
It’s a notable step forward for Apple’s big AI push, though the Apple Intelligence experience available in the iOS 18.1 beta isn’t a full or finished product. Not every Apple Intelligence feature is available to use, including Apple’s most impressive one.
When Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024 earlier this year, the thing that caught my attention the most was the new and improved Siri — specifically, its ability to answer questions based on personal information and context. Apple showcased a really impressive demo during WWDC, which you can see in the video below.
In the demo, we see someone asking Siri, “When is my mom’s flight landing?” Siri finds flight information the user’s mom emailed them and displays the flight data with a real-time flight tracker. The user then asks Siri, “What’s our lunch plan?” Siri understands the context of the conversation and surfaces a lunch reservation the person’s mom mentioned in a text.
It’s all really promising, but unfortunately, you can’t use it quite yet. Although some Apple Intelligence features are included in the iOS 18.1 beta, this one is not. As reported by Joanna Stern at The Wall Street Journal, “Before the New Year’s Eve ball drops, Siri will get ChatGPT integration and the ability to tap in to your personal context. (Example: “When should I leave to get mom from the airport?”).”
In other words, Siri’s personal context features should be available before the end of the year, but you won’t find them in the iOS 18.1 beta that launched today. You may not even see it in the next beta update after this. It’s not entirely surprising, but it is still disappointing.
The iOS 18.1 developer beta is available now for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, while the iOS 18 public beta is still available for download, too.
