Want Apple Intelligence? You’ll have to join a waitlist

When Apple released their brand new iPhone 16 models along with iOS 18, Apple Intelligence wasn’t part of it. The company did mention that Apple Intelligence features would roll out at a later date, and it’s finally here with iOS 18.1, sort of. This is because if you want Apple Intelligence on your iPhone, you’ll have to join a waitlist.

While iOS 18.1 is supposed to introduce Apple Intelligence to the masses, it seems that Apple is cautiously rolling the feature out to users. This is because the company still views a lot of the features as beta, according to this support document which reads, “Apple Intelligence is currently in beta. Apple Intelligence uses generative models, and outputs may be inaccurate, unexpected, or offensive. Check important information for accuracy.”

This means that users who want Apple Intelligence will have to wait before the feature rolls out to them. It sounds annoying, we know, but we get it. Apple has had its fair share of launch mishaps over the years, like with Siri and Apple Maps. Given that AI is all the rage these days and possibly the future of computing, we understand if Apple wants to be a bit more cautious when rolling Apple Intelligence out to the masses.

It is unclear how long users will have to wait before being granted access to Apple Intelligence, but there’s a chance the faster you sign up for the waitlist the sooner you’ll get in. Signing up is also pretty straightforward. Make sure you’ve updated to iOS 18.1 and go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and sign up.