Apple Intelligence’s imaging features delayed until iOS 18.2

Potential owners of the iPhone 16 are probably already aware that Apple Intelligence won’t be arriving as part of the release of iOS 18. Thanks to the developer betas, it is evident that Apple Intelligence functionality won’t be available until iOS 18.1.

Even so, it seems that not all of Apple Intelligence’s features will make it in that update. Instead, users may be waiting until iOS 18.2 for a full rollout.

According to Sunday’s Bloomberg newsletter, image-generation features will be delayed until iOS 18.2. The features include Image Playground, an app for creating images from prompts, and Genmoji, producing AI-based emoji from prompts.

This could mean that users will have to wait until December to see the new features, outside of a developer beta.

The decision is meant to be a slow rollout of the features, which will help Apple’s testing and development before an actual release. At the same time, delaying the features means the initial Apple Intelligence wave involving Photo’s Clean Up and text-based tools will be all that’s offered to consumers at first.

This won’t be the only delayed feature release of Apple Intelligence. The much-touted integration of ChatGPT into Siri and other Siri changes won’t be arriving until 2025.

While most of the world will have to wait for Apple Intelligence to land on their devices, one area that may wait longer than the rest is the European Union. Apple warned in June that it wouldn’t bring Apple Intelligence and some other features to iPhones in the EU due to the interoperability requirements of the Digital Markets Act, but it was still “highly motivated” to do so eventually.

Later that month, EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager proposed that the declaration was a “way of disabling competition, where they have a stronghold already.”