iOS Apple Intelligence in EU in April 2025
Romain Dillet (Hacker News, MacRumors):
Remember when Apple blamed EU tech rules — and more specifically the Digital Markets Act — to justify the fact that Apple Intelligence wouldn’t be available in the European Union? Maybe that was just an attempt to turn EU users against their regulators as Apple Intelligence is coming to the EU in April 2025 along with local language support.
[…]
While Apple Intelligence is technically out of beta, you have to set your iPhone or Mac to U.S. English. On the iPhone, Apple also checks if your Apple account is associated with a European address. If that’s the case, you can’t enable Apple Intelligence on your iPhone at all, even if you set your iPhone to U.S. English.
On the Mac, it’s a different story, as European users can try out Apple Intelligence features starting Monday.
I don’t think this is quite accurate: Apple Intelligence no longer requires a beta version of the OS, but the feature itself is still marked as in beta.
So in the end, Europeans only need to wait five extra months for Apple’s new AI features, while presumably getting a better and safer experience due to compliance with EU laws on privacy and fair competition. So much for all the hysteria about Europe being “left behind”.
So far I have not heard any specifics about what will be “better and safer.” It just seems like a combination of Apple not being ready with other languages and not having had the time to report to EU regulators what it’s doing.
Previously:
- Apple Intelligence in macOS 15.2 and iOS 18.2
- Apple Intelligence in macOS 15.1 and iOS 18.1
- EU iOS Envy
- No Apple Intelligence or iPhone Mirroring in EU at Launch
Update (2024-10-31): Holger Eilhard:
This is also incorrect: “On the iPhone, Apple also checks if your Apple account is associated with a European address.” I have a European address on my iPhone (along with my german credit cards). I happen to be in the US and can use Apple Intelligence just fine – with the device set to US English and all that.
Update (2024-11-04): Nick Heer:
All we know right now is that Apple’s E.U. rollout of Apple Intelligence coincides with the availability of a bunch of European languages. The April language pack notably also adds support for two other English languages — Indian and Singaporean — plus Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. No word on availability in China, but Tim Cook is working on it.
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Unlike Gruber's continuing confusion of everything the EU does, I'm mostly on board with a lot of it. On the flip side, I wish current AI would just hurry up and die the horrible, painful, flaming death it deserves and is coming for it.
But this is complete speculation (and not even great speculation, at that):
"while presumably getting a better and safer experience"
Given everything Apple has already stated they are doing for privacy in this realm, there's not much left for them to do. And that is also a massive presumption given Apple's "compliance" history with the DMA so far.
