Apple Intelligence in macOS 15.2 and iOS 18.2
On Wednesday, Apple rolled out developer betas of iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS 15.2, which run Apple Intelligence features previously seen only in Apple’s own marketing materials and product announcements: Three different kinds of image generation, ChatGPT support, Visual Intelligence, expanded English language support, and Writing Tools prompts.
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It’s still English-only for now, but English speakers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa will be able to use Apple Intelligence in their versions of English.
Apple introduced an updated version of the Mail app with built-in categorization.
I still don’t see the categories feature in the Mac version of Mail, although there are some invisible menu commands that show up when searching with the Help menu.
From a SpamSieve perspective, I note that Mail’s data store is still at version 10 but that the schema has changed from both macOS 14 and from macOS 15.0 (in seemingly backwards compatible ways).
These developer betas also contain new APIs for third-party apps: the Writing Tools API (which will allow any text app to support the features only Apple’s first-party apps have access to in iOS 18.1 and MacOS 15.1), Genmoji API (so third-party messaging apps can support them like Messages will), and Image Playground API.
Apple reassured us that “if you’re using any of the standard UI frameworks to render text fields, your app will automatically get the ability to use Writing Tools.” But that appears to make the assumption that the text view is already using TextKit 2, and the only documentation that I can find about that states that NSTextViews need to be opted into that with additional code. However, the class documentation for NSTextView doesn’t even mention TextKit 2, although it does now include some information about support for Writing Tools.
See also: Marcin Krzyzanowski.
One more thing: also baked into iOS 18.2 is the ability to set default apps for Mail, Browser, Messages, etc. This isn't just for EU users, but for everyone.
Previously:
Update (2024-10-29): John Gruber:
The image generation features (Image Playground, Genmoji, Image Wand) in the next round of Apple Intelligence, in the beta releases of iOS 18.2 and MacOS 15.2 that dropped last week, require a separate waiting list. I signed up for that a few hours after the betas were released last Wednesday, October 23, and I’m still waiting as I type this. The only people I know who have access to the image generation features are those who signed up for it within the first hour — maybe less — of the betas appearing.
Update (2024-11-05): Tyler Fox:
New in iOS 18.2 developer beta 2! Apps can integrate with Siri and Apple Intelligence so users can ask questions about onscreen content, such as photos and documents. You can adopt the API from SwiftUI, UIKit, and/or AppKit — see details & sample code.
Update (2024-11-08): Juli Clover:
The version of Image Playground available in the iOS 18.2, iPadOS 18.2, and macOS Sequoia 15.2 betas only offers animation and illustration as style options, leaving us wondering if sketch might be added a later time.
It looks like the answer might be no, as Apple has removed Sketch from the Image Playground app description.
