Apple seeded the initial beta of iOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2 and iPadOS 8.2 to developers on Wednesday, giving them their first opportunity to test the Image Playground app, Genmoji and more. Also on the list is perhaps the most controversial feature of Apple Intelligence: optional ChatGPT access.
Expect testing to end and the full launch before the end of the year.
Apple Intelligence rolling out over months
Apple Intelligence was the star of Apple’s developer conference in June. This suite of AI-powered tools can fix users’ grammar and pictures, or generate new images and emojis. But Cupertino said from the start that the features will launch in phases. When iOS 18.1, macOS Sequoia 15.1 and iPadOS 8.1 debut next week, they’ll include Writing Tools and the picture Clean Up tool.
Now that the first betas of iOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2 and iPadOS 8.2 are out, we know that they include the Image Playground app and Genmoji, which allow users to create images based on user instructions.
Visual Intelligence is also included in the iOS 18.2 beta, but apparently only when running on iPhone 16 models.
Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
And ChatGPT, too
As much as possible, Apple Intelligence features get handled by the computer they run on, whether it’s an iPhone or a Mac. But there are some artificial intelligence tasks that are beyond the hardware that fits in a phone. That’s why Apple partnered with OpenAI to bring in ChatGPT access. Apple Intelligence asks the user for explicit permission before sending any queries, documents or photos to ChatGPT.
iOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2 and iPadOS 8.2 are coming in December
These new betas expand the availability of Apple Intelligence to the versions of English spoken in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Apple promised that this would be available in December, which means iOS 18.2, macOS Sequoia 15.2 and iPadOS 8.2 will be out then. That’s what information leaking out of Apple says, too.
But right now, the betas can only be accessed by registered developers. And they need to request access to the new features after installation.
