The wait for the first wave of Apple Intelligence features is almost over. In reports describing Apple’s upcoming AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid feature by The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) and The Verge, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.1 will be available to the general public next week.
Apple unveiled its Apple Intelligence features at WWDC last June. Apple Intelligence is Apple’s feature set that uses AI technology, which will be released in waves throughout the year. The first set of features included in iOS 18.1 include AI writing tools, a new and improved Siri, summaries for Mail and Safari, and a cleanup tool in Photos. Learn more about Apple Intelligence’s release schedule and features.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported two weeks ago that Apple would release iOS 18.1 on October 28. The iOS 18.1 release candidate was released on Monday, October 21. Although the reports do not mention iPadOS 18.1 or macOS Sequoia 15.1, their release candidates have also been released. , a likely indication that they will also be officially released next week.
The AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid update will be available as a firmware update for the headphones. iOS 18.1 includes the software required to use the hearing aid feature and the hearing aid test. Learn more about AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid features.
During the iOS 18.1 beta cycle, new features tested included sleep apnea detection, drag-and-drop support for iPhone mirroring, new Control Center controls, and other non-AI features. These features will likely be included in iOS 18.1, but Apple has sometimes pulled features at the last minute to do more testing and release them later.
