What is Apple Intelligence and how can it help blind and low vision people

Apple Intelligence is how Apple has branded a range of features powered by Artificial Intelligence which began to appear in late 2024 on some iPhone, iPad and Mac models.

Apple Intelligence is available only on iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro models and iPads and Macs with M1 chips or later. Apple is rolling out Apple Intelligence in instalments, adding features and language support in new iOS versions. For the current list of supported languages see Apple Support's Apple Intelligence page.

Currently available features include writing tools, summaries of messages and notifications, much improved photo and video searching and clever photo editing, AI image generation and the integration of the ChatGPT AI chatbot into Siri.

Several other AI-based improvements to Siri were promised for iOS 18 and the improvement in which I'm most interested is so-called app-intents that should allow Siri to carry out many more tasks within apps and reduce the need to use VoiceOver for blind people who don't need too much from their phones and tablets. I'm keen to discover how well app intents work because many of the learners I have worked with, especially the elderly ones, find VoiceOver difficult to master and although there's a lot they can do with Siri today, VoiceOver is still essential for many simple tasks. I'm hoping that app intents and other promised Siri improvements will change this and that undemanding iPhone users who don't want to master VoiceOver can get by with Siri alone, or perhaps including occasional very basic use of VoiceOver. 

All these improvements to Siri were initially promised in versions of iOS 18 but in early March 2025 an Apple spokesperson made an announcement regarding Siri AI developments, including app intents. Quote begins:

"It’s going to take us longer than we thought to deliver on these features and we anticipate rolling them out in the coming year."

Quote ends.

And yes, it's not entirely clear what is meant by "coming year". However, a leak published by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg in June 2025 indicates that Apple is targeting iOS 26.4 for the release of significant Siri updates and that this would probably appear in spring 2026. Don't be alarmed by the  iOS 26; Apple has decided to renumber all of its operating systmes using a year based system. The versions to be release in autumn 2025 will be numbered 26.

I've been using Apple Intelligence since it became available in the UK. For me, one of the most helpful feature so far is the option to have summaries of email messages shown in the Inbox list in place of the first few lines of the email. The summary is often enough to let me decide to delete the email or decide that I can safely leave it until later. That's a real boon to anyone who has either to read slowly with large text or to have VoiceOver speak all the text.

I've also found Siri's integration with ChatGPT to be useful. ChatGPT is one of the pioneering Artificial Intelligence systems that have emerged over the last few years. It is developed by a company called OpenAI. It's an AI Chatbot that can conduct a very convincingly human conversation with its user and has been trained with a huge array of information. For many enquiries that Siri can't handle, it sends them on, with your permission, to ChatGPT. You can decide whether or not to sign in to a ChatGPT account. If you don't sign in, then the activity is totally private. ChatGPT has a version offering what Apple calls "advanced capabilities" and it looks as if I'm always getting that version for now with my free ChatGPT account and it answers questions about current information fully and mostly accurately. I suppose that we may get less frequent access to advanced facilities as increased numbers of keen users descend on it. Access to advanced capabilities has a daily limit and I seem to be under the limit whenever I check in Apple Intelligence & Siri settings. Taking out a paid ChatGPT subscription will presumably increase the daily limit. I generally use Siri now for any general information request and if Siri doesn't do a great job and doesn't pass my request on to ChatGPT automatically, I can instruct Siri to ask ChatGPT for the information. Always remember that ChatGPT uses generative AI which sometimes comes up with plausible but totally incorrect answers. Also, Siri's integration with ChatGPT doesn't offer full conversational access to ChatGPT. You can get that through the ChatGPT app but if you just want a quick answer to a question, accessing ChatGPT via Siri is very convenient.

I've not been motivated to use the writing tools for any real writing task but their proof reading and ability to change the style of text may be helpful to many.

The AI tool in Photos to remove unwanted distractions from photos is impressive but probably of little interest to many of us. The improved search in photos may help those of us who want to show specific photos to friends. You'll be able to ask for things like "child wearing a green T shirt on a trampoline" and it can even locate specific scenes in videos. If you want detailed descriptions of photos you can also instruct Siri to ask ChatGPT to describe this photo.

The image generation app, Image Playground, lets you create illustrations from a text description or maybe choose from some suggestions from the app. I was offered a photo of myself which I could turn into a builder, a super-hero, a farmer and so on. The results were - let's just say I won't be trying that again. Fun, but not much use unless you like putting images like this on your social network profile. I have used Image Playground to produce illustrations to accompany social network posts and the results have been good.

I don't recommend rushing out and replacing your iPhone with an iPhone 16 model just for the current versions of Apple Intelligence but if you find VoiceOver difficult the predicted upgrade to Siri "in the coming year" may make your life a lot easier - but it's too early to say if that's really going to be as useful as I'm hoping for. On the other hand, if you need to replace your phone, consider an iPhone 16 unless you are certain you won't benefit from Apple Intelligence when it eventually turns up. 

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