Apple Intelligence Expands Beyond the US in New iOS 18.1 Betas
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Yesterday, Apple released the third developer beta of iOS 18.1, the latest in its march toward adding Apple Intelligence features to the iPhone later this year. Those features will take a bit longer than we expected (it’s iOS 18.1 and not iOS 18.0, after all), but it looks like Apple is already opening the door to letting them be used beyond the digital confines of the United States.
When Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, it noted that it would be available only in US English at the outset, with more languages added over time. However, when the first iOS 18.1 beta showed up, it turned out Apple Intelligence was also limited to devices with their region set to the United States.
To be clear, this wasn’t a geographic restriction. Apple Intelligence was available in most countries for those willing to change their device’s region and language. That had a few annoying side-effects, such as changing date formats and units for measurement and currency, but it wasn’t too cumbersome of a workaround.
The only regions where Apple Intelligence was specifically unavailable were the European Union and China, but those were due to regulatory issues in those areas. Apple is working out these issues and wants to launch its AI features in those places as soon as it can. Still, for now, no Apple Intelligence features are available in China due to prohibitions on unapproved foreign AI large language models. European Union users can only enjoy Apple Intelligence on the Mac (using the macOS Sequoia 15.1 beta) since that platform doesn’t come under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) like the iPhone and iPad do.
However, this week’s third iOS 18.1 beta brought a happy change. In addition to adding the promised Clean Up tool in Photos and expanding notification summaries, Apple is no longer locking Apple Intelligence to the United States region.
You’ll still need to be using US English as your default language, but as long as that’s the case, Apple Intelligence should be available regardless of which region your iPhone, iPad, or Mac is set to.
This makes sense since the language is the issue here. So far, Apple’s large language models (LLMs) for Apple Intelligence have only been trained in US English. Since Apple Intelligence includes tools to proofread and improve your writing, it’s not hard to understand why this limitation exists. However, the region setting shouldn’t have mattered in the slightest. Traditionally, the region is only used to limit features with legitimate country-specific restrictions, such as Apple Cash and Digital IDs, which are only available in the United States.
The good news is that this also appears to be an intentional change on Apple’s part. The release notes have been subtly updated to indicate that users must set their device language and Siri language to US English but no longer mention the device’s region as playing a part.
We’ve confirmed that this works in the latest betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1. After switching the region back to Canada, Apple Intelligence now works fine in all of them. Previously, it would revert to a message that “Apple Intelligence is not available in your region.”
Sadly, the system requirements for Apple Intelligence remain the same, which means you’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max or an M-series iPad or Mac to take advantage of them. These are the only devices Apple has released iOS/iPadOS 18.1 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 betas for thus far. Still, presumably, we’ll see iOS 18.1 for other iPhone models later this fall that will omit the Apple Intelligence features.
