Apple Intelligence One Year Later — Still Useful or Still a Gimmick?

When Apple announced Apple Intelligence at WWDC 2024, I was skeptical. Every tech company was jumping on the AI bandwagon, and Apple's approach felt... careful. Deliberate. They weren't promising sentient chatbots or world-changing technology. They were promising small, practical improvements: smarter Siri, better photo editing, writing assistants. "AI for the rest of us," as one Apple executive put it. I rolled my eyes. But I also pre-ordered the iPhone 16 Pro Max that September, because I'm a sucker.

Fast forward to June 2026. I'm now using an iPhone 17 Pro (I upgraded in March), and Apple Intelligence has been out for over a year. Multiple updates have rolled out. New features have been added. Some have been removed. I've been using it daily for work, for personal stuff, for everything. And I have strong opinions. Some features are genuinely useful. Others feel like they were designed by a committee that doesn't use their own products. Here's my honest assessment.

Writing Tools — The MVP of Apple Intelligence

Let's start with the best feature: the Writing Tools. These are built into iOS, iPadOS, and macOS. You select text, and a menu pops up with options: Proofread, Rewrite, Summarize, Change Tone (Friendly, Professional, Concise), and now, in iOS 19, a new feature called "Explain Like I'm 5." I use these every single day. I write emails. I write articles. I write text messages. And the AI catches mistakes I miss. It suggests better phrasing. It summarizes long paragraphs into bullet points. It's not perfect — sometimes it changes my meaning, or suggests something that sounds like a corporate press release — but I'd say it saves me about 30 minutes of editing per day.

The "Change Tone" feature is particularly useful. I write a lot of emails to people I don't know well, and I tend to default to a casual tone. If I'm writing to a potential client or a source, I use the Professional option. It doesn't turn me into a robot — it just tightens up my language and removes the "uh"s and "like"s. The Friendly option is good for follow-ups with people I've already met. The Concise option is brutal — it cuts your text down to the absolute minimum. Sometimes it cuts too much. I wrote a thank-you note to a friend, used Concise, and it became "Thanks. You're welcome." Not great. But for business? Excellent.

The "Explain Like I'm 5" feature, new in iOS 19, is weirdly addictive. You give it a complex paragraph — say, a terms of service agreement — and it rewrites it in simple language. I used it on my internet provider's data cap policy. It told me: "You have 500 GB of data each month. If you use more, it will be slower. That's it." That's genuinely helpful. I wish every company had this built into their websites.

Photo Editing — Good, But Not Magic

Apple Intelligence includes a suite of photo editing tools. The headline feature is "Clean Up," which lets you remove objects from photos. It's Apple's version of Google's Magic Eraser. I tested it on a beach photo where a stranger was standing in the background. The results were impressive — it filled in the space with sand and water that looked natural. I couldn't tell it was edited. But when I tried it on a photo with complex backgrounds — like a city street with signs and people — it struggled. It left smudges. It duplicated textures in weird ways. It's good for simple removals, not for complex edits.

The "Memory Movie" feature is supposed to create a highlight reel from your photos based on a prompt. I typed "Summer 2025" and it created a video set to a Taylor Swift song (which I had to manually change because I don't listen to Taylor Swift). The video was okay — it showed beaches, sunsets, and group shots. But it included a photo of a parking lot for some reason. I don't know why. It also included a screenshot of a text conversation. The AI clearly doesn't understand context yet. Memory Movie is a party trick, not a tool I'd use regularly.

What I do use is the new "Portrait Mode" improvements. The iPhone 17's camera already takes excellent portraits. Apple Intelligence now automatically adjusts the depth map to fix edge detection — no more fuzzy hair. And the "Studio Light" effect looks like I have a professional lighting setup. For someone who takes headshots for work, this is a time-saver. I give it an 8/10.

Siri — Still the Weak Link

Let's talk about Siri. Apple promised a smarter Siri with Apple Intelligence. They said it would understand context, remember previous conversations, and handle complex requests. A year later, I'm still waiting. Siri can now process requests on-device for some tasks — setting timers, checking the weather — but it still struggles with anything beyond simple commands. I asked Siri, "What's the best Thai restaurant near me?" It opened Yelp and showed me a list. That's not AI. That's just opening an app. Google Assistant would have given me a recommendation with reviews and a star rating. Siri is years behind.

The new "Siri Awareness" feature is supposed to let Siri understand your screen content. For example, if someone texts you an address, you can say "Add this to my calendar" and Siri is supposed to know what "this" refers to. I tried it. I had a text with a meeting time and location. I said, "Add this to my calendar." Siri said, "I'm sorry, I don't see a calendar event in your text." The information was right there. It just didn't work. I tried again. Same result. I gave up.

I know Apple is working on a larger language model integration — rumors suggest a deal with OpenAI or a partnership with Google Gemini. But as of June 2026, Siri is still the weakest part of the Apple Intelligence experience. If you rely on voice assistants, buy a Google Pixel or a Samsung Galaxy. Siri will only frustrate you.

Privacy — The One Area Apple Wins

I'll give Apple credit where it's due: their privacy approach is genuinely different from Google's or OpenAI's. Most Apple Intelligence processing happens on-device. Your photos, messages, and data don't leave your phone. For requests that require cloud processing — like complex text generation or image analysis — Apple uses "Private Cloud Compute," which runs on Apple's own servers with end-to-end encryption. They've published papers on how it works. Independent security researchers have audited it. It's not a marketing gimmick — it's real.

Does that matter to most people? I don't know. I've talked to friends who don't care about privacy at all. "If Google wants to read my emails, let them," one said. But for journalists, lawyers, or anyone dealing with sensitive information, Apple's approach is a selling point. I feel more comfortable using Writing Tools on confidential documents than I would with ChatGPT. That peace of mind has value.

The Notification Summaries — A Quiet Win

One feature I didn't expect to like: notification summaries. When you get a lot of notifications from an app — say, 10 messages in a group chat — Apple Intelligence summarizes them into a single notification. "5 messages from the family group chat: Sarah shared a photo. Mom asked about dinner. Dad sent a meme." It saves me from swiping through a dozen individual alerts. It's a small thing, but it reduces notification fatigue. I've noticed I check my phone less often. That's a win.

The summaries aren't always accurate. Sometimes they miss context. A friend sent a message saying "I'm so done with this project," and the summary said "Friend is happy about project." That's wrong. But for the most part, it works. I'd say 80% accuracy, which is good enough for casual use.

Final Verdict — Useful, Not Revolutionary

After a year, I'd say Apple Intelligence is a net positive, but it's not the game-changer Apple marketed it as. The Writing Tools are genuinely useful and I'd miss them if they were gone. Photo editing is good for basic tasks. Notification summaries reduce clutter. But Siri is still disappointing, and Memory Movies are a novelty. If you're buying an iPhone 17, Apple Intelligence is a nice bonus, not a reason to upgrade. If you're on an iPhone 14 or older, you're not missing much.

I think Apple's strategy is smart, even if the execution is uneven. They're not trying to replace Google or OpenAI. They're trying to make AI invisible — integrated into the OS without requiring you to learn a new interface. That's the right approach for mass adoption. But they need to fix Siri. That's the one thing holding the whole experience back. If iOS 20 delivers a truly smart assistant, I'll be first in line. Until then, I'll keep using Writing Tools and ignoring Siri's apologies.