In Summary
- Apple Intelligence features are rolling out to supported devices. For Macs, you should have a Mac powered by M1 or later to get Apple Intelligence features.
- Apple Intelligence features are not as impressive as promised (Yet), but they can be helpful, especially if you’re using a Mac for personal and professional work.
- You can summarize text using AI writing, edit photos, summarize emails, Take audio notes and transcribe them into text, summarize web pages in Safari, and more. With all these features, you can make everyday experiences on Mac more useful.
Apple Intelligence, or AI features, has started rolling out for all supported Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, and Mac. While these AI features are useful on iPhone and iPad, in my experience, they are very helpful on Mac, especially for professional work. If you use a Mac with the M1 chip or later (Apple Intelligence is only available on Macs with M1 or newer), here are the seven best Apple Intelligence features you should start using to improve your day-to-day experience.
Table of Contents
What is Apple’s Intelligence?
Apple Intelligence is a fancy term Apple uses for its AI features for Apple devices. You can perform various tasks using Apple intelligence features on your Mac. For instance, Using AI writing tools, you can summarize, proofread, and rewrite text using these AI writing tools. Using an email app, you can summarize emails using AI and reply professionally. Most importantly, unlike other AI tools, most Apple Intelligence features run locally on the device, keeping your data private.
These AI features are currently available for supported devices (see the list below) and for limited countries. You should opt-in to get the Apple Intelligence features. However, you can set the language to English (US) to access Apple Intelligence features on your Mac.
Apple intelligence Supported devices:
- iPhone: iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, 15 Pro Max\
- iPad: iPads with A17 Pro or M1 chip and later
- Mac: Macs with M1 chip and later.
To use Apple Intelligence features on your Mac, update to the latest MacOS Sequoia 15.1. Go to Settings, then General > Software update, and update to the latest macOS version. Once there, you must opt for Apple Intelligence features in the Settings. Go to Settings> Apple Intelligence and enable it. After enabling it, you can access Apple Intelligence features on your Mac.
7 Best Apple Apple Intelligence Features on Mac
Feature | What It Does | How to Use It |
|---|---|---|
Summarize or Rewrite Text | Rewrite, rephrase, improve, shorten, or summarize text anywhere on your Mac. | Select text, click the AI icon, or right-click to access Writing Tools. |
Email Summaries & Smart Reply | Get quick summaries, and reply faster with AI. | Open Mail, see priority emails; click Summarize in email view; use Smart Reply in replies. |
Summarize Web Pages in Safari | Get quick summaries of web pages in Safari | Open Safari, click Reader icon, then select Summarize. |
Reduce Notifications in Focus | Reducue interruptions and get only what’s important while in Focus Mode. | Go to Settings > Focus, add a new mode, and enable Reduce Interruptions. |
AI Photo Editing | Remove objects from photos, create memories, and search using natural language in photos app. | Open Photos, click Edit, use the Cleanup tool; search by typing descriptions like "Photos from last weekend." |
Smart Notes with AI | Summarize text, record audio, and get transcripts in Notes. | In Notes, tap AI icon for Writing Tools; record audio and tap the Transcribe icon. |
Siri Reminders | Use Siri to set reminders or get answers. | Use "Hey Siri" to access |
Extra Tools | AI for Voice Memos, better Spotlight search, document scanning, and more. | Update to macOS 15.1 for these extra features. |
Quickly Summarize or Rewrite Any Text on Your Mac
AI writing tools are helpful even for casual users. These tools can help you write emails better, summarize text to save work, and more. However, the biggest downside is that most AI writing tools are available as separate apps or as extensions or are inside specific apps. However, Apple AI writing tools built into the system are integrated deeply with the system and available system-wide; they are easy to access, especially on the Mac.
These in-tools work exactly like what you can expect. You can rewrite the text, rephrase, improve, shorten, or rewrite it entirely. Most of the time, it is accurate, though occasionally, it misses out completely and increases your work. They are available for free without limits.
How to use AI Writing tools on Mac:
To use writing tools on Mac, select the text you want to replace, and a new intelligence icon will appear on the left side. Tap on it, and it gives you a context menu with all the AI Writing options. Also, you can select the text you want to rewrite, right-click on it, and depending on which app you are in, you can see the options in the context that says Writing tools. Tap on it to access writing tools.
Quickly Summarize, Prioritize, and Reply to Emails With Apple AI
Apple Intelligence brings three new intelligent features to the Mail app on the Mac. First, based on the email body, it shows the most important emails on the top as a priority, such as invitations, your schedule on that day, and appointments that require your attention.
The most helpful email summarization helps you summarise your long emails. You cannot control the summary length; based on the email data, it summarizes the email automatically, and also, unlike Gemini on Gmail, you cannot continue the conversation.
But it is pretty useful to get to the main points easily without spending too much time reading all the emails. And finally, once you read the email, you can reply to it with the help of AI. With Smart Reply, you can use AI to reply to your emails based on the content you receive. It automatically answers the questions and generates a reply.
However, access to the Smart Reply is limited, and it only triggers if there is enough content on the received email. As of now, you cannot manually press a button to trigger or generate a reply email content with the text prompt.
How to use Apple Intelligence on Apple Mail app:
To prioritize emails, open the Mail app and add your email account to the app. You will see new prioritized emails at the top. To summarize emails, open the email and click the Summarize button, which gives you the email summary. To use Smart Reply, click on the reply, and Apple will suggest a smart reply to the email; select the text to paste it.
In addition to the Mail Apple Intelligence features, you can use regular AI writing tools in the email app. For instance, the Apple Intelligence AI writing summary tool is more useful than the email summary tool with better context.
Also, you can summarize, reply to the email, and get more control over your replies using your Smart Reply. To access Apple Intelligence writing AI tools inside the Mail app, Open the email, click on the reply, tap on the Apple Intelligence icon, the star icon on the top, and then access the writing tools. Alternatively, you can also right-click on the text, select it, and then get access to the AI writing tools.
Summarize Web Pages on Safari
In addition to emails, you can also summarize web pages using the Apple Intelligence summary feature, which is available inside Safari. It gives you key points in the summary. Again, there is no way you can continue the conversation or get more details about the summary if you want more.
The best part is that it is available inside Safari and works excellently. It is useful since most websites and other tools restrict how many summaries you can create daily. You can use the Safari summary tool to create unlimited summaries, and there are no restrictions on access or rate limits.
How to Summarize Webpages in Safari:
To access web summaries, open the Safari browser and visit the page you want to summarize. Click on the Reader icon inside the address bar, then tap the Show Reader. Now, click on the Summarize.
Reduce Interactions in Focus Mode
Focus mode on Mac is designed to mute notifications and other distractions from apps or people. However, if you want important notifications from certain apps or people, you can add them to a whitelist and get notifications from them.
However, this is not a complete solution since you get all notifications from the people or apps you whitelisted, which can be distracting and might not fully address the problem. With the help of Apple Intelligence, Apple has introduced a Reduce interruptions mode in the new focus mode.
This helps get only critical notifications you might want to pay attention to. For instance, if your friend has sent an important message when reduced interaction mode is activated, it can pass through the focus mode and display as a notification on your device. This can be handy, and I believe it is a more complete solution for focus mode. However, it might not work as expected all the time. You can still miss or block critical notifications using the reduced interruption focus mode.
How to use Reduce Interruptions Mode on Mac:
Go to focus mode and select Reduce Interruption mode; if you don’t see it, Go to Settings>Focus, click on the plus to add a new focus mode, and select Reduce Interruptions.
Make Useful Photo Editing Using AI
It is great to see Photos apps on PC are getting priority and getting the latest AI photo editing features. I use photo apps all the time, and if I want to edit or make changes to a photo, I often navigate to external photo software and third-party tools to edit my photos.
However, the latest Apple Intelligence update has added useful tools to the Photos app, especially for hiding or removing specific elements from a photo before sharing it. I use the AI clean-up tool in the photos to remove sensitive information.
Now, You can create custom memories with a new movie mode simply by describing what you’d like them to be about. The Photos app then organizes the images and creates a story for you.
It also includes automated storytelling, and a key feature that is helpful for me is its support for natural language search. For example, you can type “Photos from last night’s dinner with friends” or anything similar, and the natural language search in the Photos app brings up relevant photos.
It usually works well, though it misses a few cases. The natural language search is also available for videos. You can locate specific videos by describing what happened in them. Additionally, it offers smart solutions when searching for screenshots, providing options like iPad, desktop, and app screenshots, making the Photos app on your Mac even more useful.
How to use AI editing tools in the Photos app:
Open the Photos app and select the photo you want to edit; click on the edit button in the right corner of the screen and then go to the clean-up tool to remove unwanted objects from the image.
Powerful Notes Taking Features
Apple Notes also has useful features for Apple intelligence. First, the writing tools available system-wide are also available in Apple Notes. You can tap the Apple Intelligence button to access the notes and get all the latest AI writing features to summarize.
Next, you can now record audio directly in Notes. This is especially useful for preparing meeting notes or a document you want to present. Interestingly, the audio can be transcribed into text, and then later, you can use the Apple Intelligence features to refine it further. These features are beneficial, combining the ability to record audio and transcribe it right there and using Apple Intelligence features, making Apple Notes as helpful as possible.
How to use Writing tools on Notes:
To use writing tools, enter the text in the notes and click the Apple intelligence icon on the top toolbar. You can also copy the text, and the new Apple intelligence icon appears on the left side; tap on it to access writing tools. To transcribe notes, create new audio notes and click on the transcribe icon.
Use Siri To Set Reminders
Finally, you can use Siri to set reminders on your Mac. Oh wait, that’s all. Isn’t Siri the most powerful and advanced AI assistant? Well, not yet. Most of Siri’s advanced features, like personal context and ChatGPT integration, are coming later this year. However, Siri is now better at performing simple tasks like reminders. Also, if you have any questions about the settings on your system, you can use Siri search. Now, you can also type in Siri and get instant answers.
How to use the latest Siri on Mac:
To use Siri, you launch the app using Spotlight or say Hey Siri to activate.
Boost Your Mac Experience With Apple Intelligence
Those are the best Apple intelligence features you can use on Mac. Along with these, Voice memos also get support transcription, Improved spotlight search with deep learning, document scanning, and OCR (optical character recognition) support on notes and files apps, contextual app actions, smart reminders with natural language processing, and more. All these features run locally on your Mac. If you don’t see Apple intelligence features in settings, Ensure you use a Mac with an M1 or later processor and the latest macOS Sequoia 15.1 version.
