iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2 Update for iPhone Rolls Out With Apple Intelligence in Messages: What’s New

Apple released the iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2 update for iPhone on Wednesday. It carries features powered by Apple Intelligence – the company's artificial intelligence (AI) suite – which it first introduced with the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta update. It includes writing tools, web page summarisation, and an object removal tool for images. Notably, this update was released days after the rollout of the iOS 18.1 Developer Beta 5, and also bundles features like new toggles for the Control Centre, in addition to AI features in the Messages app.

iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2 Update Features

According to Apple, the iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2 update introduces Apple Intelligence in Messages. Following the update, users will now be able to get summaries of their unread conversations. They can also choose appropriate quick responses to questions received in messages.

iPhone Control Centre is also getting new dedicated toggles for VPN and Wi-Fi. If the user does not like the custom layout of the Control Centre they have created, there's now an option to reset it to the factory layout. A quick shortcut for accessing Apple Intelligence features has been introduced in the Notes app. Users can now access the writing tools directly, instead of the previous method which required highlighting the text and then selecting it from the floating options.

Another notable addition of the iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2 update is iPhone mirroring with Mac. Users will now be able to drag and drop files between both Apple devices. However, this requires the iPhone and Mac to run on iOS 18.1 Public Beta 5 and macOS Sequoia 15.1 software, respectively.

Apple Intelligence Features: Compatibility

Apple says all iPhone models compatible with the iOS 18 update can download the iOS 18.1 Public Beta 2. However, not all of them will support Apple Intelligence features. The entire iPhone 16 lineup will receive the AI features, in addition to the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.