Apple Intelligence Is Coming to IPhone in the EU After All
Yesterday Apple Intelligence launched worldwide in US English , but if you’re an iPhone user in the EU or mainland China, I wouldn’t blame you for not knowing what all the fuss is about. That’s because Apple’s AI isn’t currently available on phones and tablets in those regions—to use the new technology there, you’ll need to do so on a Mac.
Apple has previously been accused of limiting the EU’s DMA rule , saying that releasing AI under interoperability requirements “may cause us to compromise the integrity of our products in ways that compromise user privacy and data security.” But suddenly the mood of the company changed. It’s not entirely clear why, but in a report from Apple’s Irish newsroom, the iPhone maker now says that “Apple Intelligence features will begin rolling out to iPhone and iPad users in the EU” starting in April next year.
According to the release, the April release will include “many core Apple Intelligence features, including writing tools, Genmoji, an updated Siri with greater language understanding, ChatGPT integration, and more.”
It’s unclear whether Apple has struck a deal with the EU or whether the company is moving ahead for some other reason, just as it wasn’t clear how much EU regulations threatened Apple Intelligence at all. It’s entirely possible that the company could release Apple Intelligence in Europe along with the rest of the world and simply hold back European AI out of an abundance of caution. Less generously, the withholding may have been intended as a way to put pressure on the region. In the past, European regulators have hinted that keeping Apple AI out of the EU was not entirely their decision, with a European commissioner calling Apple’s decision to stop releasing Apple Intelligence in Europe a ” stunning public statement ” of anti-competitive behavior.
I have reached out to Apple and the EU for clarification and will update this article when I receive a response. However, when the feature launches in the region, it looks like it will be almost exactly the same as the US version (I also asked Apple to clarify what features will and won’t be available on EU phones, and will include this). information also in updates).
As noted, Europeans already have access to the full suite of Apple AI features, but only on supported Mac devices. They will need to update to macOS Sequoia 15.1 and first set their device language to English (under Settings -> General -> Language & Region ), but this is not a unique issue. Apple promises to add support for various other English dialects in December, including for Ireland, the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Indian, Singaporean English and other languages will arrive over the next year, with Apple confirming various European and Asian languages and promising more.
(If Asian language support has you looking forward to release in mainland China, where Apple Intelligence hasn’t even made it to the Mac yet,then unfortunately it’s not planned yet .)