"Smart" replies in Apple Mail: How to turn them off
At first glance, Apple Intelligence appears to be binary: On or off is the motto. But individual functions can be switched off, as Apple Mail shows.
"Smart replies" in Apple Mail: Not always helpful, but always show up.
(Image: Mac & i)
There is actually a very large main switch for Apple Intelligence under macOS that controls everything that belongs to Apple's AI system. It can be found in the system settings under "Apple Intelligence & Siri" and determines whether tools such as the writing tools or the two image generators Genmoji and Image Playground can be used system-wide. However, there are also switches in the individual apps themselves to control various AI functions. For example, you can deactivate the summaries that automatically appear as a preview in the Messages app and in Apple Mail. However, smart replies do not appear to be able to be turned off when Apple Intelligence is active. But as a closer look at the system settings shows, it is possible.
Well-hidden function
When Apple Intelligence is active, smart replies always appear when you reply to an email or enter the text field in the Messages app. This can be annoying: firstly, the Smart Replies are not always appropriate, i.e. not really intelligent, because Apple's AI system does not understand contexts correctly; secondly, they may block the regular input field (see screenshot from Apple Mail) and have to be clicked away first. If you want to keep the various Apple intelligence tools but only turn off the intelligent answers, you'll have to do some searching.
Apple has hidden the option in the Keyboard section, not in Apple Intelligence. If you click on "Edit" next to "Input sources" in the system settings, you will find a switch labeled "Show suggested answers". If you turn this off, the intelligent answers will no longer appear, while the rest of Apple Intelligence is still available.
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Alternative: Screen Time
One wonders why Apple has not integrated the option of deactivating intelligent answers into the individual apps, where you can already control the summaries. However, the company apparently thought that this would fit better in the keyboard settings, where the use of the spell checker or automatic typographical punctuation can be set, among other things.
Alternatively, it would also be possible to turn off the writing tools altogether. However, this is only possible via Apple's screen time function, which is not normally used by normal users with all rights. This switch is also difficult to find, as there is no link from the Apple Intelligence settings menu. In addition, you then lose all writing tools and not just the "intelligent" answers.
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