Apple Watch: Apple Intelligence after all – but only through the back door
The Apple Watch's SiP is not actually fast enough for Apple's AI system. However, there is a function with a connected iPhone.
Double tap on Apple Watch Series 9: This is also AI, but not Apple Intelligence.
(Image: Apple)
One of the disappointments with Apple's new AI system is that it only runs on a selection of the manufacturer's devices. Apple Intelligence is only released as standard for iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max, all Macs with M-SoC and all iPads with M-SoC. Neither older iPhones nor HomePods or the Apple Watch will officially receive the technology. However, at least the Apple Watch will be able to use the new AI functions to a limited extent. The reason is simple: it is still closely interlinked with the iPhone.
Less reading thanks to the summary
This means that if the customer also has an Apple smartphone from the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max series in addition to the Apple Watch, at least the so-called Notification Summaries can be used on a device that is not actually supported by Apple Intelligence. This came to the attention of 9to5Mac. The idea behind the notification summaries is to summarize messages from the Mail and Messages apps in a single sentence so that they can be processed more quickly. To accomplish this, Apple uses its own in-house language models, which run both on the iPhone directly and on Apple's servers via Private Cloud Compute (PCC).
Videos by heise
Some of the functions - for example in Apple Mail - have already been released in the current developer beta of iOS 18.1 and iPadOS 18.1. Testers report that the summary is usually quite accurate. However, like the entire Apple Intelligence offering, it is only available in U.S. English; German and other regional variants are unlikely to be available before 2025. In parallel, Apple is also working on a new type of focus mode that is designed to pass on information intelligently that is important to the user. Finally, Apple Intelligence should also be able to prioritize notifications automatically.
More iPhones with Apple Intelligence
As the Apple Watch is now directly connected to the iPhone and can display the notifications that appear there, the summarized and/or prioritized notifications will also arrive there in the future. As mentioned, an Apple smartphone that supports Apple Intelligence is required.
In addition to the 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max models, this is also likely to be the entire 16 series, which will be released in September. The iPhone SE 4, which is generally expected in spring 2025, should also be ready for Apple's new AI system thanks to its new SoC and more RAM. It remains to be seen whether the Apple Watch will one day be able to run Apple Intelligence itself - the SiP (System-in-a-Package) installed in the expected new models is unlikely to have sufficient performance and RAM this year either.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(bsc)
