iOS 18.3 is here. After over a month in beta, Apple made the update available for everyone using an eligible device on Monday. Among other changes, the new software turns on Apple Intelligence by default (although you can still opt out) and makes it clearer when the company’s AI generates notification summaries.
Apple said earlier this month that a future update would more clearly label Apple Intelligence notification summaries, which arrived in iOS 18.1 in October. That came after the BBC reported that news summaries were twisted to falsely state that the accused murderer of health insurance CEO Brian Thompson had shot himself. Other bogus summaries claimed a darts player won a world title before playing in the final and that tennis superstar Rafael Nadal had come out as gay.
The following week, Apple took it a step further and paused notification summaries of all news alerts in the iOS 18.3 beta. It isn’t yet clear if they’ll be back in today’s public release, but they will at some point.
Before iOS 18.3, the summaries were only indicated by a small icon. In the new software, the entire summary is italicized, and there’s an all-caps “Summarized by Apple Intelligence” note below each AI-generated recap.
Apple seems to want to boost the adoption of Apple Intelligence on compatible devices, as iOS 18.3 enables the slew of AI features by default during onboarding. You can still opt out, but it takes a few seconds of work: Head to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and turn off the toggle.
Other new features in iOS 18.3 are subtler changes: Visual intelligence can now add calendar events from posters or flyers, and it’s better at identifying plants and animals. Of course, there’s plenty of little bug fixes, too.
As always, you can grab the update by heading to Settings > General > Software Update.
