Following this summer’s announcement of Apple Intelligence, the Consumers Research Intelligence Group used its data to try and understand what Apple customers might think of the upcoming system.
CIRP looked at how iPhone owners use their devices. Based on their current use cases, Apple Intelligence could have a significant impact on the iPhone user experience. CIRP asked iPhone owners how often they use these apps or functions:
- Phone calling
- Texting
- Internet
- Gaming
- Photo viewing and editing
- Watching videos
- Listening to music
Apple Intelligence would have a significant impact on some, but not all of these. For example, it’s aimed squarely at photo editing and composing text but would not really affect phone calls.
The two most popular uses of iPhones in the US are texting and accessing the Internet. Ninety-five percent of owners report texting and using an Internet browser at least daily. The least popular of the top iPhone uses are taking and editing photos and playing games, with 61% and 64% of owners, respectively, using an iPhone for that purpose at least daily. The other four use cases have 71-81% of iPhone owners using the app or function at least daily.
Here are the results that CIRP expects:
° Apple Intelligence should enhance writing, which could aid iPhone owners’ email and texting habits, both of which are high propensity uses. Custom emojis could also prove to be a fun AI supported enhancement to texting. The last high profile one of those, Animojis (or Animated Memojis), used facial recognition while recording textable voice memos so they appeared to emanate from cute, expressive animals, but it seems to have been quietly removed from iOS.
° Apple Intelligence may also improve how Siri uses personal data on queries and conversations, which could enhance user experience accessing information on the Internet. So, some high usage applications may benefit. The next most popular activities, calling, listening to music, watching video, and playing games seem less likely to improve with Apple Intelligence.
° And while photo taking and editing is the least common of the top activities, still three out of five iPhone owners report using that capability on a daily basis. Camera enhancements have historically been able to drive upgrades, so the photography improvements that Apple Intelligence offers could have a significant impact on iPhone users and perhaps motivate upgrades to devices that are new enough to take advantage of the advancements.
Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into macOS Sequoia, iOS 18, and iPadOS 18 and later. It harnesses the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. Here are all the features of Apple Intelligence as listed by Apple in a press release.
