After my initial enthusiasm about using Apple Intelligence wore off, I couldn’t get over how frustrating and inconsistent many of its features were. Eventually, I decided to use my iPhone without Apple Intelligence.
It Added Little Value to My iPhone Experience
Before I start, I should note that Apple Intelligence does include some interesting features. These include the enhanced Focus mode that can intelligently filter alerts, and the Clean Up tool that lets you remove distractions from photos.
But on the whole, the current bunch of AI features available on my phone didn’t excite me or add any value to my daily activities or routine. Take the Summarize Notifications feature, for instance, which can provide summaries of emails and other alerts. If you receive a lot of lengthy emails, I can see how this might be helpful. But in my experience, it often leaves important details out.
This meant I had to open the email and read it anyway, which defeats the purpose of a feature meant to summarize communication. And that’s not even mentioning how Apple had to disable notification summaries for some kinds of content, because it kept getting information wrong.
I felt similarly about the Smart Reply feature. When I tested it out, I found myself refining the suggested responses, which meant I wasn’t saving any time. At this point, these features aren’t improving my workflow enough to warrant using them for an extended duration.
It’s Still a Work in Progress
It’s not uncommon for the latest software features to release in waves, so I certainly didn’t expect to have immediate access to every Apple Intelligence feature right away. But the ones available right now seem somewhat half-baked.
The new and improved Siri, despite all the hype, is only marginally better. Smart Reply removes every ounce of personality from “your” supposed replies, making you wonder why you didn’t draft the response yourself. At this point, it’s evident that Apple will need some time to perfect these features. I, for one, will keep Apple Intelligence disabled until after the next few updates. And in the meanwhile, there are other apps you can use to get Apple Intelligence features on your phone.
Using Apple Intelligence Features Overheated My Device
This isn’t an issue that everyone using Apple Intelligence will face. However, I found my phone overheating a little more than I’m used to when using features like Genmoji and Image Playground, which seem to require more processing power than other AI features.
There are multiple reasons for, and ways to fix, your iPhone getting hot. But in my case, since I have a fairly new device and the overheating only happened when I used specific Apple Intelligence features, disabling it altogether made more sense.
How to Turn Off Apple Intelligence on Your iPhone
If you want to disable Apple Intelligence like I did, here’s what you need to do:
- Navigate to the Settings app.
- Scroll until you spot Apple Intelligence & Siri and select it.
- Toggle the switch beside Apple Intelligence off.
If you don’t want to turn off Apple Intelligence entirely, you can also disable it for specific apps. From the same Apple Intelligence & Siri menu:
- Scroll down and select Apps.
- Select any app from the list, tap it, and toggle off Learn from this App.
- Repeat with more apps as needed.
For more fine-tuned control, head to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Enable the toggle at the top, then tap Intelligence & Siri and you can turn off other individual functions of Apple Intelligence.
I don’t believe AI features, like the ones accessible via Apple Intelligence, are an outright waste of time. And while they can be incredibly useful, I don’t see myself enabling them again anytime soon.
