How to turn off Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac

Apple Intelligence is not a great success story Apple may have waited. The set of artificial intelligence features– introduced at the end of 2024 on iOS 18.1– has received mixed reactions. Some capabilities, such as automatic transcription of voice notes and recordings, creation custom emojiand proofreading, are useful. Others not so much. Apple was criticized for inaccurate summary of notifications, especially those from news appsand has temporarily disabled the feature for news and entertainment apps in iOS 18.3.

When Apple first launched its AI venture, you had to choose. But now, with iOS 18.3, which just launched today, Apple Intelligence is automatically enabled during the sign-in process for new users and anyone upgrading to iOS 18.3. You can still withdraw by following a few steps. If you want to enable just a few features or disable them all, here’s how to disable Apple Intelligence.

For more on Apple Intelligence (and other features), check out our Overview of iOS 18 AND Overview of macOS Sequoia. Also, check out our other Apple guides, including The best iPhones, The best iPadsAND The best MacBooks.

What is enabled by Apple Intelligence?

Photography: Julian Chokkattu

For an overview of Apple Intelligence and how each feature works, read our aforementioned overview of Features of iOS 18 AND macOS 15 features. Below is a list of all the abilities you will have access to when activated:

• Writing tools
• ChatGPT extension through Siri
• Genmoji
• Image playground
• Stick image
• Priority notifications
• Summary in Mail and Messages
• Summaries of notices
• Reducing interruptions Focusing

Remember, Apple Intelligence is only available on selected devices. For example, even though older iPhones can download iOS 18, only devices like the iPhone 15 Pro and the entire iPhone 16 range support Apple’s AI capabilities.

How to turn off Apple Intelligence

Screenshot courtesy of Julian Chokkattu

Disabling Apple Intelligence is the same process if you’re using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac: