iOS 18.2 Update: Wait Is Over For iPhone Apple Intelligence Upgrades

New features galore arrive in the latest iPhone update, which has just gone live—on the date I predicted. “It’s a huge day for Apple,” the company’s CEO Tim Cook told me earlier today when I interviewed him in London. He was referring to the launch of iOS 18.2, with the second tranche of Apple Intelligence.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max.

For users in the U.K. and some other places, it’s especially big because we didn’t see Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.1. “You’re getting everything at once,” Cook reminded me. “I’m always thrilled to be in the U.K., but I’m especially thrilled to be here on this day. It’s very special.”

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It’s a big download, and it’s started rolling out now, so you may beat the rush if you install it soon—though it’s going to be in demand so please practice patience. Here’s what’s in it and how to get it. And there’s a surprise bonus that nobody had seen coming. Let’s come to that first.

Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.1 and image features in the iOS 18.2 beta required users to join a waitlist and it wasn’t always quick. The good news is there’s no waitlist for the new features in iOS 18.2.

Like other versions of iOS 18, any iPhone that can run last year’s software, iOS 17, is compatible with iOS 18.2. The iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone Xr from 2018 and all iPhones after that, including the iPhone SE second- and third-generation models.

However, the big story in this release is that Apple Intelligence and these parts of the upgrade are only compatible with two phones from last year, iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max, plus this year’s entire iPhone 16 range.

Open the Settings app, click on General, then Software Update. After that, click Download and Install, and let the software work its magic. This is a big update, over 7GB on my iPhone 16 Pro Max.

For U.S. users, this release includes the second, and by far the biggest, tranche of Apple Intelligence features. For the first time, Apple Intelligence is also available for other English speakers, in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. For those users, this is frankly the motherlode of Apple Intelligence, because iOS 18.1 and iOS 18.2 Apple Intelligence features are all arriving together.

Image Playground is one of the big Apple Intelligence arrivals, a new app that can create pictures based on descriptions, concepts and people in your Photos. There are two styles, animation and illustration, with a third style coming at a later date. Genmoji is one of the coolest new features, the capability to create an all-new emoji from a text prompt. Image Wand is part of the Notes app and lets you turn your sketches into polished images.

ChatGPT can be accessed either through Siri or Writing Tools—you can make requests from ChatGPT 30 times a day without charge or a ChatGPT account.

Writing Tools are enhanced over the summarization and proofreading capabilities of iOS 18.1 with more nuances when it comes to tone or intent of what you’re writing. You can create writing from scratch with ChatGPT.

Visual Intelligence allows you to press the Camera Control (you need the iPhone 16 series for this) and learn about what the camera is looking at.

The Mail app sees new categorization options and more.

Beyond Apple Intelligence, and therefore available to all iOS 18-capable iPhones are features including improvements to Photos, Voice Memos that now let you add vocals over existing audio, natural language search in apps like Apple Music and Sudoku puzzles in Apple News for News+ subscribers.

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