Apple Intelligence not until 2025 or 2026 in Germany

What is Apple Intelligence?

At yesterday's presentation of the new iPhones, “Apple Intelligence” was a big topic. It involves a variety of AI tools that users of Samsung or Google smartphones are already familiar with: A writing aid helps to formulate emails or other texts, the iPhone can transcribe and summarize meetings, there is the option of generating images with generative AI, and you can find photos using a semantic search (“Show me photos of my daughter doing cartwheels on the beach”).

Siri also has Apple Intelligence, which means the assistant can be even more personal and tailored to the user. Siri understands its users, even when they stumble over their words, and keeps track of the content when asking several questions in succession.

Central importance for Apple and the iPhones

“Apple Intelligence is the personal intelligence system at the heart of the iPhone 16 series,” explains Apple's software chief Craig Federighi at the presentation, underlining how important the new AI tools are for Apple. It is therefore all the more annoying that German users will not be able to use Apple Intelligence in the foreseeable future. But there is a trick to try out the AI ​​tools anyway: simply change the iPhone's device language to English (US).

When is Apple Intelligence coming?

Here is an overview of the schedule for the rollout of Apple Intelligence:

• The first Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features coming in the following months.
• Apple Intelligence will be available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, as long as Siri and the device language are set to English (US).
• Support for foreign English is coming later this year in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.
• Next year, Apple Intelligence will be rolled out to additional languages, including Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish.
• More languages ​​and platforms will be added over the next year.

Apple in dispute with the EU

However, it is unclear when Apple Intelligence will be available within the EU. Apple has so far only stated succinctly: “Apple Intelligence is currently not available for the iPhone in the EU,” without giving a date. The reason is the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which would justify Apple opening up its AI functions to other manufacturers and services. Apple, on the other hand, refers to data protection, fearing that other manufacturers could gain access to user data.

There are almost certainly intensive negotiations going on behind the scenes. An agreement is in Apple's best interest, as iPhone users in the EU would otherwise be permanently locked out of key features of the iOS ecosystem. This is assuming that an agreement will be reached sooner or later. But do they want to? It is clear that German users will have to wait quite a while for Apple Intelligence.