Apple Intelligence: The Underrated Features I Use Every Day (Even Though It’s Not Perfect)

Let me be honest: when Apple Intelligence launched last year, I was skeptical. The tech giant promised revolutionary AI capabilities that would transform our daily interactions with iPhones and Macs, but the reality has been more evolutionary than revolutionary. Despite this, I’ve found myself relying on several Apple Intelligence features daily—not the flashy ones like Image Playground, but the practical tools that quietly enhance my productivity.

As someone who’s spent months testing these features across my iPhone 16 Pro and MacBook Pro, I’ve discovered that Apple’s AI implementation, while still officially in beta more than a year after launch, offers genuine utility for those willing to embrace it. Here are the six features I can’t live without:

Priority Notifications: Cutting Through the Noise

The newest addition to my daily rotation, Priority Notifications, has become surprisingly indispensable. When enabled through Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications, this feature uses AI algorithms to identify which alerts deserve immediate attention. In practice, it’s remarkably accurate—weather emergencies, texts from my family, and emails containing time-sensitive information consistently bubble to the top with that distinctive Apple Intelligence shimmer.

The beauty lies in its subtlety. Unlike Do Not Disturb modes that create artificial barriers, Priority Notifications works as a smart filter, letting through what matters while gently pushing less urgent items to the background. It’s particularly useful during busy workdays when I need to stay connected but can’t afford constant interruptions.

Smart Summaries: TL;DR for the Modern Age

In our attention-scarce world, the ability to generate concise summaries has become perhaps Apple Intelligence’s most valuable feature. Whether it’s text messages from group chats, lengthy emails, or web articles, the one-sentence summaries provide just enough context to decide whether something deserves deeper attention.

The implementation varies by context: notification summaries appear as single sentences, Mail messages offer a dedicated Summarize button, and Safari’s Reader mode includes a summary option for compatible pages. While the AI occasionally misses nuance or fails to grasp sarcasm, the feature has saved me countless hours of reading time.

The New Siri Experience: More Than Just a Glow-Up

After months of waiting, the promised Siri redesign finally arrived—but only on devices supporting Apple Intelligence. The new interface transforms the familiar Siri sphere into a vibrant, edge-to-edge color halo that pulses when activated. More importantly, Siri’s conversational abilities have improved significantly. The assistant now handles mid-sentence corrections and follow-up questions more gracefully than before.

The integration with ChatGPT adds another dimension, offering an alternative information source when Siri’s knowledge falls short. What’s particularly clever is that you don’t need a ChatGPT subscription to access this feature—it’s built into the Apple Intelligence experience.

Tap to Siri: Silent Assistance

Perhaps my favorite innovation is Tap to Siri, which eliminates the need to say “Hey Siri” out loud. In households with multiple Apple devices, this solves the perennial problem of which device responds to voice commands. More importantly, it allows for discreet interactions in public spaces where talking to your phone feels awkward.

The implementation varies by device: on iPhone and iPad, a double-tap on the bottom edge brings up the Siri interface with an on-screen keyboard. On Mac, you can configure a keyboard shortcut like pressing either Command key twice. While it requires more effort than voice commands, the privacy and precision make it worthwhile.

Reduce Interruptions Focus Mode: Intelligent Filtering

Building on the success of traditional Focus modes, Reduce Interruptions uses AI to make smarter decisions about what notifications deserve to break through. Unlike custom Focus modes that rely on predefined rules, this feature analyzes incoming alerts and makes contextual decisions.

The results are impressive: even notifications from people or apps not explicitly whitelisted might appear if the AI determines they’re important. Weather alerts, banking notifications about significant transactions, and other time-sensitive information find their way through the filter without overwhelming you with every ping and buzz.

Clean Up: AI-Powered Photo Editing

The Photos app’s Clean Up tool represents one of Apple Intelligence’s most practical applications. Using generative AI, it can remove unwanted objects from photos and intelligently fill in the background. While it’s not as sophisticated as dedicated photo editing software, it’s perfect for quick touch-ups—removing litter from a landscape, erasing a photobomber, or cleaning up sensor dust.

The tool suggests potential items to remove by highlighting them, but you can also manually select areas to clean up. The generative fill technology has improved significantly since launch, though complex scenes can still challenge the AI.

The Bigger Picture

What’s fascinating about these features is how they’ve shifted my perception of Apple Intelligence. Rather than waiting for the next big AI breakthrough, I’ve found value in these incremental improvements that make daily tasks slightly easier. The technology isn’t perfect—summaries can be vague, Clean Up struggles with complex scenes, and the AI occasionally makes questionable prioritization decisions—but the cumulative effect is genuinely useful.

For those considering whether to enable Apple Intelligence, I’d suggest starting with a few features rather than diving in completely. The beauty of Apple’s implementation is that you can enable or disable specific capabilities without affecting others. And while we’re still waiting for more advanced features like personalized responses based on your data, the current suite offers real utility for those willing to experiment.

As Apple continues to refine and expand these capabilities, I’m curious to see which features will become essential and which will fade into obscurity. For now, I’m content using these six tools daily, appreciating how they quietly enhance rather than dramatically transform my digital life.

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