Apple Intelligence Finally Lands in the UK. EU Countries Aren't So Lucky

Apple Intelligence finally arrived in the UK on Wednesday, over a month after the company finally launch its AI offering in the US. For the first time, iPhone, iPad and Mac owners in the UK will have access to Apple Intelligence tools including Image Playground, Genmoji and Writing Tools — as well as ChatGPT integration — when they download iOS 18.2.

The wider availability of Apple Intelligence comes as part of the company’s cross-platform software updates — iOS 18.2, iPad OS 18.2 and MacOS Sequoia 15.2 — which also include improvements in Find My, Genmoji and Visual Intelligence features. At the time of writing, the updates hadn’t been pushed out to my own UK-based iPhone or iPad, but I expect their arrival is imminent.

Greater support for languages is a key feature of this round of updates, although this remains limited to English language variants (UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). Apple Intelligence can be accessed in most regions around the world now where the language is set to one of these localized versions of English, or English US.

Apple device owners in mainland Europe still have something of a wait until they can start taking advantage of the company’s latest AI features. Due to EU regulation known as the Digital Markets Act, Apple was forced to delay the European launch of the service to ensure it complied with local laws. It’s not alone in struggling to make its AI service compliant — companies including Meta and OpenAI are having similar difficulties that means they have little choice but to withhold some of their offerings from EU countries for now. The European release of Apple Intelligence is currently slated for April 2025. 

This update will include support for a selection of European languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. Apple also says it will offer Apple Intelligence with support for English (India and Singapore), as well as Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese next year.