Apple Intelligence finally arrived last month as part of the iPhone’s iOS 18.1 update, introducing a wave of new features such as the ability to rewrite text, create photo montages based on a prompt, remove objects from photos and type to Siri. Apple’s virtual helper is also better at understanding you even when you stumble over your words.
But there’s one addition in particular that’s stuck with me: Message summaries.
iPhones capable of running Apple Intelligence can provide summaries of incoming texts, with the goal being to help you catch up on messages at a glance. The technology is far from perfect; it can’t process sarcasm in a way that makes sense, nor can it understand context in most situations.
But it’s a perfect example of the type of passive artificial intelligence I hope to see more of on phones in 2025 and beyond. And more importantly, it helps keep me sane when I’m bombarded with messages from all sources throughout the day, whether they be iMessages from family members or Slack updates from teammates.
As I’ve written in the past, most new AI features from Apple and other phone makers feel like a solution to niche problems that may not need solving (how much time do you really spend thinking about how to phrase a text message?) Most of the time, I go about my day forgetting these tools exist. But message summaries, even in their current form, add an extra layer of convenience to my phone without requiring any effort on my part, which is exactly where the promise in AI lies for phones.
Read more: I Tried the iPhone 16’s New Visual Intelligence and It Feels Like the Future
How to use message summaries in Apple Intelligence
To get message summaries, you need to have a compatible iPhone running iOS 18.1. Apple Intelligence is available only on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max and the iPhone 16 lineup, so if you have an older model you’re out of luck. The good news is that if you have any of those devices and are running Apple’s latest software, message summaries should be on by default.
But if you’re not seeing them, or would prefer to turn them off, you can do so easily in your iPhone’s settings menu. Just open the Settings app, scroll down to the Apps option and then select Messages from your list of apps. Press the Summarize Messages toggle to turn this feature on or off.
Apple Intelligence summarizes notifications from third-party apps like Slack or WhatsApp too. If you want to turn these summaries on or off, go to Settings, tap Notifications and select Summarize Previews. From here, you can hand-pick which apps you’d like to receive notification summaries for by toggling the switch next to each app.
You can also turn off Apple Intelligence entirely by choosing Apple Intelligence & Siri from the Settings menu and tapping the switch.
Why message summaries are so useful
Message summaries elevate the iPhone’s software in a way that makes it feel smarter. Rather than having to go out of your way to find a specific feature, such as the Clean Up tool for getting rid of unwanted background objects in pictures, it just works without a second thought.
It also addresses a need that impacts a fundamental use case for our phones: communication. I’ve witnessed this firsthand on many occasions over the past couple of months while using the developer beta of iOS 18.1 ahead of its official release.
Of all the types of notifications I get each day, messages are the most frequent, which can range from work-related updates in Slack, to silly daily banter with friends in WhatsApp or session planning with my Dungeons & Dragons party members in Discord. Things can get chaotic when I’m unable to check my phone for long stretches of the workday, typically resulting in a slew of alerts and messages to catch up on.
Thankfully, the iPhone’s message summaries have helped with this — sort of. At a glance, I can at least see what my messages are about before I dive in. I can tell whether my work colleagues are asking for my help with something or just chatting about a new story idea. Or whether the dozen text messages that just came in from my friends are due to an emergency or just friendly chatter.
Apple Intelligence has a long way to go in terms of accuracy, so I wouldn’t recommend relying on these summaries in place of checking your messages. There are plenty of times in which it misinterprets the meaning behind a message because it lacks the level of understanding that only humans — especially people who know each other well and communicate frequently — can have.
Most of the time, these mishaps result in nothing more than a good laugh. But my colleague Nelson Aguilar received misinterpretations that are far more concerning. When a friend texted him about a difficult hike, noting that they were “dead” tired, the Apple Intelligence summary said the hike was fatal.
It’s yet another reminder that AI, whether it be Apple’s text recaps, answers from ChatGPT or search summaries from Google, are no replacement for the real thing. But for now, I’m grateful to at least be able to tell whether friends or family are texting me due to an emergency or just for laughs by glancing at my lock screen.
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