Is Apple Intelligence really that important that it should be a part of your iPhone and iPad buying decision?
Apple Intelligence Works on a System Level, But You Really Don’t Need it if You’re Planning to Buy an Older iPhone or iPad
A recent survey shows Apple’s AI features are extremely popular among consumers. Some even said their future Apple device should have AI else they’re not buying.
While surveys do help give us an idea of things, but what about people who are planning to buy an older iPhone or iPad model? A model that does not support Apple Intelligence at all.
Are they missing too much if they don’t buy one of the latest devices from Apple?
The short answer is: no, but with a small catch.
See, while Apple Intelligence does integrate on a system level, which makes it convenient, you can still get all the features from it using third-party apps.
In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that you can just download one app to do everything you want. It can either be ChatGPT, Copilot, Meta AI, Gemini or Grok.
There are so many to choose from and all of them have gotten way too good overnight. It almost feels like magic.
The truth is, you are not going to be using AI too much anyway, so launching a third-party app occasionally is really not a dealbreaker at all.
Now comes the catch.
However, do keep one thing in mind. There is a chance Apple’s second-generation AI may offer something that third-party apps might never be able to replicate. While at the same time, that might not be the case at all.
We will only know once iOS 19 is announced in June.
But the bottom line is: whether you’re writing text, generating images, or getting answers, you can do it all from one app in the App Store.
I firmly believe the hype surrounding AI is absolutely blown out of proportion. While it is a great party trick, the charm dies down quickly, and you’ll even forget at times whether your device has AI or not.
Personally, I never ever go beyond Writing Tools. Features like Image Playground and Genmoji don’t even exist for me. It’s not that I don’t like them, it’s just that it feels like a lot of effort to throw in prompts to create something and most of the time the output is not what you want.
Basically, you end up wasting your time trying to ‘create’ something. Text, on the other hand, is easier to work with.
One last thing, all major social platforms now have AI built into them as well. If you’re already spending too much time in an app like Instagram or Facebook, the Meta AI chatbot is right there for you to interact with.
Go ahead and treat yourself to that refurbished iPhone 15 or older. If you’re getting a good deal on it and overthinking the lack of AI, just remedy it with a free app.
