Maybe it's early in the game, maybe we just have to get used to it, but Apple Intelligence is not yet as big a part of the Mac as it is the iPhone.
Really, it seems that Apple Intelligence is made for the iPhone and the iPad. It's there on the Mac, too, and the writing tools ought to be a perfect fit for macOS Sequoia, but in practice Apple Intelligence is making little impact on the Mac.
Apple Intelligence on Mac review — problems and bugs
Some of this is may genuinely be down to bugs in the beta test. Plus I'm in the UK and despite changing my Mac's region settings correctly, it's still possible that I'm not getting everything I should because my Apple ID is a non-American one.
But that can't account for how some Apple Intelligence features appear, while others don't. I've yet to see Safari Highlights for instance, but I've got writing tools.
And then it also doesn't account for features coming and going.
For instance, those writing tools are supposed to appear when you select some of your writing, but in practice they only occasionally do.
It's occasional enough that it's surprising when there is a little icon next to your text, offering these features. With the most recent beta release of macOS, the icon would appear in some apps and not others — and then not consistently.
What is consistent is that you can select some text in just about any app, and the right-click to bring up a context menu that includes writing tools.
But compare that to the iPhone where as soon as you go to select anything, you get a pop up menu that has writing tools next to the familiar copy and paste.
Apple Intelligence on Mac review — Siri
Then every iPhone, and every iPad, has a microphone so you can call out "Hey, Siri," or just "Siri," and basically have Apple Intelligence listen to what you want. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air have microphones too, but the iMac is the only desktop model that includes one.
So it's not that Apple Intelligence and Siri can't be called up on a Mac, but the presence or absence of a microphone is only half the story. The other half is that the way we use Macs and iPhones is different.
With an iPhone, it can be next to you as you work, so asking Siri to do something doesn't interrupt your flow. On a Mac, you have to stop what you're doing to talk.
Plus the Mac seems to defer to just about any other device in existence. Ask Siri on your MacBook Pro a question — solely using your voice — and it's highly likely that your iPhone will answer.
Or your Apple Watch.
Or the HomePod in the next room.
You can get around this by invoking Siri with a keyboard shortcut, which by default is the globe key plus the spacebar. And you can also then type your request to Siri.
So it's all there and you can make it all work, but it's tedious friction compared to just picking up your iPhone, saying "Siri", and seeing that great new animation.
Apple Intelligence on Mac review — friction and Mail summaries
Apple Intelligence ought to be working for you in the background as well as waiting for any Siri requests. But the clearest, constant example of this is the summarizing of emails and during the beta, that's not always been clear, and it has rarely been constant.
Where the iOS beta long ago switched to summarizing your inbox so that you see a description of an email or of a thread instead just the first three lines of a message, the Mac hasn't. Except when it has.
There is still a Summarize button within any one message or any one message thread. But it's the inbox glance where this ought to be of most use.
And maybe this is a clue to the future of Apple Intelligence because having had those inbox summaries, it's actually disappointing to lose them.
It's also disappointing to have got used to summarized notifications on the iPhone and not have them on the Mac — or at least, not automatically. You can click on the date in the Mac's menu bar and get a Control Center-like view of notifications, but only at times are they summarized.
A feature of macOS Sequoia is that it now relays more notifications from the iPhone and that is working — but at least for me, it isn't helpful. Anything I want to be notified about on the Mac, I already get notifications for.
So having new ones pop up from the iPhone is just adding to interruptions.
Apple Intelligence on Mac review — no Image Playground yet
Presumably macOS Sequoia will get the Image Playground and genmoji features of Apple Intelligence. But they aren't in the beta yet.
Nor, at least for me, is the automatic categorization of emails into Priority, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions. Doubtlessly that will come, surely it's just a bug that I'm still not seeing it.
But what the Mac presumably won't ever get is Visual Intelligence. Of all the Apple Intelligence features available to test on any device, summaries have been the most practical and useful, but Visual Intelligence has been the most fun.
Just not on the Mac.
On the Mac, Apple Intelligence is so far always an extra step. On the iPhone, it's more seamlessly worked into how you do things anyway.
Hopefully that will get better and writing tools, for instance, will more consistently fit in with your work.
Apple Intelligence must already have made an impact because it's practically annoying to lose those inbox summaries, and I'm getting very impatient waiting for Safari Highlights. So it's not as if it feels that Apple Intelligence does little on the Mac, or simply doesn't belong on there.
But it does very much feel as if it's made for the iPhone.
Apple Intelligence on Mac review — pros
- Email inbox summaries are excellent
- Summaries of individual emails are good
- Writing Tools now have more options than Professional, Friendly, and Concise
Apple Intelligence on Mac review — cons
- It's too early to assess how it will ultimately fit into our workflows
- Sometimes Rewrite doesn't do anything at all
- Writing Tools icon appears inconsistently
- Unlike the iPhone, you have to add steps to use Apple Intelligence
- Some features appear and disappear, such as Mail summaries
Rating: 4 out of 5 on potential
Right now the mark should be 3 out of 5 because of how features appear and disappear. But that will presumably have been a beta issue that must be fixed by this official release.
It's also harder to assess the longer-term success of Apple Intelligence on the Mac because so far it's so often an extra step you have to remember to use.
Based on how annoying it is to lose the Mail summaries from time to time, Apple Intelligence is going to grow on us.
