Key Takeaways
- Apple Intelligence, iPhone mirroring, and SharePlay screen sharing won’t come to the EU in 2024.
- Apple cites “regulatory uncertainties” involving the Digital Martkets Act.
- The new features should show up in Europe sometime in 2025.
People in the European Union won’t initially get access to iPhone mirroring, SharePlay screen sharing, or Apple Intelligence when iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia launch this fall, Apple tells the Financial Times. The company blames “regulatory uncertainties brought about by the Digital Markets Act,” referring to a law designed to encourage competition in the EU.
It didn’t say what portions of the DMA might be involved, but the law covers “gatekeeper” companies, specifically aspects like data collection and any favoritism with first-party services, such as the pre-installation of some apps.
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It’s not clear when the new features might arrive in EU countries like France and Germany, but they’re likely to arrive sometime in 2025, since Apple Intelligence is a major selling point of the fall updates. More narrowly, they could arrive around the same time Apple Intelligence gets a major wave of upgrades in the US. The launch version of the tech will be limited to things like Writing Tools, Genmoji, and Image Playground — but it will eventually gain awareness of onscreen content, personal context when responding to prompts, and deep control of in-app features. You should, for example, be able to ask Siri to open a specific document, or move files between folders.
Apple is already in a tough position with EU regulators. To comply with the DMA, the company recently made changes to allow third-party app marketplaces in the Union, but it was immediately criticized as imposing onerous conditions, above all a 0.50 euro “Core Technology Fee” for each download after the first million annual installs. The European Commission is nearing the end of a probe into whether Apple’s changes satisfy the DMA, and if they don’t the company could face both legal action and having to overhaul its platforms.
The short-term plans for Apple Intelligence
Apple
The technology is Apple’s long-awaited venture into generative AI, tackling competition from the likes of Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. It should also provide a much-needed upgrade to Siri, which is regularly criticized for lagging behind Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, never mind anything more advanced. Alexa should likewise be getting generative AI.
Some smaller Apple Intelligence upgrades could arrive after its fall launch but before the end of 2024. These include automatic category grouping in Mail, Swift Assist for programmers using Xcode, and ChatGPT support when talking to Siri. Apple Intelligence will normally rely on local processing or Apple cloud servers, but some more advanced prompts will force it to talk to third-party platforms, beginning with ChatGPT. It’s possible that these interim updates will be delivered alongside an iOS 18.1 or 18.2 update and its equivalents for iPadOS and macOS. Support on devices like HomePods, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches appears to be a distant prospect.
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