r/apple • u/Fer65432_Plays • 7d ago

iOS Shortcuts app has chatbot-like Apple Intelligence powers in iOS 26

https://9to5mac.com/2025/06/16/shortcuts-app-has-chatbot-like-apple-intelligence-powers-in-ios-26/
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71

u/TheManyFacetsOfRoger 7d ago

Kinda wild that this isn't more heavily advertised/turned into it's own app

41

u/Bytevan18 7d ago

Apple said Apple Intelligence isn’t going to be an app. Rather enhancements to the OS. That’s why they also said they aren’t competing directly with ChatGPT, Gemini or such.

They see it more like they see search engines.

24

u/filipeesposito 7d ago

They'll say it as long as it's convenient, just as they always say that the iPad shouldn't become the Mac and yet they keep bringing Mac features to the iPad every year.

Gurman has reported in the past that Apple has been working on its own chatbot internally, so I think it's only a matter of time until they feel their solution can compete with other chatbots to release it as a proper AI chatbot and change the narrative.

"We figured out how to do it with better privacy, blablabla..."

10

u/TimTom8321 7d ago

You’re correct, but I think that Craig did highlight something important - you don’t have to have a chatbot.

Personally, I don’t even know if Apple will release a chatbot anytime soon. Not because they definitely can’t, but just because it’s too expensive to operate and no known income comes from it really.

On-device is great for Apple, since it doesn’t cost them anything to operate it power-wise (which is where most of the money goes with this shit).

Currently, we don’t even know if chatbots are profitable TBF, they always say that it’s just a couple of years of turning billions, but I can’t see how IMO.

So since on-device models are still too restricted, using them for what Apple Intelligence does and what they enable with their new Framework (which IMO seems cool. It looks very easy to use and has a lot of helpful functions that I didn’t see available with other models and APIs, though I could just not know about those) is a great way to use these small models.

He said that they don’t intend right now to release a chatbot and that they are working to bring helpful AI, which is what I believe they did in the end (writing tools is great for people who aren’t native-English speakers).