How to Disable Apple Intelligence on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a significant part of our lives, and Apple introduced its version called Apple Intelligence during the 2024 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Although users expected these features to come with iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia in the fall, Apple started releasing some features with iOS 18.1. Initially, a minimum of 4GB of free space was required for its use, which increased to 7GB with the release of iOS 18.2, introducing features such as Genmoji and Image Playground.

For many people, especially those without iCloud+, 7GB is quite a lot of storage space. Therefore, you might want to turn off Apple Intelligence to free up storage on your Apple device. Alternatively, you might simply feel overwhelmed by AI in your daily life or have noticed reports that Apple Intelligence might drain battery life. Regardless of your reasons for wanting to disable it, here’s how to do so.

Completely Turning Off Apple Intelligence

Disabling Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac is straightforward. Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad or the System Settings on your Mac. Then, scroll down to find Apple Intelligence & Siri and toggle the switch next to Apple Intelligence to the off position. When prompted, confirm by selecting Turn Off Apple Intelligence.

It's essential to note that turning off Apple Intelligence means you'll lose access to various features like the upgraded Siri, improved Writing Tools, Notification Summaries, Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing, Genmoji, Image Playground, Image Wand, and Visual Intelligence (if you have an iPhone 16). However, the Clean Up tool in the Photos app will still be available. This tool is similar to Google’s Magic Eraser.

If you’re looking to free up storage space, here’s an important point: if Apple Intelligence was enabled previously, it has already occupied space on your device. The only way to reclaim this space is through a factory reset of your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. To perform a factory reset, go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone/iPad > Erase All Content and Settings and follow the instructions shown on-screen. Be sure to back up your device before doing this. During the setup process, when asked about enabling Apple Intelligence, choose to proceed without it.

Disabling Specific Apple Intelligence Features

If you're not keen on turning off Apple Intelligence completely, you're in luck: many features can be disabled individually. One of the first features you might want to disable is the Writing Tools, which help you rewrite text and offer proofreading services.

To turn this off, navigate to Settings/System Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions (or Content & Privacy on Mac). Here, enable Content & Privacy Restrictions and select Intelligence & Siri. For Mac users, you’ll simply disable Writing Tools in the Apple Intelligence section. On an iPhone or iPad, select Writing Tools and then hit Don’t Allow. On the same page, you can also disable Image Creation and the ChatGPT Extension using similar steps.

Another feature worth turning off is the controversial notification summaries. For iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Notifications and disable Summarize Previews. On Mac, go to System Settings > Notifications > Summarize Notifications and turn off Summarize Notifications.

You can also turn off Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing, which is a feature that uses AI to evaluate the urgency of notifications. To do this, go to Settings/System Settings > Focus, choose a Focus mode, and turn off Intelligent Breakthrough & Silencing. However, there's currently no option to disable it in the Reduce Interruptions mode.

As Apple Intelligence continues to develop, more features will likely be added, allowing you greater control over what you can disable. If you don’t see a specific feature mentioned, consider using the search bar in Settings/System Settings to check if it can be turned off.

Apple, Intelligence, Settings