Why I Disabled Apple Intelligence on My iPhone: My Reasons

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After my initial excitement about Apple Intelligence faded, I couldn’t help but feel frustrated with the inconsistency and limitations of its features. Eventually, I opted to use my iPhone without it.

Limited Enhancements to My iPhone Experience

Before diving deeper, it’s worth mentioning that Apple Intelligence does offer some interesting functions, like the advanced Focus mode that smartly filters notifications and the Clean Up feature that helps declutter photos.

However, overall, the current array of AI functionalities on my phone didn’t significantly enhance my daily routine. For example, the Summarize Notifications feature is intended to condense long emails and alerts. While this could be useful for those inundated with lengthy emails, I’ve found it frequently misses critical details. As a result, I often wound up opening the email to read it thoroughly anyway—defeating the purpose of a summarization function. It’s also worth noting that Apple had to disable summary features for certain types of content due to inaccuracies.

I had similar experiences with the Smart Reply feature. When I tried it, I found myself adjusting the suggested responses, which meant I wasn’t saving any time at all. At this stage, these features lack the improvement to my workflow to be worth using regularly.

A Work in Progress

It’s common for new software features to roll out gradually, so I wasn’t expecting to gain immediate access to every aspect of Apple Intelligence. However, the features currently available feel somewhat underdeveloped. Despite the hype surrounding the revamped Siri, its improvements are only marginal. The Smart Reply function strips away any personality from the suggested replies, leaving me to wonder why I didn’t just write the message myself. Clearly, Apple needs more time to refine these capabilities. Personally, I plan to keep Apple Intelligence turned off until future updates roll out, especially since alternative apps offer similar functionalities.

My Device Overheated with Apple Intelligence Features

Not everyone using Apple Intelligence will encounter this issue, but I noticed my phone overheating more than usual while using features like Genmoji and Image Playground, which seem to demand more processing power than other AI options. There are various reasons why an iPhone might overheat, but given that my device is fairly new and the overheating only occurred while using specific features, it made sense for me to disable Apple Intelligence entirely.

How to Disable Apple Intelligence on Your iPhone

If you want to turn off Apple Intelligence like I did, follow these steps:

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down to Apple Intelligence & Siri and select it.
Toggle off the switch next to Apple Intelligence.

If you’re not keen on disabling Apple Intelligence completely, you can turn it off for individual apps. In the same Apple Intelligence & Siri section:

Scroll down and select Apps.
Pick the app you wish to modify, tap it, and switch off Learn from this App.
Repeat for any other apps as necessary.

For more specific controls, go to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions. Enable the toggle at the top, then select Intelligence & Siri to turn off other specific features of Apple Intelligence.

While I don’t believe that AI features like those offered through Apple Intelligence are worthless, and they can certainly have their benefits, I don’t see myself enabling them again in the near future.