Unlocking the New iOS 18: A Closer Look at Apple Intelligence’s Notification Summaries
With the launch of iOS 18, Apple has introduced a fascinating feature under its Apple Intelligence suite—AI-powered notification summaries. This innovation aims to keep your lock screen tidy by consolidating multiple notifications from a single app into one easy-to-read summary card. While this sounds efficient, the execution isn’t always flawless.
- How it Works: When you receive numerous notifications, this feature bundles them into a single summary on your lock screen.
- Interacting with Summaries: You have the option to dismiss the summary after reading or tap to explore individual notifications in detail.
- Accuracy Concerns: Unfortunately, the AI isn’t perfect and sometimes delivers amusing or inaccurate summaries.
“If you think notification summaries are causing confusion rather than being useful, you can turn them off or customize them.”
{Apple’s Official Guidance}
If you find these summaries more confusing than helpful, Apple’s got you covered with customization options. You can easily modify or disable them via your device settings:
- For iPhones/iPads: Navigate to Settings > Notifications and select the Summarize Notifications tab. Choose to toggle off AI-powered summaries entirely or manage them on a per-app basis.
- For Mac: Click on the Apple menu in the top left corner and access System Settings > Notifications. Here, under the Summarize Notifications tab, you can disable summaries for specific apps.
However, there’s currently no option to turn off notification summaries by app category like news or productivity. In response to feedback, Apple announced in January they plan to release a software update that will make it clearer that these summaries are AI-generated and may contain errors.
