How-To

The FaceTime, Messages, and Phone apps offer real-time, two-way translation—as long as you and the person on the other side of the conversation are using languages your operating system knows about. And all translation occurs on your device, with nothing sent to Apple’s servers.

The other party or parties don’t need an Apple Intelligence-equipped device, but certain translation features will be limited, as described in the sections below.

Live Translation supports English (UK and U.S.), Chinese (Mandarin, simplified), Chinese (Mandarin, traditional), French (France), German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain) for FaceTime, Messages, and Phone; Messages also supports Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese. Presumably, more languages will be added over time. In Messages, since you’re communicating in text, Chinese (simplified) and Chinese (traditional) apply to multiple forms of Chinese.

Live Translation works quite similarly in FaceTime and Phone, so we tackle those together, then explain how to use it with Messages.

Live Translation in FaceTime and Phone

Live Translation of audio calls may be one of the most remarkable new features in FaceTime and Phone. With Live Translation enabled, two people speaking in different supported languages can hear and read real-time translations of what the other is saying in a language they don’t understand or know well.

Live Translation appeared as a beta in iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26. Apple removed the beta label in version 27.

Here’s how to enable Live Translation on a call, including a call using the Phone app:

1. After starting a FaceTime audio or video call or a regular phone call in Phone, make sure you are in full-screen mode on an iPad or iPhone—that’s the only place you can select Live Translation. On a Mac, FaceTime or Phone resizes as needed.
2. Tap or click the More button and choose Live Translation.
3. The Live Translation dialog preselects the From language as the most recent used (if any), and uses your device’s language of choice for the To option. You can use the popup menus to change these.
4. Your device must download a translation library the first time you use a language. After selecting the options from From or To, wait until the Downloading Language message changes before proceeding.
5. Tap or click Start Translation.

Either party can enable Live Translation and gain the benefit. The translation is spoken on the conversation so both parties can hear it.

You can disable Live Translation by tapping the Translating Language menu and choosing Stop Translation, or tapping the More button and tapping Stop to the right of the Live Translation menu item.

Live Translation in Messages

For quite a while, you could touch and hold a message (iPhone/iPad) or select its text (Mac) and choose Translate. This option remains available. Now, Live Translation can also translate an entire conversation in real time inline in Messages.

With Live Translation enabled, when you touch and hold a message on an iPhone or iPad, you’re prompted to choose between Translate This Message and Translate Conversation. Choosing Translate This Message opens a translation panel.

To enable Live Translation, either touch and hold a message on an iPhone or iPad and choose Translate Conversation, or on any device, tap or click the avatar at the top of the conversation and enable Automatically Translate. Pick the language to translate from the pop-up menu. A download icon appears next to any language that hasn’t yet had its translation library downloaded to your device.

Choose Manage Languages to load translation libraries you might need now or in the future. You can also remove downloaded libraries.

You can then choose a language for Translate To if the one shown isn’t your preferred language. By default, both the original text and the translated version appear for each translated message.

As you converse, messages are translated as they’re received. You can use the pop-up menu above the message field to choose just your chosen Translate To language or to stop translation. You can also use the conversation info pane, where you can choose Off from the Automatically Translate pop-up menu.

Even better, you can enable translation on one side and it works on both. In our testing, one participant had an Apple Intelligence iPhone with Live Translation enabled for the conversation, while the other was on an iPhone 11 and could not turn the feature on—they still got the benefit.

Apple’s Mail and Messages apps both offer a variety of Apple Intelligence features, and there’s a fair amount of overlap between the two, even if the implementation is a bit different. (Live Translation in Messages is covered separately.)

Use Smart Reply

Mail and Messages both offer smart replies, which are brief suggestions of what you might want to say that you can click or tap to save a few keystrokes or taps. Apple Intelligence looks for anything in the text of the message you’re replying to that could lead to a simple reply.

Mail offers a suggestion, if it has one, when you click to begin composing your reply. On a Mac, a little menu pops up; on an iPhone or iPad, the suggestions appear on the QuickType bar. Click or tap one of the words or phrases, and Mail expands it into a complete suggested response, which you can then accept as is or edit to taste. (Based on what we’ve seen, you will almost certainly want to edit it to sound more like you.)

Click Done to accept the response, or Revert to restore whatever you had originally. If you like the prewritten response, you can tell Apple by clicking or tapping the thumbs up button; if not, you can click or tap the thumbs down button and fill out a form explaining what was wrong. On a Mac, these buttons appear only when you hover over the Smart Reply bar; on an iPhone or iPad, they appear automatically on the QuickType bar.

In Messages, Apple Intelligence looks for questions or comments that could potentially result in a common response. Yes/no questions fall into this category, as do questions reminding you of appointments, confirming upcoming meetings, and making simple requests. (We’re sure there are many others, but there’s no definitive list.)

As in Mail, when Apple Intelligence comes up with a likely response, it’s displayed in a little pop-up control that looks just like the ones used for autocorrect on a Mac or on the QuickType bar on an iPhone or iPad. To accept one of the suggestions, click it; to dismiss them, click the close button. (You can also simply ignore the prompts and type as you normally would.)

Matching your style?

According to Apple, if you use the Smart Reply feature in Mail or Messages, the suggested replies adopt your writing style, punctuation, and tone. We tried this several times, and all we can say is…it did not. One of us would be ashamed to send any of these “smart” replies, because he does not write like an AI robot, and anyone who knows him would instantly see that something is off. (If you do write like an AI robot, maybe you’ll have better luck with this than we did.)

We urge you to double-check all Smart Replies before sending a message. We’ve seen cases in which the suggested text was incorrect or misleading, regardless of the style.

If you find Smart Replies to be not-so-smart or just plain annoying, you can disable them altogether, but Apple doesn’t make it easy. On a Mac, you can find the control in System Settings > Keyboard. Click Edit next to Input Sources and then turn off “Show suggested replies.” On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Siri > App Access > Mail, then turn off Show in App; do the same thing for Messages. (In other words, as Douglas Adams might have put it, it’s on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying “Beware of the Leopard.”)

Take action in other apps with suggestions

Suggestions may appear when Mail or Messages notices something in a conversation that you may want to take action on, such as adding a calendar event or searching for a photo.

Use improved search in Mail

Apple says that Mail in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 has improved, offering more relevant search results. When you type in the Search field, a banner appears telling you that Mail looks for meaning beyond the specific words you enter, presumably using Apple Intelligence.

In our tests, we were unable to get any expansive searches to pull up results that didn’t include words in the search phrase. Perhaps the improvements will become more evident later.

See Priority Messages in Mail

Apple Intelligence attempts to identify especially important messages and bubbles them up to the top of your Mail inbox. Apple says this applies to “time-sensitive messages” such as invitations and flight check-in reminders.

In our testing, this feature hasn’t been terribly helpful. It has identified messages that weren’t in any sense urgent while ignoring some that were. Unfortunately, it’s a black box; you can neither see nor influence what factors Apple Intelligence takes into account when assigning a message “Priority” status.

You can, however, turn off this feature: on a Mac, choose View > Show Priority Messages to uncheck it, or do the same using the More menu on the toolbar; on an iPhone or iPad, tap More > Show Priority. Note, however, that if Mail Categories is enabled (that is, Show Categories is selected on the same menu), the Show Priority Messages command is available only when the Primary category is selected.

This AI “priority” feature has nothing to do with the optional Low/Normal/High priority you can assign a message using the Message > Set Priority submenu.

Summarize Mail messages and threads

At the top of each message or thread is the word Summarize, with an icon to its left. Click or tap that, wait a few seconds, and a summary of the message appears. The accuracy of the summaries varies greatly, so don’t assume they are correct or contain everything of importance from the message.

If you click or tap the little pop-up menu button (Mac) or the More button (iPhone or iPad) in the preview, you can choose either Looks Good (to tell Apple the results were useful) or Something Isn’t Right. With the latter choice, a form appears in which you can fill in details about how the summary didn’t meet your needs and send the information to Apple to help them improve summaries in the future.

There’s also a second, simpler type of summary, which appears in the message preview (the little snippet of the message you see beneath the subject in the message list), right after a Summary icon. This is an attempt to briefly explain what the message is about, without summarizing the entire thing.

Although preview summaries are enabled by default, you can turn them off if you like. On a Mac, go to Mail > Settings > Viewing and uncheck Summarize Message Previews. On an iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > Apps > Mail and turn off Summarize Message Previews.

Apple devices have long offered a wide range of features intended to make them easier to use for people who have difficulties with some aspect of the default interface—which doesn’t necessarily imply a disability, but also encompasses personal preference and a limited tolerance for Apple’s Liquid Glass shenanigans, for example.

Increasingly, these features have become more powerful by incorporating features from Apple Intelligence.

Apple appears to still be finishing and reconciling some Apple Intelligence accessibility features as we write this. Some terms mentioned in a May 2026 announcement by Apple and in the Learn More pages within Settings > Accessibility on an iPhone and iPad don’t match the interface element names or certain functionality. We’ll update this section as Apple finalizes these features and makes the documentation consistent.

VoiceOver

When enabled, VoiceOver describes what appears on screen when you move your pointer, tap, or change focus. It’s a way to interact with buttons and interface elements and have text that is part of the interface—such as labels under switches—read aloud. VoiceOver is a mode, not something you invoke: when you turn it on, all the options you set are in effect for as long as it’s enabled.

With iOS 27 and iPadOS 27, VoiceOver taps into Apple Intelligence to provide richer descriptions of visual material that wasn’t previously available. You can enable and configure this new feature in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > VoiceOver Recognition. You can also ask follow-up questions about what it describes.

We have not seen changes to VoiceOver in Golden Gate; it appears that the Apple Intelligence features are only available in iOS and iPadOS.

Magnifier

The Magnifier app lets you use your iPhone or iPad, or any camera connected to your Mac, to zoom in (or out) to see something better. That might mean zooming in to see more detail, turning on the flashlight to provide better lighting, or adjusting image processing, such as changing brightness or contrast. You can also use it to capture what you see as a photo, apply filters, and more.

It’s been enhanced in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 with an Apple Intelligence feature called Live Recognition that identifies what the camera is looking at. Use the Ask button to query Live Recognition. Type in a request, such as Read this aloud or Summarize this bill, and Siri provides the response. For example, point it at a bill and ask it what the bill’s total is.

Voice Control

In addition to Siri, your Mac, iPhone, and iPad have a feature called Voice Control, which lets you control your interface directly using voice commands—this goes far beyond actions you can take using Siri. You can effectively “click” or “tap” interface elements with your voice. It also includes context-based automatic text dictation, enabled whenever a page or field with a text insertion point is active.

While Voice Control has been in place for years, Apple Intelligence is now part of Voice Control. This addition lets you be much less precise in your descriptions of what to click, tap, or move. Describe what you want to do in natural language, and your device can then figure out what you intended.

To enable Voice Control, go to Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control on iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Accessibility > Voice Control on a Mac, then turn on the Voice Control switch; turn it off to disable it. For help using the feature, you can click or tap (or ask your device to click or tap) Open Tutorial.

Accessibility Reader

Accessibility Reader is a feature designed to make text easier to read. After turning it on in Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak on iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Accessibility > Read & Speak on a Mac, you can enable it on a Mac by pressing ⌘-Esc on a Mac, or on an iPhone or iPad using a Share menu command, an Accessibility Shortcut, or Control Center, almost anywhere you see text. (This doesn’t include text labels for controls and the like, but does include things like email messages, webpages, and open documents.)

When you do, a new window appears that’s a bit like Safari’s Reader view: it displays whatever text was in the foreground window but without graphics, links, or other distractions. You can use the controls in this window to change the magnification, font, color, line spacing, and so on, or even click the play button to have your device read the text aloud.

Apple Intelligence enables this feature to operate on more complex documents, provide a simpler view of structured information such as tables, and provide summaries and translations if you request them.

Generated captions

Your device automatically generates captions from any uncaptioned video you’re watching in Photos and other supported apps. (As of publication time, it works only on an iPhone or iPad.)

These automatic subtitles aren’t related to tvOS or TV app captioning.

An automated caption icon appears at the start of each onscreen subtitle to let you know that the caption was generated.

Tap or click the Caption button on the toolbar to change settings. For instance, you might want to adjust the subtitles’ size or hide them.

If captions already exist, you can have them automatically translated between supported languages.

Siri’s own dictation also improved in this release, covered in Siri AI expressive voice and Advanced Dictation requirements.

Even though Apple is now working with Google for Siri AI, the company continues to support OpenAI’s ChatGPT—though not via Private Compute Cloud—and Apple seems to be downplaying ChatGPT now. How does that work?

Awkwardly.

The previous integration of ChatGPT was an explicit one—by default, you had to choose to let Siri use ChatGPT, which was also relied on for creating images. If Siri couldn’t answer something and ChatGPT was enabled, it would ask you if you want to consult ChatGPT.

In iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27, ChatGPT remains in place, but now only at your request. Siri no longer asks you whether you want to pass a query to ChatGPT; that’s now the job of Siri AI and the expanded PCC.

Because ChatGPT requests don’t use PCC, the privacy of your requests is at high risk compared to Siri AI. However, ChatGPT doesn’t have access to your private data by default; it has context about you only if you sign in to an account. We remain concerned about this.

How ChatGPT handles your data

• If you don’t sign in, then all requests your device sends to ChatGPT are anonymized—they can’t be traced back to you. In addition, OpenAI is prohibited from using your requests to train their models, and your requests are not stored (unless required by law). However, you’ll be limited as to the number and complexity of requests you can make per day.
• If you do sign in, all requests go through your ChatGPT account, so OpenAI knows who’s making them. If you pay for your account, you can effectively remove any daily limit. OpenAI’s privacy policy applies; they will store your requests (which can be useful in providing more context for future requests) and use them for training.

Use ChatGPT alongside Siri AI

If you want to use ChatGPT with Search or Ask:

1. Activate Siri using a method where you can type to it.
2. Touch and hold in the Search or Ask field on an iPhone or iPad, or Control-click/right-click that field on a Mac.
3. From the menu that appears, choose Ask > Use ChatGPT.
4. The text in the field changes to ChatGPT. Enter your query.

When the query is complete, Siri reverts to the default Search or Ask using Siri AI.

You can also explicitly add “ChatGPT” to a request—for example, Ask ChatGPT the best way to fry an egg. This works with spoken requests, too!

To use ChatGPT with Image Playground, choose ChatGPT from the Any Style pop-up menu.

You can opt to disable ChatGPT entirely or make other changes to its settings; see every Siri setting worth changing.

Siri AI doesn’t switch itself on when you update your device.

Siri AI has the same basic requirements as Apple Intelligence. If your device is capable enough for Apple Intelligence, it can install iOS 27, iPadOS 27, or macOS 27 and use Siri AI. watchOS 27 also provides ancillary access via a paired iPhone on supported Apple Watch models. Apple Vision Pro can also use Apple Intelligence. However, Apple also has language and region requirements at launch.

How to turn on Siri AI

Go to Settings > Siri on iPhone or iPad, or System Settings > Siri on a Mac, and tap or click “Try the new Siri.”

Why search and Siri must optimize

After you enable Siri AI on your device, it may need to “optimize” both search and Siri. This is some kind of elaborate indexing. Keep your device plugged in for faster optimization.

On a fresh install and some upgrades, you may have to wait some period of time. On an unloaded iPhone—freshly restored to factory settings and with relatively little synced material—it took well over a day for the optimization message to disappear and for Siri’s new features to start working.

Monochrome or colorful Siri icon

The Siri pane of Settings on iPhone and iPad, or System Settings on a Mac, lets you configure numerous aspects of Siri AI. You can use this pane to understand whether Siri AI is currently engaged, something that’s not always the case.

If you see the new monochrome Siri icon, that means your device is currently configured to use Siri AI. If you see the old, colorful Siri icon, that means it’s not.

Among the reasons the old icon might appear are that your device, or Siri, is set to an incompatible language, that your two language settings don’t match, or that you have turned off Siri.

Both your Siri language and your system language (Settings > General > Language & Region > Preferred Languages on iPhone and iPad, or System Settings > General > Language & Region on a Mac) must be identical—including the dialect, if applicable on your device. For example, if one is set to English (United States) and the other is set to English (Canada) on a Mac, you’ll get the old version of Siri. Make sure the two match—and note that switching your system language may require a restart.