How to Get A.I. Features on an Older iPhone Model (and Skip the Upgrade)

The latest iPhones, unveiled by Apple at a marketing event on Monday, look virtually identical to last year’s models. But Apple hopes that what’s underneath — new software that brings what it describes as artificial intelligence to the new phones — will persuade people to upgrade.

Apple Intelligence, the company’s new suite of A.I. services, automates tasks including generating images, rewriting emails and summarizing web articles. Only the iPhone 16s unveiled on Monday or last year’s iPhone 15 Pro can run the new software because older models are too slow to handle those tasks, according to the company. The faster iPhone 16 devices start at $800 and will arrive in stores later this month.

But what if I told you there was another way to get the same perks?

Long before Apple introduced Apple Intelligence at a software conference in June, many apps for automatically producing text and images had been widely available. Relying on a technology known as generative A.I., which predicts what words and images belong together to write a catchy poem or generate a realistic-looking photo of a cat on a windowsill, for instance, these types of services have been trendy for the last two years.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

By downloading a handful of apps, iPhone owners can get similar benefits and hold on to their older devices longer. After I tested dozens of generative A.I. apps in the last year, here are my recommendations.

Summarizing Text

One of Apple Intelligence’s most anticipated features is its ability to take large blocks of text and distill the main points into a few sentences. This capability could be useful for summarizing a lengthy web article or lecture notes.