iOS 18.3 is only days away from a public launch, bringing new Camera Control features, AI changes, and bug fixes. It will also be the rare update that actually removes a current iPhone feature—but just temporarily.
One of the best Apple Intelligence features has also had the most controversy
Apple Intelligence first rolled out last October in iOS 18.1, and one of its first features was notification summaries.
I quickly found notification summaries one of the most valuable AI additions.
At their best, these summaries make notifications more informative and easier to parse.
At their worst, however, they can at times contain factual errors. This isn’t entirely surprising, since Apple Intelligence is still in beta, but it’s a problem nonetheless.
That’s where iOS 18.3’s changes come in.
iOS 18.3 disables notification summaries for News & Entertainment apps
Apple is making several updates to notification summaries, including:
- italicizing text in AI notifications, so it’s more clear you’re seeing a summary
- new ability to disable summaries for an app right from the notification (swipe left, hit ‘Options,’ then ‘Turn Off Summaries’.)
- plus some additional language stressing that the feature is in beta and may contain errors
Apple is also, as of iOS 18.3, temporarily disabling summaries for certain apps altogether.
Notification summaries for News & Entertainment apps will no longer be available.
If you go to Settings ⇾ Notifications ⇾ Summarize Notifications on an iPhone running iOS 18.3, you’ll see that certain apps say ‘Temporarily Unavailable’ under them.
Apple’s plan is to re-enable summaries for these app categories in a future software update. Before that happens, though, the company will taking its time to continue refining the feature to ensure accuracy.
iOS 18.3 disabled feature: Wrap-up
I fully agree with Apple’s course of action here.
I’ve written previously about how news app notifications, specifically, are a tricky domain to summarize, since you’re summarizing something that’s already a summary: the news headline.
Making UI changes to better indicate when users are seeing an AI summary is a good thing. But the fundamental issue is the accuracy of the summaries, and hopefully Apple can make the necessary revisions so it can re-enable summaries for News & Entertainment apps soon.
What do you think of Apple’s plan for notification summaries in iOS 18.3? Let us know in the comments.
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