The EU may get Apple Intelligence at launch on Mac only

In June, iPhone users in the EU received some bad news: Apple announced that due to concerns about the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), some features of iOS 18 would not be rolled out in the European Union at launch. These features include iPhone Mirroring , SharePlay Screen Sharing, and Apple Intelligence , one of the most anticipated features of the new OS.

However, as reported by 9to5Mac, it’s not all bad news for Apple users in the EU. The release notes for the latest developer beta of iOS 18.1 confirm that Apple Intelligence isn’t available in the EU or China. However, the release notes for the macOS Sequoia 15.1 developer beta state that Apple Intelligence is not currently available in China, with no mention of the EU. Either this is an egregious typo, or EU users will be able to get access to Apple Intelligence features on their Macs at launch, even if they can’t get them on their iPhones.

Apple is blocking Apple Intelligence features due to EU regulations

The company believes DMA regulations will compromise security

Apple announced that Apple Intelligence features would not be coming to the EU at launch back in June, citing concerns about the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Apple believes that the requirements of the DMA regulations would reduce the security of these features, so rather than release a less-secure version of Apple Intelligence, the company made the decision to hold back these features from users located in EU countries.

Understandably, if you’re in the EU, this isn’t great news. It’s possible that Apple may be able to come to an arrangement with the EU that allows Apple Intelligence features to be rolled out to EU users in the future, but as it stands, iPhone users in the EU won’t get access when the Apple Intelligence features are first released to the rest of the world.

macOS Sequoia’s release notes offer good news for EU users

It’s not so great if you live in China, however

Apple

When new developer betas are released, they include release notes that contain information about known issues, resolved issues from previous releases, as well as new features. The release notes for the iOS 18.1 developer beta include the following information:

iOS 18.1 beta is an early preview of an update to iOS 18 that will be available later this fall. This beta introduces an initial set of features powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence is available on iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Apple Intelligence is not currently available in the EU or China.

This makes it very clear that the features are not available in the EU. However, the same section for the macOS Sequoia 15.1 developer beta is as follows:

macOS Sequoia 15.1 beta is an early preview of an update to macOS Sequoia that will be available later this fall. This beta includes an initial set of the features powered by Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence is available on Macs with M1 and later. Apple Intelligence is not currently available in China.

The omission of any mention of the EU from the macOS Sequoia 15.1 developer beta release notes would seem to indicate that these features will be available to EU Mac users at launch. While this isn’t much consolation to iPhone users in countries such as France and Germany, it does mean that there’s not a blanket ban on Apple Intelligence in the EU. Hopefully, Apple will be able to find a solution that satisfies both sides, and EU iPhone users will eventually get to enjoy the same Apple Intelligence features as the rest of the world bar China.