One of the headlining features of Apple Intelligence, notification summaries, has had a less-than-stellar rollout as it sometimes provided incorrect information. But in an upcoming iOS update, Apple has made some significant changes.
You Can Completely Turn off Notification Summaries
The changes have arrived in the latest beta version of iOS 18.3. Spotted by 9to5Mac, here’s all the tweaks to Apple Intelligence’s notification summaries:
- When you enable notification summaries, iOS 18.3 will make it clearer that the feature – like all Apple Intelligence features – is a beta.
- You can now disable notification summaries for an app directly from the Lock Screen or Notification Center by swiping, tapping “Options,” then choosing the “Turn Off Summaries” option
- On the Lock Screen, notification summaries now use italicized text to better distinguish them from normal notifications.
- In the Settings app, Apple now warns users that notification summaries “may contain errors.”
Additionally, notification summaries have been temporarily disabled entirely for the News & Entertainment category of apps. Notification summaries will be re-enabled for this category with a future software update as Apple continues to refine the experience.
Notifications summaries were one of the first round of features added to Apple Intelligence in October 2024. As the name suggests, AI reads your many notifications and provides an easy-to-understand summary.
But the feature is sometimes prone to making mistakes. The BBC vocally complained in December 2024 after an issue. A notification summary from the outlet incorrectly claimed that Luigi Mangione had shot himself. Mangione is the alleged shooter of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
There’s no word when iOS 18.3 will be officially released to the public. There will likely be additional beta versions.
Apple Intelligence: A Work in Progress
While I’ve mostly enjoyed notification summaries, I definitely noticed many mistakes, especially with frequent notifications from news apps. In the example above, from the ESPN app, the summary said that a basketball game in Texas was postponed due to the Los Angeles wildfires. It was not.
It’s good that Apple is giving users the ability to completely turn off the feature if they would like and making it clearer when a notification is summarized by Apple Intelligence.
