iOS 18.1 Beta 3 Expands Apple Intelligence Notification Summaries Beyond Messages and Mail

Today, Apple rolled out beta 3 for iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, bringing significant new Apple Intelligence features that were absent in previous betas. One of the most notable updates is the expanded notification summaries.

Notification Summaries Now Available for All Apps

In earlier versions of iOS 18.1, notification summaries were limited to just two Apple apps:

• Messages
• Mail

Despite this limitation, these summaries had a significant impact on my daily usage.

With the release of today’s beta 3, notification summaries are now available for all apps on your device, including Apple’s system apps and crucially, third-party apps.

These summaries use AI to intelligently capture the content of messages, emails, news headlines, and more, delivering a concise summary in a notification. This has made notifications far more useful than before.

After installing beta 3, your device will guide you through setting up notification summaries for all your apps. Additionally, you can enable or disable summaries for individual apps by navigating to Settings > Notifications > Summarize Previews.

This allows you to choose which notifications you want summarized and which you prefer to see in full.

Enhanced Daily Use with AI-Powered Summaries

As I’ve mentioned before, notification summaries have quickly become my favorite Apple Intelligence feature. I’m excited to see their expansion to more apps today.

Apple Intelligence is still in beta, so some inaccuracies in summaries are to be expected. For example, a message from my brother about his son was incorrectly summarized as being about his daughter.

However, overall, these notification summaries have been a valuable addition to my iPhone, iPad, and even my Apple Watch.