Apple flips the switch on “Apple Intelligence” today — live translation, onscreen smarts, and a watch-based coach hit your devices

Apple is lighting up a fresh wave of Apple Intelligence features across iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro — beginning today — headlined by Live Translation in Messages/FaceTime/Phone, new “visual intelligence” for whatever’s on your screen, and creative upgrades to Genmoji and Image Playground.

The company’s newsroom post lays out the rollout and the big buckets.

So what does this feel like in real life? Think of a friend texting you in Spanish: your reply can auto-translate as you type; hop to FaceTime and captions translate on the fly; pick up a phone call and the translation is spoken out loud — no app juggling.

Apple says this happens with on-device processing to keep conversations private, and that broader language support lands before year’s end.

Beyond the AI headliners, today is also a platform day: the new OS wave — iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS Tahoe 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26 — is rolling out with a “Liquid Glass” design and a raft of quality-of-life tweaks.

If you care about the bigger picture (and the shiny UI), Apple has a companion post summarizing the system updates.

Now, a quick reality check many readers ask me about: Do I even get this stuff on my device?

Apple’s support note lists the hardware line: iPhone 15 Pro and newer (or iPhone 16 family), M-series iPads and Macs (plus A17 Pro iPad mini), Vision Pro, and Apple Watch Series 6+ when paired to a supported iPhone.

There’s also a regional wrinkle — Live Translation on AirPods skips the EU at launch.

Privacy isn’t just marketing copy this round. For complex requests, Apple routes to Private Cloud Compute, a server side built on Apple silicon that runs signed, inspectable images and promises to discard data after fulfilling your request.

That’s Apple’s argument for doing cloud AI privately — and it’s a big swing, technically and politically.

If you wear your AI on your wrist, watchOS 26 introduces Workout Buddy, a coaching experience that speaks to you mid-run or ride using your own fitness history — a first for Apple’s wearables and an obvious test bed for “intelligence” beyond text.

It’s starting in English and shows up on Apple Watch when paired to a supported iPhone (and on iPhone/AirPods, too).

Developers aren’t left on the sidelines: Shortcuts can now tap Apple’s models directly, and Apple has been signaling since WWDC that an on-device foundation model is accessible for app makers to build private, offline-capable features.

That matters — it’s how this jumps from system tricks to the apps you actually live in.

And yes, there’s a cultural read here. Apple under-talked “AI” hype at last week’s launch event and over-delivered practical stuff today — live translations, onscreen actions, image tools that are actually fun.

Is that the smarter bet versus louder AI demos? I’d argue… probably. Apple’s framing is, it just works and it’s private.

Look, not everything lands everywhere on day one — features, languages, and regions are rolling in waves.

But the center of gravity is clear: Apple’s putting generative tech inside the moments you already have — typing, calling, glancing at your screen — not making you open a separate “AI app.”

If the execution holds, this is the kind of invisible upgrade that quietly becomes habit, and then kind of indispensable.

What’s new that Apple didn’t quite spell out?

Two things to watch:
• Search partnerships — visual intelligence explicitly lets you ping Google and shopping apps like Etsy from whatever’s on screen; the default hand-off here could shape where commerce queries go next.
• Regulatory chess — the EU limitation on AirPods Live Translation is a hint that some capabilities may zigzag around local rules for a while. Expect uneven maps, then catch-up.

Bottom line: Today’s drop isn’t a flashy chatbot stunt; it’s a system-wide nudge that makes your device translate, summarize, and act in the flow.

That’s the boring-sounding version of a big deal — and, to be honest, the version I’d rather have.