Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.2 now requires extra storage space

WEB DESK: Apple’s “Apple Intelligence” is making iPhones, iPads, and Macs smarter than ever, but there’s a downside—it now needs a lot more storage space.

With the latest iOS updates, users will need to clear out more room on their devices to use these new features.

When Apple Intelligence first came out with iOS 18.1, it only required 4GB of storage, which wasn’t a big deal for most people. Apple also made sure everything ran directly on the device, protecting privacy without needing cloud processing.

But with the iOS 18.2 update, the storage requirement jumped to 7GB because of new AI features. And this applies to iPhones, iPads, and Macs alike, so if you use all three devices, you’ll need 21GB of free space across them.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to cut down on storage use by turning off some features.

This increase is due to new tools in iOS 18.2, including Genmoji, which lets you create custom AI emojis, ChatGPT integration with Siri, Image Playground for creating and editing visuals, Visual Intelligence for smarter image recognition, and Compose with ChatGPT to help with writing tasks.

While these features are meant to improve the user experience, they also take up more room on your device.

The iOS 18.3 may not bring more AI features but iOS 18.4 is expected to introduce major improvements to Siri, likely pushing storage needs even higher.

Experts think that soon the space needed for Apple Intelligence could reach 10GB per device, especially with iOS 19 on the horizon.

For users, this growing storage demand means it’s more important than ever to choose devices with larger storage options. As Apple Intelligence evolves, having enough free space will be key to keeping things running smoothly.

If you’re running low on storage, it might be time to think about upgrading your device.

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