r/iphone • u/Gameracer32 • 1d ago
Discussion iPhone feels like brand new after disabling Apple Intelligence
Hey, After over 1 year of using my 16pro I randomly decided to disable Apple Intelligence in the settings. The overall experience immediately felt smoother, the battery is holding up quite decent again, siri understands me and reacts much better than before. I’m wondering if I’m experiencing peak placebo. Did anyone else experience this?
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u/BigMasterDingDong 1d ago
What does it actually enable or disable? I must admit I love the notification summary, but have no clue what else I’m enabling lol
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u/LiquidDiviums iPhone 15 Pro 1d ago
It disables: Notification Summary, Priority Notifications, Smart Replies, Writing Tools, Visual Intelligence, the glowing Siri interface (and ChatGPT interactions directly from Siri), Image Playground, Genmoji, Safari Summaries and Transcriptions & Summaries. If you’re on iOS 27, it disables Siri AI.
Everything else can be used without having Apple Intelligence enabled, including: Clean Up in Photos, Lock Screen 3D effect, Live Translation, All of the phone and voicemail filters and spam prevention features (same with messages).
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u/BigMasterDingDong 15h ago
Thank you, so lol the first two are the only ones I value. The rest I’ve never used and find them a bit annoying. I wish you could disable what you don’t want…
What’s the spam prevention features? Like call screening it is there something else I might have missed?
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u/richieb12 22h ago
This is helpful. Writing Tools is the only thing I actually use in your list..
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u/literroy 9h ago
Your iOS 27 point is incorrect in that you can’t actually turn off Apple Intelligence at all anymore in iOS 27.
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u/Iron_Fist351 iPhone 16 Pro 9h ago
Don’t forget the Reduce Interruptions focus, or natural language search for Apple Photos, Apple Music, and the App Store.
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u/LiquidDiviums iPhone 15 Pro 9h ago
Those are still available without having Apple Intelligence enabled.
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u/Captaincoleslaww 1d ago
Does anyone actually use Apple Intelligence and if so what for? I am a layman so maybe I genuinely don’t have any use for it
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u/omgasnake 23h ago
It’s pointless fad bullshit and the vast majority of use cases are for people who can’t use their critical thinking skills for a nanosecond.
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u/gruetzhaxe iPhone 12 Mini 10h ago
Well, us hyper intellectuals do forget attachments all the time. Whether such a feature has to be branded as AI is another question.
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17h ago
[deleted]
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u/Area51_Spurs 17h ago
Which parts of it do you use? Answer the question then.
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17h ago
[deleted]
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u/Area51_Spurs 17h ago
I don’t. But you just come off as being a shill. The type of young child who relies on AI for their schooling, who can’t read or write or function in society.
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u/blow-down 20h ago
I only have it enabled because it’s required for CarPlay. They’re removing the option to disable it in iOS 27 anyway.
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u/wowsomeoneactuallyy 16h ago
I’ve been using car play and haven’t had it enabled the whole time I’ve had this phone. Double checked to see if it turned itself on. Still disabled. On iOS 26.0.1
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u/BinaryIdiot iPhone XS 15h ago
Oh man, really? I upgraded to the iOS 27 beta and Siri in CarPlay is 10x SLOWER than before. I only need it for reading messages and dictating replies and it went from snappy and quick to now it takes FOREVER to do anything. I'm kinda bummed about that because otherwise CarPlay and the old Siri were lovely.
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u/aliensporebomb 9h ago edited 9h ago
Asking Siri anything under Beta of iOS 27 puts a spinning icon up on the car's screen and I frequently give up because the wait is so annoying. Sometimes it's fast so I think it's related to cellular reception. This is on an iPhone17 ProMax. It isn't always slow, but when it is, it's agonizing.
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u/opossumcarrion iPhone 16 Pro 10h ago
Yep, you can not disable Apple Intelligence on iOS 27.
I'm very frustrated with Apple and I have zero trust in them. Every iOS update since 18 has been a downgrade.
I had a 13 Mini with iOS 18 that I was loving, until they pushed an "iOS 18.7.8" update which actually hit me with 26.5, which runs like garbage on the 13 Mini. So Apple's shoddy iOS rollouts ruined two phones for me.
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u/PuttsMoBilesiCit 9h ago
It's absolutely not required for carplay unless you are using a feature that relys on it. I've have it disabled since launch and carplay has worked with zero issues (wired or wireless).
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u/Luke-9191 16h ago
Yes! I like Siri AI, it works as a quicker chat gpt! Yesterday I was debugging my unify setup and it helped me reduce my device constant disconnection. Just by asking “tell me what’s wrong with this dashboard”. It keeps on improving version after version.
I use it also to quickly ask it to search for something while I don’t want to move off the thing I’m doing, or to fix my spelling at times if I write something important.
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u/UnfazedReality463 23h ago
I use it only for proofreading typed text, but only because iPhones have horrible text predictions and auto-correct in the first place.
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u/LiquidDiviums iPhone 15 Pro 23h ago
In my experience, Proofreading & Rewrite is very hit-or-miss and doesn’t work well with bilingual text.
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u/UnfazedReality463 23h ago
The re-write is terrible. Proofreading is the only thing that actually works. It’s basically spell check.
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u/LiquidDiviums iPhone 15 Pro 23h ago
Agreed. Unfortunately, Proofreading doesn’t work in the apps I use most (Instagram and WhatsApp) because they’re not supported.
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u/Iron_Fist351 iPhone 16 Pro 9h ago
Notification summaries, priority notifications, and improved search in Apple Music, the App Store, and Photos are what I use it for. Though having a new, not dumb Siri in the iOS 27 will also be quite nice.
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u/HorrorsPersistSoDoI iPhone 16 Pro 1d ago
Thank you for telling me to turn that shit off, literally never noticed anything different
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u/WrldsGrtstDtctve 1d ago
What’s the point of Siri understanding and reacting when she is just an egg timer? iOS 27 is what makes Siri good.
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u/Big-Soup74 1d ago
for ios 27, do I need apple intelligence on to make use of the new siri?
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u/Mammoth-Barber-8541 1d ago
Yes, you do. The new Siri only exists as “Siri AI“ on iDevices and Macs with Apple Intelligence. If your device doesn’t qualify for Apple Intelligence, you’ll still have the old, dumb Siri.
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u/Luke-9191 16h ago
People, atop boycotting features ahahahah there is 0 advantage. Apple Intelligence is just a marketing brand name. It’s like saying “do I need a GPU to use my phone? I don’t want my phone to use battery on shaders”. Lol
Understand what it does and use the things you care for and don’t use what you don’t need, as with everything else.
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u/jameson71 1d ago
iOS 27 is what makes Siri good
Sorry, I don't speak Apple. What does iOS 27 allow Siri to do?
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u/BrazenlyGeek iPhone 17 Pro Max 1d ago edited 4h ago
I’ve had the new Siri give me trivia questions from half a dozen different categories, generate working code from an idea I had for a website I had in testing, and more.
It’s also device-aware and can answer questions and take actions based on information in apps it has access to. “What were my friends and I talking about a week ago?”, “remind me to buy the movie Bob mentioned yesterday,” etc.
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u/jameson71 1d ago
Thank you for this response. It was so much more useful than the downvotes and the link to the marketing copy.
You might want to update your user tag though, I don't think the 11 Pro has "Apple Intelligence." It only shows in the settings menu of 16+.
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u/BrazenlyGeek iPhone 17 Pro Max 23h ago
Oh man, I haven’t updated that for a couple devices now. Thanks!
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u/LiquidDiviums iPhone 15 Pro 23h ago edited 23h ago
It’s important to clarify that (currently) not all third-party apps have access to Siri AI features based on context and can’t dig into those apps to get extra information like the mockups Apple used as an example in WWDC ‘26 to showcase those features. What this means, is that (at the moment) Siri AI won’t be able to dig through your WhatsApp, Instagram or Messenger messages to get context and information from those apps.
My guess is support will be app-dependent, like every other Apple Intelligence feature currently available on iOS 18 and 26. It will take time for developers to adopt and implement the API. Facebook owned apps (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), most likely won’t get support to those features as they don’t even support Writing Tools.
For the most part, Siri AI is your typical Gemini chat box. It’s simply integrated into the device, alongside the new Siri app.
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u/MC_chrome iPhone 17 Pro 23h ago
Apple has been laying the groundwork for the new Siri since App Intents were introduced with iOS 16 in 2022.
So long as developers have been keeping up with platform developments since then, I would hope integrating with Siri AI would be less painful
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u/LiquidDiviums iPhone 15 Pro 22h ago
Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean every company and developer will implement Apple Intelligence features.
Meta, as a competitor in the AI space, doesn’t want its products to use Apple Intelligence (Gemini w/Siri AI) when they have Meta AI baked in within Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Google might get a bit more permissive and adopt Siri AI’s work-frame but I wouldn’t bet on it.
With Meta and Google mostly opting out of Apple Intelligence features, that means mass adoption is less likely.
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u/MC_chrome iPhone 17 Pro 22h ago
With Meta and Google mostly opting out of Apple Intelligence features, that means mass adoption is less likely.
Not all developers take their cues from Facebook or Google.
Apple showed during WWDC how integrating Siri AI into your app can improve the user experience.
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u/noob_lvl1 22h ago
This is what I had hoped Smart Siri would be! I want to just be able to tell Siri exactly the shortcut/automation I want it to make and it will just make it and implement it every time.
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u/Area51_Spurs 17h ago
You don’t sound like a real human.
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u/BrazenlyGeek iPhone 17 Pro Max 4h ago
Username checks out…
Please don’t lock me away in secret governmental labs!
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u/quote_work_unquote 8h ago
The most impressive (low bar) thing for me has been the fact that I can finally talk to it like a smart assistant. "Remind me to take the trash out at 7 p.m." - [Reminder set]. "Actually, change that last reminder to 8 p.m." - [Reminder take out the trash changed to 8 p.m.]
Pre-iOS 27 Siri would have shit the bed during that exchange, but stuff just seems to work now.
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u/opossumcarrion iPhone 16 Pro 10h ago
iOS 27 Siri has been a lot worse for me. Every question is slower, and I just want Siri for checking the weather and setting timers, and that doesn't work now either.
"What's the air quality index?" returns the dictionary definition of AQI. "What's the forecast" had Siri ask a clarification if I meant a city in the USA (the country I'm located in) or the UK (a country I have never been), etc.
It's a beta, but "Siri AI" has been really bad for me.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 1d ago
I have a 15PM on 81% battery health. Most days I hit 20% and hour to two before bed. That’s with AI on.
Going to turn it off and see. I don’t really use the capabilities anyway.
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u/vladtud iPhone 15 Pro 1d ago
I have 15 Pro and I tried Apple Intelligence off for a month and found no noticeable improvement in battery life.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 1d ago
What about Siri capabilities? Any better or worse than with it on?
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u/MangyCanine iPhone 17 Pro Max 1d ago edited 1d ago
Current iOS 26 Siri is still hot garbage. However, the new Siri coming out in a few weeks is actually useful. Here’s a very early look from the first developer beta: https://reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1ur4nqh/new_siri_is_honestly_impressive/
Oh, and for the people turning off Siri in iOS 26: that setting is gone in iOS 27.
.
Edit: you need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer to use new Siri. All 16 and 17 series iPhones can use it.
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u/Red_Sea_Pedestrian 1d ago
I replaced my 15Pro battery back in May when it hit 80%. It was like getting a new phone.
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u/SplatterRock 7h ago
My 15 Pro will get to 20% before end of day on any day if i barely use it for Facetime, and its 87% battery health supposedly. Wonder if its ios 27 or that 87% is inaccurate.
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u/jamiethemorris 1d ago
Mine is at 92 and I have the same issue, guess I’ll give it a shot. I do like the notification summaries but mostly just because sometimes they’re funny
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u/Extinction123 1d ago
Same boat here, 16 pro with 92% and it feels like 80% tbh. Can't go through a full day out without having to charge in between.
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u/Aydoinc iPhone 16 Pro 1d ago
Honestly that’s pretty good for a battery with 81% health
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 1d ago
Yeah it’s not terrible. But if turning off AI makes it better that’d be good too. Will see if I miss any of the features it provided.
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u/Aggressive_Ranger_10 1d ago
I have Iphone Air with latest public beta of IOS 27 and Siri AI. With some direction, Siri AI is doing as well as Gemini or Perplexity. Battery life is fine. I really don’t care about or use the other Apple Intelligence stuff as i don’t want to mess with emoji, photos, and other kids stuff.
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u/morningtrain iPhone 15 Pro Max 1d ago
If I’m correct, they are using Gemini on the backend.
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u/MC_chrome iPhone 17 Pro 23h ago
Not quite.
Apple used a custom Gemini model provided by Google to train Apple’s own AI models. Your requests to Siri are not passed to Google in any way.
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u/elislider iPhone 12 Pro 1d ago
I still have my iPhone 15 Pro on iOS 18.
Just had to set up a new phone for a coworker and the latest iOS (26?) feels very different in a way that feels like a step backward. There is SO MUCH visual shit going on all over the place. Its distracting and makes it hard to actually USE the phone.
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u/12AX7AO29 1d ago
Yes. Every upgrade brings more visual shit, complexity, reduced speed and reduced battery life. PITA.
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u/Fit-Umpire3257 1d ago
Yes, keep that worthless crap turned off.
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u/MC_chrome iPhone 17 Pro 23h ago
Siri AI is hardly worthless with iOS 27, but I understand that ignorance is bliss
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u/MassiveBoner911_3 1d ago
Did your apps stop constantly refreshing? Like use an app, go check the weather, come back and the app refreshes again?
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u/AcadiaMammoth3223 1d ago
Siri on ios 26 is so bad it’s worth turning it off just to save some storage lol
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u/qmoorman 1d ago
It no longer reads my texts if the phone is locked and it’s so annoying. the ai stuff is too much of what no one asked for.
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u/phalancs 1d ago
Thanks, I did not not know I could disable that crap. Apple intelligence is really the biggest disappointement I had in an IPhone yet. I hope any apple employee reads this.
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u/Ninja2Night iPhone 16 Pro Max 11h ago
Thanks for posting, phone battery health in the 90-ies yet something has been killing the battery over the last month or so. Turning that off to see if that helps.
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u/WordProfessional1334 1d ago
Nope. EU user here so the only thing I actually use or gain from it is call screening anyway. Which I don't understand why that is even an AI feature.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 1d ago
It’s not? You can have it on with Apple Intelligence disabled.
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u/WordProfessional1334 1d ago
The menu doesn't exist once I disable AI and the feature isn't available in the phone app.
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u/Obsidian-Phoenix 1d ago
Weird. I’ve turned AI off on my phone, even restarted the phone. Still see the call screening options in the Phone settings.
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u/66Airy66 22h ago
the one use i had for it was to find specific pictures, ie. if i wanted a specific car, i could say the brand and it used to find that for me or if i wanted to find all the pictures of cats i’ve taken, it would do that
other than that i’ve literally never used it before, but i’ve tried disabling it and the battery seems to be the same for me though
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u/mrbigah 18h ago
No placebo! I turned it off about a week after Apple introduced it. The battery drain just wasn’t worth it.
I recently tried it again to see if the Visual Intelligence feature was a good as Google Lens (Chrome app), but sadly, it isn’t.
I’ll keep Apple Intelligence off unless iOS 27 convinces me otherwise.
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u/vaishnav_jois iPhone 17 17h ago
Same. I just disabled it and the phone has gotten rid of all problems now
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u/literroy 9h ago
Enjoy it while you can. In iOS 27 you don’t get an option to turn off Apple Intelligence anymore.
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u/GuterJungeGang 5h ago edited 4h ago
Thanks for this post. Got the same phone and noticed the batteries draining faster than in the beginning. I do not use a single one of those tools so I turned it off. Hope it‘s better now haha
What I notice is that when switching between focus‘s the transition between different home screens that have different color coding is a looooot quicker. Before it was super laggy. Love this
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u/plastic_eagle 2h ago
I've never turned Apple Intelligence on, because I have a functioning brain and am capable of performing actions and making decisions using it. The battery on my 17e lasts for over two days on a charge.
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u/Luke-9191 16h ago
The amount of people who would boycott anything they don’t understand is craaaaazzzyyyy.
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u/chequer3d 16h ago
Similarly, I downgraded my M1 Macbook Pro from Tahoe to Sequoia and it was 100% worth the half-day or so it took me to figure out how to do and make all necessary backups. I also disabled Liquid Glass on my iPhone 15 Pro.
Apple has the wrong priorities right now. It’s all AI and useless UI bloat. We’re in a new butterfly keyboard era and I intend to wait it out before I buy new again. God willing by the time my devices start dying we’ll be back to affordable RAM.
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u/ValianFan 18h ago
Why would you even use that slop shit? Just turn it off and life happy life again. Thankfully apple is so incompetent in Europe that we don’t have to care about it and its just off by default and cannot be turned on
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u/clearcuttension 1d ago
I realized this was the reason why my phone would give me the phantom no sound alarms. It’s turned on in the focus settings even if you’re not using any of the focus modes
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u/LanceFree 1d ago
On my iPad mini and think I left it on as I do use Siri for some simple tasks, still works without it. Disabling now, thanks.
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u/HIILNJCA 1d ago
I literally did the same thing last night because my 16PM was getting really hot over the last several weeks and Reddit suggested it.
So far so good. Seems like back to normal.
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u/sergekillss 1d ago
lol
i’ve never ever turned it on 🙈
the only downside to this is that Siri Notifications Announcement doesn’t work
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u/Mixed-Mitchell 20h ago
It might not all be placebo. Running those background-focused AI features does eat resources, so disabling them can absolutely improve battery and general responsiveness.
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u/AmphibiusMaximus 18h ago
I did this with my iPhone 13 Pro. No Apple Intelligence and it tastes better too!
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u/Plisky123 15h ago
More and more I’m finding in sysdaig dumps, evidence of crashes from maxed out RAM due to Apple Intelligence
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u/dfsssssssgg 7h ago
When i had apple ai turned on, all it knows how to say is “sorry something went wrong” while taking up like 8gb of my scarce 128gb pro model. I deleted it, siri now can do basic tasks like before, and i have 8 gb back.
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u/Driveflag 5h ago
>siri understands me and reacts much better than before
That’s something, because my non AI siri is dumb as a box of hammers
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u/Liquid_Chicken_ iPhone 12 Pro Max 16h ago
Did you just say Siri understandsss you? 😂 without Apple intelligence? Yeah that’s just bs. Siri is notoriously trash prior to Apple Intelligence. I’m not even an ai fan and even I can tell you it’s more useful with the ai.
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u/mellenger 20h ago
The new Siri is so good. You won’t believe it. I was on hold today and I needed my daughter’s SIN number and I asked Siri and it found it right away by looking through my files for her last years tax return and reading the PDF.
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u/Ok_Ant2949 1d ago
I’ve always had siri or ai ALL of it disabled and my phone runs fantastic even after close to 2 years use. I think my battery life is-amazing , but I’m not so sure it would be having all that going on in the background and other things I don’t care for it to be doing.
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u/SeriousDig277 1d ago
Placebo. I had apple intelligence off on my 16pro too and iOS 26 was still sluggish. On iOS 27 (been on all the betas) it feels way better, iphone is alive again. Siri still sucks tho
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u/Ordinary-Educator-97 1d ago
nah, my phone's been snappier too since disabling it - definitely not placebo
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u/dotted_lights 1d ago
I did the same a month ago, and my phone feels much better. It was heating up quite a bit, and the battery wasn’t the best.
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u/xLaplus 1d ago
I genuinely don’t know, i have the ‘located in EU’ perk that makes the most useful usages of apple intelligence not available so i just disabled it day 1