Apple’s latest major update with iOS 26, now available for download, brings a new, translucent and bubbly interface, streamlined menus, and new features powered by Apple Intelligence including call screening, emoji combination and more.
While Siri hasn’t yet reached the intelligent levels that Apple promised in 2024, there are many convenient services that analyze your usage and your information or search online sources to help answer questions, manage your calls, provide writing assistance, create photos or artwork and more.
What if you don’t want Apple Intelligence on your phone?
AI is a controversial topic. Even as companies push seemingly increasingly miraculous AI capabilities into online and mobile services, many users have said no thanks.
Some dislike the lack of accuracy and even completely wrong answers that AI assistants like Siri and ChatGPT have been known to provide, some are bothered by companies turning to AI as a way to reduce their workforces, many are angry about the wholesale absorption of the works of writers and artists without compensation and the resulting material produced, and some protest the large amounts of electricity and water thate AI data centers require.
A ZDNET/Aberdeen survey in March 2025 found that most Americans were not interested in most AI features. A bare majority, 52%, said they would use AI to answer questions and 58% liked AI in photo editing, but 64% said if they were offered AI assistants they would not use them, would turn them off it possible, or stop using products with the feature.
Fortunately, it’s not hard to disable Apple Intelligence on your phone. You can just turn it off, or disable specific services you don’t want.
How to disable Apple Intelligence
The easiest way is to not turn it on. Apple Intelligence is off by default, but after you update your phone will try to get you to activate it when it asks you setup questions.
If it is turned on, you can take it all down in one whack by opening Settings and choosing Apple Intelligence & Siri. Then just turn off the Apple Intelligence option and confirm your choice.
Note that you’ll lose some of the features Apple has added, such as notification summaries, Visual Intelligence, Image Playground, Genmoji, ChatGPT support for Siri, writing tools across different apps, the Image Wand in the notes app, and, in the latest update, call screening, news app summaries, searches based on screenshots, automatic language translations in messages, calls and FaceTime and assorted minor additions.
Turn off individual Apple Intelligence features
You can also choose to leave Apple Intelligence on and just disable the bits you don’t like.
You’ll have to go app by app, though. For example, to disable message summaries you’ll need to go to Settings, then Apps at the bottom, then scroll down to tap Messages. In that screen, scroll down to the Summarize Messages option and turn it off.
In Phone, you can turn off Summarize Message Previews there as well if you like.
However, if Apple Intelligence is turned on, many of your apps will have Learn from this App turned on as well. That allows Siri to learn how you use the app to make suggestions. If this is not something you want, you’ll have to go app by app in Settings, tap on Apple Intelligence & Siri in each one, and turn that option off.
Some settings are hidden away under Screen Time such as Writing Tools, Image Creation and Intelligence Extensions (such as access to ChatGPT). You can block those too by going to Settings, tapping on Screen Time and turning on Content & Privacy Restrictions.
Then you can tap on Intelligence & Siri and turn off anything you don’t want.
You can always experiment to find the level of AI you’re comfortable with, or disable it entirely.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Don’t want AI with your new iOS 26 update? Here’s how to turn off Apple Intelligence
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
