The Main Reason To Buy iPhone 16 Is Coming To India, Courtesy Apple Intelligence

So far, it made little sense to buy an iPhone 16 over the iPhone 15 in India. Surely, the advanced 3nm A18 chip offers a healthy boost in raw performance and the new camera sensors make photography a lot easier. Sadly, the iPhone 16 series lacked support for Apple Intelligence – advertised as the biggest reason for anyone to consider the new models. 

This becomes a more glaring issue since all of Apple’s rivals in the smartphone industry have championed the cause of AI. The Google Pixel devices were the first ones to bring onboard AI on their phones since 2023’s Pixel 8 series. Samsung not only brought Galaxy AI to last year’s Galaxy S24 series and refined it further for the Galaxy S25 series but also rolled it out as a software update on its older phones. Even OnePlus, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi have introduced AI on their high-end phones in some way or the other. 

Apple, however, is now willing to change things for a market that continues to show growth annually. The iPhone 16 series will gain support for Apple Intelligence in India, thereby bringing the latest iPhones on par with the AI-enriched smartphones from Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo. 

Apple Intelligence coming to India

In a dialogue with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that Apple Intelligence AI features are coming to India by April 2025 as part of the iOS 18.4 update.

“We are working hard to take Apple Intelligence even further. In April, we’re bringing Apple Intelligence to more languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese, as well as localised English to Singapore and India,” said Tim Cook.

Hence, all those who have already purchased any of the models from the iPhone 16 series will get to experience all the Apple Intelligence features from April. However, the catch here is that your device’s language needs to be set to English (India) in order to access the smart features.

There’s good news for iPhone 15 series owners too. With Apple Intelligence coming to India as a feature set, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max handsets will also be eligible to access Apple’s AI features. The same goes for all those using a Mac with an M1 chip or higher in India. 

For those who need a refresher course, Apple Intelligence adds the ability to summarise web pages, help compose emails, generate AI images, create custom stickers, access ChatGPT from the Siri page, chat with Siri and a lot more. 

Should you upgrade for Apple Intelligence?

Unless you are a die-hard AI fan and want to experience the latest features beforehand, getting an iPhone 16 solely for Apple Intelligence doesn’t make sense. Apple’s AI features aren’t known to be the best in business and experts believe it will take a while for Apple to catch up to Google’s levels of expertise for on-device AI.

Moreover, you can access most of Apple Intelligence’s AI features on iPhone 15 or older devices via third-party apps and services. 

Did Tim Cook announce anything else for India?

Yes! There will be more Apple Stores coming to India in a bid to expand sales and reach across more regions. Cook said that the iPhone has seen great sales performance in India in December, with a lot of people upgrading to iPhones. Hence, having more Apple retail stores in prominent cities of the country could help Apple reach out to more people.