Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram block use of Apple Intelligence
All Meta apps for the iPhone have been updated to take out the option to use the Writing Tools in Apple Intelligence.
Writing Tools are not available in Facebook on iOS, nor in any of Meta's other apps.
It's unlikely that Meta will ever reveal the reasons behind its decision -- even if it's happy to spill other firms' confidential details -- but it is now blocking the use of Writing Tools. It's not clear when the change was made, but at time of writing, Writing Tools are unavailable across Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Or at least they are on the iPhone and the iPad, although Instagram does not yet have a native iPadOS app. It's still, of course, possible to use Apple Intelligence Writing Tools in a browser. Whether on the Mac, iPhone, or iPad, accessing Meta services online can't prevent Apple Intelligence's Writing Tools from being provided.
However, according to Apple's developer documentation, apps for iOS and iPadOS have to choose to enable the feature. Based on comments in the Apple support forums, Meta may have initially supported the service, but began removing support in December 2024.
It's perhaps a sign of how little used Apple's Writing Tools are that the change wasn't noticed for months. It was then seemingly first spotted by the Sorcererhat Tech blog.
Meta does have its own AI services, though they do not currently offer a similar feature to Apple's Writing Tools. Nonetheless, it appears that in mid-2024, Apple may have been in talks with Meta about integrating its AI into iOS 18, as it has with ChatGPT, and might yet with Google Gemini.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
they have a long history of bloated horrible and ugly software
First and foremost, not everyone in your Facebook feed is your friend. There are tons of advertisers, news agencies, whatever else is being promoted by Meta. Writing tools (AI or not) help all of these people.
Second, your friends could easily use other writing tools (again AI or not) provided by Meta, Apple or another third party to alter their writing. We already have built-in spell checking and rudimentary grammar correction on mobile, computers, etc. for a long time. What you are reading isn't just raw output from your friends or anyone else.
Should your friends use AI-assisted writing tools? It's really their choice. Again, if they are really motivated, they can use someone else's AI writing assistant to generate their Facebook comments and just cut-and-paste.
However, AI writing tools don't make anyone smart. It just reduces some of the gruntwork and makes people with extremely poor writing skills *sound* like they know how to write. But if you talk to them, they'll still use the same words they always use, have the same analytical abilities, etc.
What AI-assisted writing tools really gives to the user is free time. What you do with that extra time is what might possibly change your life. If you use that extra time to learn more about something that requires critical thinking, yes, AI offers a path to increased knowledge. If you choose to use that extra time watching Tik Toks, well, maybe you're going to end up dumber than before. Or maybe you use that extra time to exercise, work in your garden, bake cookies, play with your kids, etc.
If some of those activities are what your friends are doing with their newly available extra time, well, maybe it's not such a bad thing. But in the end, it will be their choice since AI-assisted writing tools aren't going away. They are here to stay whether they be offered by Meta, Apple, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity, whoever.
Anyhow Meta wants you to use their AI tools because they can sell your activity to the highest bidder. That's their business model. They really don't want you to spend your time elsewhere using someone else's AI tools and just cutting-and-pasting the final result. Moreover they can use your interactions with their AI to train their models. Using ChatGPT or Apple Intelligence doesn't make Meta Llama any better.
This should be obvious but clearly it is not to some people on the Internet.
I get that at times it may be convenient an AI tool to summarize a 5,000 word tl;dr article when I'm in a rush. But if it's a subject that I care about, I'm gonna do the work myself. And it bothers me that there are people who don't want to do the work themselves.
Did you cook your own dinner last night? Or did you just order DoorDash? Dump a jar of spaghetti sauce in a saucepan? Use a food processor instead of chopping up ingredients with a knife? Use canned chicken stock? Did you paint your last image or did you just snap a photo with your smartphone?
Tools exist to make lives easier whether it be a Skil-saw, automobile, or digital service like Apple Intelligence's Image Clean Up. It's really up to the individual to decide how to use it. You are still free to fire up Photoshop or The GIMP and edit your images manually. Or dodge-and-burn like Ansel Adams. Or just use a pencil on paper and an eraser. I suck at Photoshop so something like Image Clean Up helps me because I could spend hours on an image and not get the same results as using an AI-assisted photo editing tool.
How long would it take you to bake the perfect baguette, your sister's wedding cake, a scone? Don't want to pick up leaves? Get a rake. Thing raking is too slow? Get a leaf blower.
For sure AI is here to stay and even sticking your head in the sand isn't going to make it go away.
And no one is pointing a gun at your head saying you need to use Meta's AI tools when you are on Facebook. You are still free to type your own thoughts using your own brain cells instead of Meta Llama.
For sure, AI-assisted writing tools reduces some of the tedium and time of composing certain types of written communications. For sure some people have better writing skills than others. AI-assisted writing tools simply reduce some of the time and/or improve the output for some less talented writers. It doesn't actually make them better writers or thinkers. We have been over this countless times before.
Hell, I'm pretty disappointed with all consumer-facing AI because it still can't handle junk e-mail. That is absolutely pathetic and everyone working on consumer-facing LLMs should be utterly ashamed at their lack of ability here in April 2025. Sure, writing tools are fine. But give us something that will help everyone. No one benefits from wasting time triaging through junkmail.
This is how moronic consumer-facing LLM-based AI tools are in 2025. There are great things happening in the commercial/enterprise side of things (pharmaceutial research, semiconductor design, financial services). But from a consumer perspective, it's almost all embarrassingly lame. AI writing tools are one of the few things today's consumer-facing LLMs can actually do reasonably decently.
AI IS NOT GOING AWAY AND WHINING ABOUT IT WON'T DO SQUAT.
Is Apple Intelligence's Image Clean Up feature better than an expert Photoshop user? Probably not. Is it faster than rank Photoshop-illiterate Joe Consumer? Absolutely. These consumer-facing tools are being aimed at a broad market, not for people who have 20+ years of professional, on-the-job Photoshop experience. Some of you have excellent Photoshop skills. We understand, good for you. Some of you also might be superior bakers, carpenters, seamstresses. We get that too.
AI-writing tools aren't targeted at professional writers, editors, etc. They're aimed at the ordinary office worker who probably doesn't have a Master's Degree in English, Comparative Literature, Classics, whatever (hell, some might be writing in a language different than their native tongue). AI isn't going to write War & Peace, a Pulitzer-prize winning poetry collection or wedding gift thank you notes.
We have been over this time and time before.
As for Whatsapp, I just use it to be updated on my extended family. I never write enough to have to use AI tools there, so I have never used Apple's Writing Tools, or whatever AI Bot Whatsapp is hawking now.
Having said that, I think this is a purely childish move by Meta to remove the writing tools.
Meta wants to promote the usage of its own AI bot that has shown up on Whatsapp a couple of months ago, so having another AI helper would hamper their bot.
Meta is on Apple devices very begrudgingly. They need the volume of users but would just as well have their Facebook phone be a smashing success and leave iPhone in the dust.
The relationship Meta has with its iOS users is very antagonistic.