You Should Watch The Apple Intelligence Developer Sessions In This Order

(Editor’s note: updated June 2025 to include sessions from WWDC25)

If you’re getting into development for Apple Intelligence, it can be hard to understand how to parse Apple’s documentation. App Intents, the API that powers the Actions and Personal Context features of Apple Intelligence, has been shipping since 2021, with a deeper history since the introduction of Shortcuts in 2018 – there are over 30 sessions to learn from.

Since I’ve been consulting with developers on their App Intents integrations, I’ve developed a Star Wars Machete Order-style guide for the Apple Intelligence developer sessions – watch the sessions in this order to best understand how Apple thinks about these APIs.

Apple Intelligence Machete Order

How to understand the App Intents framework

Start with the latest sessions from 2024, which reintroduces App Intents as it extends across the system in more ways, as well as updates the Design suggestions from their earlier framework:

• Get to Know App Intents (2025)
• Bring your app’s core features to users with App Intents (2024)
• Design App Intents for System Experiences (2024) – directly replaces suggestions in Design great actions for Shortcuts, Siri, and Suggestions (2021)
  

Getting Deeper into App Intents

From there, once you have the context of how App Intents can be deployed, start back at the beginning to see how to implement App Intents, then take a look at where they are heading with Snippets:

• Dive into App Intents (2022)
• Explore enhancements to App Intents (2023)
• Explore new advances in App Intents (2025)
• Design Interactive Snippets (2025)

Importance of App Shortcuts

Built on top of App Intents, App Shortcuts are automatically generated for the most-important tasks and content that show up in Spotlight and Siri – and often the most-common way users interact with the App Intents framework:

• Design App Shortcuts (2022)
• Implement App Shortcuts with App Intents (2022)
• Spotlight your app with App Shortcuts (2023)
• Design shortcuts for Spotlight (2023)
• Develop for Shortcuts and Spotlight with App Intents (2025)

Apple Intelligence sessions

Finally, once you understand the core of App Intents, what it used to be vs. what Apple wants you to do now, and how to deploy App Intents across Spotlight and Siri, move onto the latest updates for Apple Intelligence – new features that enable Personal Context, as well as integrating your intents into domains for Siri:

• What’s new with App Intents (2024)
• Bring your app to Siri (2024)

Good to know

Beyond that, it can be helpful to review earlier sessions to understand where Apple is coming from, as well learning about the lesser-known experience your app is capable of providing:

• Introducing parameters for Shortcuts (2019)
• Add configuration and intelligence to your widgets (2020)
• Evaluate and Optimize Voice Interactions For Your App (2020)
• Broaden your reach with Siri event suggestions (2020)
• Decipher and deal with common Siri errors (2020)
• Create quick interactions with Shortcuts on watchOS (2020)
• Donate intents and expand your app’s presence (2021)
• Meet Focus Filters (2022)

All the Apple Intelligence developer sessions

For good measure, here’s the full list of the Shortcuts / App Intents / Apple Intelligence developer sessions:

• 2018
  
  • Intro to Siri Shortcuts
• 2019
  
  • Introducing parameters for Shortcuts
  • Building Great Shortcuts
  • Designing Great Shortcuts
• 2020
  
  • What’s new with SiriKit and Shortcuts
  • Empower your intents
  • Evaluate and Optimize Voice Interactions For Your App
  • Add configuration and intelligence to your widgets
  • Design for Intelligence series
    
    • Apps, evolved
    • Discover new opportunities
    • Meet people where they are
    • Make friends with “The System”
  • Decipher and deal with common Siri errors
  • Create quick interactions with Shortcuts on watchOS
  • Broaden your reach with Siri event suggestions
• 2021
  
  • Meet Shortcuts for macOS
  • Design great actions for Shortcuts, Siri, and Suggestions
  • Donate intents and expand your app’s presence
• 2022
  
  • Dive into App Intents
  • Design App Shortcuts
  • Implement App Shortcuts with App Intents
  • Meet Focus Filters
• 2023
  
  • Spotlight your app with App Shortcuts
  • Explore enhancements to App Intents
  • Design shortcuts for Spotlight
• 2024
  
  • Design App Intents for System Experiences
  • Extend your app’s controls across the system
  • Bring your app to Siri
  • What’s new with App Intents
• 2025
  • Get to Know App Intents
  • Explore new advances in App Intents
  • Develop for Shortcuts and Spotlight with App Intents
  •  Design Interactive Snippets
• Human Interface Guidelines
  
  • • Siri
    • Widgets
    • App Shortcuts
    • Action Button
    • Controls
• Documentation
  
  • App Intents

Check out more Machine Learning and AI videos from the Apple Developer site, read the full App Intents documentation, and learn more about Apple Intelligence.

P.S. You can hire to design your App Intents integration.