You Should Watch The Apple Intelligence Developer Sessions In This Order

If you want to build for Apple Intelligence but don't know where to start, here's a suggested viewing order for the developer sessions.

(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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

All the Apple Intelligence developer sessions

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

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.

 

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