Back in Jun 2025, at Apple’s WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference), the company announced that it would begin letting app developers use its local AI model through the “Foundation Models framework.” Because the Apple Intelligence model is accessed on-device and offline, developers can use it in their apps “without cloud API costs.” Being on-device, the model’s use is privacy-preserving. The model is built into the operating system so developers can use it without enlarging their app size. After early previews and beta access, the Foundation Models framework earlier this week became generally available worldwide with the release of iOS 26.

App developers can use the Foundation Models framework to add AI-powered generative features to their apps – such as semantic search, personalized suggestions, character dialogue, user guides, quizzes, summaries, classification into tags/topics, chatbot Q&A, interactive learning, itineraries, or other content generation.

Developers are beginning to update their apps with features that use the Foundation Models framework. For instance, journaling apps like Stoic and Automattic’s Day One are generating personalized prompts for journal entries. Fitness apps SmartGym and 7 Minute Workout let users describe the workout they want and generate a structured routine. Hiking app AllTrails is using Apple’s model to recommend hiking routes. Education apps like Lil Artist, CellWalk, Grammo, and Platzi are creating interactive learning experiences, such as customized stories for kids and conversational learning. Personal-finance app MoneyCoach is generating key insights on users’ spend. F1 season tracker Lights Out is summarizing the commentary during races. Background-sound app Dark Noise lets users generate a soundscape using just a few words. Many apps are making tweaks to streamline the user experience with more effective voice-to-action, suggested categories/tags, quick summaries, and Q&A help.

The Apple model’s ready availability for app developers promises to open up a whole universe of AI-powered apps. While Apple’s smaller on-device model (3B parameters vs. hundreds of billions for state-of-the-art models) may not be the most capable, developers using it benefit from its deep integration into Apple’s ecosystem. According to Apple, “The framework has native support for Swift, so developers can easily access the Apple Intelligence model with as few as three lines of code.” Using Apple’s local model is fast, private, and perhaps most importantly, free – a hard-to-beat proposition.

Notably, the Foundation Models framework may not be universally available on every Apple device just yet. According to Apple, it is “available with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26, and works on any Apple Intelligence-compatible device when Apple Intelligence is enabled.”

Apple’s main challenge may be retaining its Foundation Models researchers, in an environment of eye-watering pay and aggressive poaching. In Jul-Aug 2025, its Foundation Models team was reportedly decimated by poaching by Meta (which captured the team’s leader with a package reportedly worth in the tens or even hundreds of millions), OpenAI, xAI and Cohere. The morale of the team may also have been impacted by public perception of Apple Intelligence and Apple’s intent to lean on 3rd-party models more heavily. The loss of a dozen or more staff is a major blow to the relatively small 50-to-100 person team.

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