Apple announced at WWDC that Apple Intelligence is moving from app-specific features to the default interaction layer across all its devices [1]. The change means AI mediates every input — voice, text, camera, touch — rather than functioning as a feature within individual applications.
The demo showed a user pointing a camera at a restaurant bill and having Apple Intelligence split the payment, calculate the tip, and send individual Venmo requests without opening any app [2]. The interaction was seamless because AI operated at the OS level, not within an application boundary.
X users immediately framed the shift as a platform lock-in strategy. "Apple isn't adding AI to apps. It's replacing apps with AI. Every interaction that passes through the layer increases switching costs," one widely shared analysis read [3]. The comparison was drawn to the App Store's original integration — a system-level feature that made leaving the platform structurally expensive.
The Verge and other tech outlets covered the announcements as feature upgrades. The structural framing — AI as the new App Store — received less attention in mainstream coverage.
Apple also announced that developers can build on the interaction layer through a new API, but the API operates within Apple's privacy framework, meaning all inference runs on-device. The constraint limits third-party competition while Apple controls the hardware.
-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco