After upgrading my iPhone to iOS 18.2 with Apple Intelligence, I was eager to say "Hey Siri" and see the new animation that fills the edges of the entire screen with a glowing spectrum of colors, visibly warping objects as if the screen is made of liquid or iridescent fabric.

Instead, I got the same ol' animated sphere at the bottom of the iPhone screen.

Turns out I needed to take one more step before I could try the smarter Siri -- as well as other Apple Intelligence features like the writing tools, notification summaries and the Clean Up feature in Photos.

If you're seeing the same thing, here's why.

The latest system update is for everyone with an iPhone XS or later, but that doesn't mean everyone gets Apple Intelligence. In fact, because much of the AI computation is done on device, only a handful of models can run the new technologies:

Apple Intelligence will also run on Macs and iPads with M-series processors, as well as the latest iPad Mini (which is powered by the A17 Pro chip).

If you have any of those models, you'll see the shimmering new look when you invoke Siri. On the Mac, the Siri search field gets the same effect instead of the entire screen edges. If you have a different model, you'll see the same Siri orb.

Officially, Apple Intelligence is considered a beta feature, even on supported devices. As part of this prerelease program, Apple is granting access to people who request it in waves. (For more, check out why Apple is using this waitlist approach.)

After installing iOS 18.2 (or iPadOS 18.2 or MacOS Sequoia 15.2), you need to go to Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri and tap Join the Apple Intelligence Waitlist > Join Waitlist. The new Siri effect shows up only after you've requested and been granted access.

Reports online and from friends suggest that people are able to start using Apple Intelligence after only a few hours of waiting. That will no doubt fluctuate as Apple balances the demand on its network of Private Cloud Compute infrastructure.