Ask Trove
Why Trove requires Apple Intelligence
The screen you may see at launch, what each state means, and why the answer is a gate rather than a lesser version.
Trove checks for Apple Intelligence when it launches. On-device AI is the product here rather than a garnish, so a half-working Trove would be worse than an honest explanation.
What you need
iPhone 15 Pro or later, or an iPad with M1 or later, running iOS 26 or later, with Apple Intelligence turned on in Settings and the on-device model finished downloading.
What you might see
- Hardware that cannot run Apple Intelligence: a full-screen explanation instead of the app. This one is an honest dead end.
- Apple Intelligence turned off: a screen with a direct path into iOS Settings, which clears itself when you come back.
- The model still downloading: an explanation that resolves on its own the next time you open Trove.
Why not a lesser version instead
Vision still does the looking. OCR, barcode reading, and receipt structure are separate frameworks, and questions about totals are answered by deterministic arithmetic rather than by a model adding numbers in its head. The reasoning layer on top is the part that needs Apple Intelligence.
Email support@obsidianridgelabs.com, a real person will reply.