iOS 26 Hides an AI Super-Plug: What Apple’s Quiet MCP Roll-Out Means for Builders

Apple just slipped Model Context Protocol (MCP) support into the App Intents framework in iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1 and macOS Tahoe 26.1 dev beta. Translation: ChatGPT, Claude or any MCP-ready model can soon drive your Mac, iPhone and iPad apps—no Shortcuts, no hand-coded REST, no user taps. 1. MCP in One Breath Term Plain-English Analogy Why It Matters Model Context Protocol (MCP) “HTTP for AI tools” One open wire format so every LLM can call any exposed function App Intents iOS’ native “capability outlet” Declare what your app can do; Siri, Spotlight, Shortcuts—and now MCP—can invoke it Apple Intelligence + …