Here Are All the New Features in iOS 18.4
iOS 18.4 is officially here. Apple dropped the new update, alongside others like macOS 15.4, on Monday, bringing new features and changes to iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Before you get too excited, however, know that iOS is still missing an AI-overhauled Siri with on-screen awareness and the app integrations Apple promised all the way back in June at WWDC. You’ll have to wait until iOS 18.5 (or later) for those features to arrive.
Nevertheless, 18.4 isn’t an empty update. Far from it: Despite a lack of improvements to Siri, there are new Apple Intelligence features here, not to mention increased compatibility for users around the globe. Perhaps most importantly, there are new emojis to try out.
Priority notifications
One of the new highlight features in iOS 18.4 is Priority Notifications. When enabled, your iPhone uses on-device intelligence to figure out which notifications are truly important, and highlights them in a new Priority Notifications box above the rest of your pings.
However, it’s not enabled by default. Go to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications and then enable the feature to start using it.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
You can also now remove apps from Priority Notifications. During beta testing, this was an all-or-nothing affair. If you don’t want messages from an app like Uber Eats to show up in the Priority Notifications section, you can now easily disable them with a toggle from the same menu.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Sketch style in Image Playground
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When you’re creating an image in Image Playground, you’ll see a new style option called Sketch. This style makes it look like your AI-generated image was drawn on paper. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it was also shown off back at WWDC, but Apple only just added it to iOS with this update.
Visual Intelligence comes to the iPhone 15 Pro series
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Apple brought Visual Intelligence, which uses real-time video to get help from Apple’s AI, to the iPhone 16e despite its lack of a Camera Control button. With iOS 18.4, iPhone 15 Pro users will get it, too.
Now, users can map the feature to the Action button, which even works as an alternate way for iPhones with the Camera Control button to launch it.
Apple Intelligence comes to the Control Center
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If you want to use your hardware buttons for something else, but would still like access to Visual Intelligence, you can also add a new Visual Intelligence control to Control Center. In fact, the Siri section of Control Center has been renamed to Apple Intelligence & Siri, and it also has Controls for Talk to Siri and Type to Siri.
All new emojis
Sometimes, it’s the new emojis that get users to upgrade their OS, rather than new features. In iOS 18.4, Apple is introducing seven new emojis. There’s a new face emoji called Face with Bags Under Eyes (my personal new favorite). There’s also a fingerprint emoji, a shovel, a harp, a leafless tree, a splatter emoji, and the flag of Sark. Here’s what they look like.
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New Ambient Music feature in Control Center
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Apple already has a background sounds feature that generates nature sounds for ambient playback. However, in iOS 18.4, you’ll find a new Ambient Music section in Control Center. There are four options: Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. Tap one, and it’ll play a corresponding playlist from Apple Music.
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Apple mapped a playlist to each button by default, but you’re not locked to any of them. If you go into Control Center’s editing view and then tap on a control, you can choose a different playlist (Apple gives you four different options for each control), or you can choose any playlist from your own collection.
New Shortcuts actions
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iOS 18.4 introduces numerous new actions to the Shortcuts app, most of which have to do with changing settings for Apple apps like Safari, Maps, Calendar, Reminder, TV, Books, Notes, Voice Memos, and Weather. This is great for people who really like tinkering with Apple’s default apps, but it also might be laying the groundwork for Apple’s upcoming Siri Intents feature, which will let Siri take control of apps and perform actions on your behalf.
As an example of what you can do for now, though, Safari Shortcuts will now let you toggle pop-up blocking, close tabs, change the search engine, and more.
Apple Intelligence comes to the EU
In addition to becoming available for EU users, Apple Intelligence now supports French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified). Plus, there’s now support for localized English for both India and Singapore.
Recipes come to the News+ app
The News app has a new Apple News Food+ section for paying subscribers. Here, you can access tens of thousands of aesthetically pleasing recipes. There are also stories, restaurant reviews, and more.
What do you think so far?
The new Mail app comes to iPad and Mac
With iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4, the redesigned Mail app is coming to the iPad and the Mac. Once you update, you’ll get access to email categories and other AI features on your tablet and computer.
A much better Genmoji button
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When I wrote about Genmoji, I was tempted to call it a hidden feature, because that’s what it felt like. Genmoji was just a multicolor smiley face tucked in the corner of the Emoji keyboard.
Apple seems to have learned its lesson: With 18.4, the new icon says “Genmoji” right next to a smiley face rainbow icon.
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The Podcasts app now has two new widgets: one for Library, and one for Shows. The Library widget can show you all saved episodes, downloaded episodes, or latest episodes. The Shows widget is for highlighting all episodes from a single show. You can choose a show, and then access all the latest episodes of the show from the Home Screen.
More choices for default apps
Apple’s selection of default apps options is growing. You can now set a different Translate app by default, and if you’re in the EU, there’s now support for choosing a default navigation app, too. (If you’re not in the EU, try using Map Redirect as a workaround.)
CarPlay changes
For some users, it looks as if CarPlay is adding a third row of app icons on the Home screen. Whether you see this seems to depend on which vehicle you have.
A new Apple Vision Pro app
Credit: MacRumors
The iPhone now has a new companion app for the Apple Vision Pro. This app can be used to explore Vision Pro apps and content, and to download them to the headset when it’s not in use.
Photos changes
Apple changed the Photos app with iOS 18, to the dismay of many iPhone users. With iOS 18.4, however, there are a number of small changes that might make using the app a bit easier.
Apple says there are now filters in the Library view to show or hide media that are not placed in an album or synced from your computer. You can reorder photos and videos in the Media Types and Utilities collection, and there should be “consistent” filtering options in all collections, so you can sort by recency. You can sort your albums by Date Modified, and disable the “Recently Viewed” and “Recently Shared” collections in the app’s settings. Finally, hidden photos won’t come along when importing to your computer if you have “Use Face ID” turned on.
Other small changes
Major app updates like iOS 18.4 typically include a number of smaller changes in addition to more notable ones. Here’s what else iOS 18.4 updates on your iPhone:
There are now AI-powered review summaries in the App Store.
Safari now offers suggestions based on your recent searches.
Screen Time limits do not disable if a child uninstalls and reinstalls Screen Time.
You can pause an app download or update on the App Store and resume it at any time.
You can control Matter-compatible robot vacuum cleaners from the Home app.
When you’re setting up a new device with iOS 18.4, you’ll be prompted to select an age range for it. You can choose between Child (12 or younger), Teen (13 to 17), and Adult (18 or older). Apple says that it will use this data only to help set up parental controls.
When you edit your Albums, you’ll see a new List View option, hopefully making it easier to rearrange them.
There’s a new button in the Recently Deleted section of the Photos app to quickly Delete All photos.
While it’s not added yet, based on the code in iOS 18.4, it looks like Apple is planning to add support for NACS (North American Charging System) for the Apple Maps EV route planning feature.
