Here Are All the New Features in iOS 18.4

The new iOS 18.4 beta 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. If you’re waiting on that, try your luck with iOS 18.5. Nevertheless, 18.4 isn’t an empty update. The patch is set to introduce Priority Notifications, and Apple Intelligence will now support more languages—which is great news for Apple users across the globe. In addition, iOS 18.4 will make Apple Intelligence accessible in the European Union for the first time. Here’s everything new with the next iOS update.

Priority notifications

One of the new highlight features in iOS 18.4 is Priority Notifications. When enabled, your iPhone will use on-device intelligence to figure out which notifications are truly important, and will highlight them in a new Priority Notifications box above the rest of your pings.

However, in this beta, it’s not enabled by default. Go to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications and then enable the feature to start using it.

Starting with iOS 18.4 Beta 2, you can also now remove apps from Priority Notifications—it used to be 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 the Visual Intelligence feature, which allows you to use real-time video to get help from Apple’s AI, to the iPhone 16e despite its lack of a Camera Control button, and now with the iOS 18.4 update, 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 phones with a Camera Control 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 the 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 iOS, rather than new features. In iOS 18.4 Apple is bringing out seven new distinct emojis. There’s a new face emoji called Face with Bags Under Eyes (my personal new favorite), and there’s also a fingerprint emoji. You also have a shovel, a harp, a leafless tree (aww), 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 has 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 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.

The new Mail app comes to iPad and Mac

With iPadOS 18.4 beta and macOS 15.4 beta, 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 like CarPlay is adding a third row of app icons on the Home screen. It seems like whether you see this depends on which vehicle you have.

A new Apple Vision Pro app

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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.

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:

• 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.