Apple has launched iOS 18.4, bringing another batch of new features, refinements, and security updates. While it may not be a revolutionary update, there’s still plenty worth exploring. Let’s take a look.
Apple Intelligence
iOS 18.4 reintroduces Priority Notifications, which highlights critical alerts at the top of your notification list, making it easier to spot urgent messages and events.
You’ll also find a new “sketch” rendering style in Apple’s generative AI app Image Playground.
Photos
The Photos app has been enhanced with new filtering and sorting capabilities. A common pet peeve has been fixed in that you can now sort your library by date modified rather than date created – no more downloading an image from the internet and wondering why it’s filed under 2015 instead of 2025.
You can also exclude hidden photos from imports if Face ID is enabled, reorder media collections, and disable the Recently Viewed or Recently Shared sections entirely.
Apple News+
The News app now features a Recipe Catalog and a Cooking mode for step-by-step cooking instructions, alongside expanded food-related stories covering restaurants, kitchen tips, and healthy eating.
The downside? That stuff is only for paying News+ subscribers.
There’s more…
Safari now suggests recent searches for faster browsing, and the App Store has added AI summaries for user reviews and the ability to pause and resume app downloads or updates without losing progress.
There are new widgets for Podcasts, system-level ambient music controls in Control Center – we’ll explore that in a guide next week – and support for Matter-compatible robot vacuums in the Home app. There’s also support for 10 additional languages and several new emojis including a fingerprint and a face with bags under eyes.
Finally, there’s a new Vision Pro app for the iPhone, and some navigation changes to CarPlay.
No Siri update
It’s hardly a big surprise, but this marks another iOS update without the Siri improvements Apple touted last June. Chances are we won’t see them until iOS 19 now, but it’s still disappointing when Siri remains so incapable.
How to update to iOS 18.4
Even if Automatic Updates is enabled, it’s usually quicker to manually update. Simply head to Settings > General > Software Update to ensure you’re running the latest version.