- Apple has released another publishing candidate for iOS 18.4
- The latest rumors suggest that the update could be released on April 1
- Official release notes List of upgrades of Apple Intelligence and other new features
Apple has released the second publishing candidate for iOS 18.4, and although we still do not have a release date for iOS 18.4 correctly, it seems that the next mid-year iOS update is just around the corner.
In fact, we expect iOS 18.4 to land as soon as this week (macumors predict April 1) and this prior release version of the update gives us an official idea of what to expect.
It seems that iOS 18.4 is a pretty significant update after the mid-year standards-Apple Intelligence continues its shaking rollout, the photos app will get some new features, Apple News+ gets some tasty new recipes, and surrounding music enjoyers are in a surprise.
As for compatibility, all iPhone models that currently support iOS 18.3-It will be iPhone XS for the current generation of the iPhone 16-Setup-Næsten certainly support iOS 18.4.
New Apple Intelligence -Features
iOS 18.4 sees Apple continue the roll -out of Apple Intelligence for Compatible Devices, with a handful of features first announced in 2024, finally going to users.
The large ticket article this time is priority messages that use AI to identify important messages and pin them to your lock screen.
Image Playground also gets a dilapidated feature in the form of sketch style, which allows users to create images inspired by hand-drawn sketches using AI.
Another minor addition is review reviews in the App Store; These are AI-generated overviews of user-generated app messages.
Apple Intelligence also receives support for eight new languages: Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), French (France, Canada), Italian, Japanese, Korean and German, as well as two local dialects of English, to Singapore and India.
Siri lacks conspicuous from these release notes: We had initially hoped to see Siri get its long-awaited Apple Intelligence update with iOS 18.4, but it seems we are waiting even further for this (hopefully) game upgrade.
It now seems more likely that Siri will get his AI upgrade with iOS 19, which is likely to release in September along with the rumor iPhone 17 setup.
Photos app updates
iOS 18.4 brings a selection of new features to the photos app, making it easier to organize and rearrange your photos and videos.
All collections are given a selection of filtration options, such as including or excluding photos from a particular album or sorting by either the oldest or latest photos first.
Users also get the ability to sort their media by date modified, rather than created date, which is useful for keeping recently cropped or edited photos together.
It is now also possible to disable the automatically created recently shared and recently seen albums, and hidden photos will no longer be imported to Mac or PC if the user has activated the use of Face ID security.
Apple News+ gets recipes
With iOS 18.4, Apple News+ gets a new food section full of stories of healthy eating, restaurants and recipes.
It’s a pretty significant addition to the already quite comprehensive Apple News+ service and gives users lots of new articles to dig in.
The recipe catalog allows users to save recipes for later, and a follow -up cooking state makes it translate them into practice a piece of cake.
Remember, this is a new feature for Apple News+ Service that costs $ 12.99 / £ 12.99 / AU $ 19.99 per Month and not for the free Apple News app.
Vision Pro Get its own iPhone -App
iOS 18.4 adds the Vision Pro app to iPhone, allowing Vision Pro users to control for new spatial content and get quick information about their headset.
By the sound of things, the app is automatically installed to those with a Vision Pro Headset registered in their Apple account.
Surrounding music from the control center
This is weird. Apple adds a dedicated ambient music feature to iPhone with iOS 18.4 – but it’s not its own app or even part of the Apple Music app.
Instead, users need to add the surrounding music control to their control center in a similar way as the way Shazam is currently implementing.
Users then get access to four playlists of surrounding music, entitled Sleep, Chill, Productivity and Wellbeing.
For those who have not encountered surrounding music before, it is a form of relaxed, slow music that aims to be comfortable to listen to without focus – typically we speak wooden minds, strings, synthesizers and a lack of percussion.
The release notes do not suggest that users need an Apple Music subscription to use the new surrounding music feature.
Other new features
In addition to the new features listed above, iOS 18.4 also comes with a handful of minor updates and bug fixes.
For example, screen time limits now remain in place when an app is uninstalled and reinstalled, and it is easier to add child -proof settings under Device Setup. Safari also gets recent search suggestions.
In addition, 10 new system languages have been added to iOS: Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
Full release notes can be found on Apple’s developer blog. Be sure to tell us what you are looking forward to most in the comments below.
