Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

[MacRumors]

In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April.

From the Apple News+ Food announcement:

Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the world's top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats.

The first beta of iOS 18.4 is already available for developers and public beta testers.

The first iOS 18.4 beta does not include any of the new Apple Intelligence features for Siri that were originally expected, such as personal context and on-screen awareness, but the update still has a handful of other new features and changes.

Below, we highlight some of iOS 18.4's key new features.

Available Now

Priority Notifications

iOS 18.4 introduces a promised Apple Intelligence feature that can automatically identify and surface your most important notifications on the Lock Screen.

The option can be turned on in the Settings app under Notifications → Prioritize Notifications.

Apple Intelligence requires an iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, or any iPhone 16 model.

Apple News+ Food

iOS 18.4 adds a new Food section to the Apple News app on the iPhone. This section will provide Apple News+ subscribers with tens of thousands of recipes and other food-related content from well-known food-related publishers, at no extra cost.

Here is how Apple describes the new Food section:

With the new Food feature, users will be able to find stories curated by Apple News editors, as well as browse, search, and filter tens of thousands of recipes in the Recipe Catalog — with new recipes added every day. The beautifully designed recipe format makes it easy to review ingredients and directions, and a new cook mode takes step-by-step instructions to the full screen. Users can also save their favorite recipes for later and access them offline.

Apple News+ is available in the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The service provides digital access to hundreds of major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, PEOPLE, The Athletic, Rolling Stone, and others. In the U.S., Apple News+ costs $12.99 per month, and it is also included in the Apple One Premier bundle alongside other Apple services for $37.95 per month.

Ambient Music

iOS 18.4 adds a new Ambient Music feature to the Control Center on the iPhone.

This feature allows you to quickly listen to a collection of songs from four different categories, including Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.

More

• iOS 18.4 makes Apple Intelligence available in more languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Simplified), English (Singapore), and English (India).
• There is a new "Sketch" drawing style for the Image Playground feature, alongside existing "Animation" and "Illustration" styles. This feature, powered by Apple Intelligence, lets you generate images based on text descriptions.
• In some vehicles equipped with very large dashboard displays, CarPlay is showing an extra row of app icons on a single page.
• iOS 18.4 lets you set a default maps app, such as Google Maps, in the EU. You can also set a default translation app worldwide.

Read our iOS 18.4 features guide for even more.

Coming Later

Vision Pro App

It is not in the first beta, but iOS 18.4 will add a new Apple Vision Pro app to the iPhone.

The app will offer Vision Pro users a new way to download apps and games from the App Store, discover Apple TV content, learn helpful Vision Pro tips, quickly access information about their own Vision Pro, and more.

The app will appear for Vision Pro users when they update their iPhone to the iOS 18.4 release, and it will also be available in the App Store.

New Emoji

iOS 18.4 will include new emoji, according to code seen by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris.

iOS 15.4, iOS 16.4, and iOS 17.4 all introduced new emoji, so there was a good chance that trend would continue with iOS 18.4.

Last year, the Unicode Consortium previewed the new emoji that should be coming with iOS 18.4, with new options including face with bags under eyes, fingerprint, leafless tree, root vegetable, harp, shovel, splatter, and more.

Article Link: Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

 

[iMattPro]

So wait a couple months just for a food section in the news app for subscribers only.

All we want is Context aware Siri, which I'm sure will still turn out to be just as disappointing as all the rest of Apple Intelligence.

 

[novagamer]

There needs to be an option within Apple News+ to shut off all the actual news because the rest of the offering is nice, but I don't want to be bombarded by useless noise.

Recipes and Magazines are both a good value-add, I hate the rest of it to the point I delete the app from all my devices and avoid Apple One altogether.

 

[sw1tcher]

The first iOS 18.4 beta does not include any of the new Apple Intelligence features for Siri that were originally expected....

If we ever get it, it won't be until an iOS 19 release towards the end of the year.

iOS 18.4 will include new emoji, according to code seen by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris.

iOS 15.4, iOS 16.4, and iOS 17.4 all introduced new emoji, so there was a good chance that trend would continue with iOS 18.4.

Emojis!!!

 

[Lioness~]

Haha, I get the story those emoji’s combined.

 

[Biro]

Nothing to see here. Move along…

 

[Aeronauts]

The News+ Food feature would be useful if you could select a recipe and automatically add the ingredients needed into a new Reminders list for shopping or add them to your favourite supermarket basket for home delivery.

 

[CarpalMac]

And of course, Apple's Intelligence feature will be magically re-enabled, no doubt.

 

[Smittywerben]

Instead of Pink vomit emoji, maybe fix your trash AI?

 

[jclardy]

iOS 19 is going to be hot on the heels of advanced Siri at this point.

 

[Crzyrio]

Where are my robot controls

 

[socialwill]

Whelp, I guess the Siri update is proving to be a harder update than planned. So maybe it will be 18.5, just before WWDC 25?

I am guessing Apple will be more muted this year with AI stuff as they continue to build and grow.

 

[nutmac]

I am hoping Visual Intelligence will be added to iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max via Action button and Control Center as Apple promised.

 

[macfacts]

>> iOS 18.4 introduces a promised Apple Intelligence feature that can automatically identify and surface your most important notifications on the Lock Screen.

That's like claiming Siri can identify your favorite color, wouldn't important notification be a personal thing?

 

[rungxanh2901]

In other words, another 2 months from now

 

[Jarman74]

All we want is Context aware Siri, which I'm sure will still turn out to be just as disappointing as all the rest of Apple Intelligence.

At this point, I would be more comfortable with a release of the revamped Siri on iOS 19 six months from now. I mean, is Siri going to be fully baked in a couple of months? No chance. So, make it a standout feature of the new OS in the fall—assuming it is not beyond repair.

 

[nt5672]

I can't believe Apple is this messed up. I can hear Cook now, "Just give me anything that I can call AI, anything even if it is burp noises, cow farts, etc."

 

[gank41]

Really looking forward to the Mail App having the option to return you to the Inbox instead of dumping you into the next email. Been wanting this forever.

 

[I7guy]

>> iOS 18.4 introduces a promised Apple Intelligence feature that can automatically identify and surface your most important notifications on the Lock Screen.

That's like claiming Siri can identify your favorite color, wouldn't important notification be a personal thing?

That’s the point of ml and ai is being able to predict future patterns from past patterns.

 

[ZipZilla]

Will Siri ever be as good as as the 9-year-old Google Assistant?

 

[Spock]

By the time we get all the promised features of iOS 18, it will be time for iOS 19.

 

[HiFifreak]

Didnt your favorite Mark Gurman said last week it was coming this week??
This guy cant even predict his own birthday so WHY does MR give him such a big role??
What has he got on you? 😂

 

[ipedro]

Look, I’d rather Apple get this right than quickly, but let’s be honest: New Siri with context awareness, semantic index, and agent capabilities is an iOS 19 feature. By the time this comes out, it’ll be WWDC 2025.

 

[I7guy]

So wait a couple months just for a food section in the news app for subscribers only.

All we want is Context aware Siri, which I'm sure will still turn out to be just as disappointing as all the rest of Apple Intelligence.

Please don’t include me in your we. I am not disappointed in Apple intelligence. I like the direction and expect it to get better, as Apple features usually do, as time goes on.

 

[Nugget]

That's like claiming Siri can identify your favorite color, wouldn't important notification be a personal thing?

Not as far-fetched an idea as you're imagining. Siri could easily figure out my wife's favorite color just from a casual inspection of my photos library. Everything she owns is purple.