The new iOS 18.4 beta is still missing an AI-overhauled Siri, on-screen awareness, and the app integrations feature we were promised all the way back in June at WWDC. If you’re waiting for those features, try your luck with iOS 18.5.
However, 18.4 isn’t an empty update. The first beta introduces Priority Notifications, and Apple Intelligence now supports more languages—which is great news for Apple users across the globe. In addition, Apple Intelligence is now accessible in the European Union for the first time. Here’s everything that’s new with iOS 18.4.
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 at the top.
However, in this beta, it’s not enabled by default. Go to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications and then enable the feature.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Sketch style in Image Playground
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
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 sketched on a paper. If that sounds familiar, that’s because we also saw this back at WWDC, but Apple only just added it to iOS with this update.
New Ambient Music feature in Control Center
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
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.
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
Apple has mapped a playlist to each button by default, but you’re not locked to any. If you go into the 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.
Apple Intelligence comes to the EU
Apple Intelligence now supports French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified), plus there’s now support for localized English language in 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
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
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 “Gemoji” right next to the smiley face rainbow icon.
New Podcasts widgets
Credit: Khamosh Pathak
The Podcasts app has two new widgets: one for Library, and 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 from 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.
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. 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.
There are two new Shortcuts actions for the Messages app: Open Conversation, and Send Message.
When you go to edit your Albums, you’ll see a new List View option, hopefully making it easier to rearrange albums.
