The new iOS 18.4 developer beta was released, and with it came many new features.
Apple’s latest iPhone operating system, iOS 18.4, adds AI capabilities and more news features. Here’s a quick breakdown of what to expect. The developer beta was released last week and will become fully available to the public in April.
More Apple Intelligence options
Apple noted that iOS 18.4 would add numerous languages for Apple Intelligence, “including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) — as well as localized English for Singapore and India.”
What is Apple Intelligence?
With the operating system update, users in the European Union will also get access to Apple Intelligence, which had been delayed as the tech company worked to ensure it complied with local laws.
Priority notifications
Apple promised Apple Intelligence would continue to add capabilities as time passes. With the 18.4 developer beta, Apple finally rolled out priority notifications, as 9to5Mac noted. This is something we expected to get this year, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: AI pushes important notifications to the top and less important stuff to the bottom.
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New iOS 18 features we expect in 2025
News+ Food
iOS 18.4 is a big update for the culinary inclined. It has a new, food-focused news feature. However, you must subscribe to Apple News+.
In a press release, Apple wrote: “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.”
Credit: Apple
Apple News editors will curate the section. If you are curious, an Apple News+ subscription will cost you $12.99 per month.
Ambient music
If you’re a light sleeper or need background noise to get work done, Apple has a new feature for you with iOS 18.4. The ambient music feature can be added to your control center and play sounds for “Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing,” Macrumors noted.
Lots of other minor changes
As the folks at 9to5Mac and Macrumors have noted, there are also several small shifts in design that come with the new beta version of Apple’s new iOS. For instance, CarPlay has, for some folks, begun to show three rows of app icons. There are new widgets in the Podcast app, a list view for photos, and a new icon for clicking on Genmoji.
As with any iOS update, there are small changes in many places — and plenty of time to play around with it before it drops for the public in April.
