If there’s a marquee characteristic for iOS 18.4, it’s the growth of Apple Intelligence into the EU, together with Imaginative and prescient Professional compatibility and new language assist for French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese language. That’s tens of thousands and thousands of iPhone 16 homeowners who can lastly use the characteristic Apple says the brand new iPhones have been “constructed for.” (Nonetheless, we must always level out that this launch doesn’t allow Cellphone Mirroring on Macs within the EU as a consequence of points over Digital Markets Act compliance.)
For everybody else, there isn’t one standout characteristic. Somewhat, iOS 18.4 brings a number of little tweaks, enhancements, and modifications. Possibly one will stand out for you because the factor you’ve been ready for, or possibly the sum of them taken collectively simply makes your iPhone somewhat extra nice to make use of. Right here’s a by-no-means-complete checklist of the little issues you could come to understand about this replace.
iOS 18.4: 15 minor enhancements that make a serious affect
Visible Intelligence will be triggered within the Management Heart or the Motion Button. This makes it out there on the iPhone 15 Professional, and it means you possibly can add the management to your lock display.
In case you’ve received AirPods Max, you’re getting an improve (with a firmware replace as properly, in all probability) to permit audio over USB-C, which is able to embrace 24-bit, 48 kHz lossless audio and ultra-low-latency audio.
In case you’re a CarPlay consumer, you’ll respect the brand new third row of app icons on the house display (in case your show dimension is massive sufficient) and a brand new API for sporting occasions will enable for customized experiences throughout reside sporting broadcasts.
Talking of driving, Apple Maps will now embrace the placement of NACS chargers (that’s the so-called “Tesla connector” showing on many new EVs).
Received a Imaginative and prescient Professional? Together with assist for Apple Intelligence on the headset, there’s a brand new Imaginative and prescient Professional iPhone app that allows you to uncover spatial experiences, obtain apps and video games, and get ideas.
In case you’re a fan of constructing Shortcuts, you’ll love that there at the moment are a number of Shortcut choices to vary app settings. So you may make apps behave in a different way primarily based on location or time of day or no matter, in the event you’re good at making Shortcuts.
You’ll discover that Safari now exhibits latest searches when you choose the search/tackle bar, making it simple to repeat that search you simply did earlier immediately. You may clear this at will, or forestall it from displaying in any respect by going to Settings > Safari > Present latest searches.
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There are a number of tweaks to Management Heart. Buttons which have extra choices when you choose them present chevrons, the mobile knowledge toggle exhibits actual sign energy, and so forth.
There are new controls, too, together with 4 choices for Ambient Music: Sleep, Chill, Productiveness, and Wellbeing. Every one has a number of playlist choices or you possibly can choose one among your playlists. As a result of they’re Management Heart controls, you possibly can add them to the lock display or set off them with the Motion Button, too.
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There’s an all-new Apple Intelligence characteristic: Prioritize Notifications. Go to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications to allow or disable it, and you’ll choose which apps it really works with. When enabled, AI will attempt to decide if a notification is very necessary and present it to you in a separate group on prime of all of your different notifications.
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Tweaks to the Photographs app embrace a brand new “Key Photograph” view mode on your Albums, two new filters for viewing your Photographs library (Shared With You and Not in an Album), and the power to edit the order of the Media Sorts checklist. Lastly, I can choose Screenshots with out swiping three pages over!
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Picture Playground continues to be a reasonably dangerous expertise, however a minimum of it now has the Sketch model that was demonstrated again at WWDC. For sure sorts of drawings, it’s your best option.
All of us love emojis, and there are seven new ones in iOS 18.4: Face with luggage beneath eyes, Fingerprint, Harp, Leafless tree, Root vegetable, Shovel, and Splatter.
In case you’re an Apple Information+ subscriber you’ll wish to try the new Meals part, which does a superb job presenting recipes from in style meals publications. Look beneath the Following tab to seek out the Meals part. Observe that that is not but out there within the Apple Information app on Macs.
You understand how one can arrange a brand new iPhone or iPad by bringing one other iPhone or iPad close to it? Properly, now that works for organising a brand new Mac, too! You’ll have to replace the Mac to macOS 15.4 or later, in fact.
iOS 18.4: Learn how to replace
To replace your iPhone to iOS 18.4, head over to the Settings app, then faucet Basic, Sofware Replace, and comply with the prompts.