iOS 18.4 lands with more Apple Intelligence, Apple Vision Pro app
Apple has finalized and released its update for iOS 18.4, adding more Apple Intelligence changes alongside a new Apple Vision Pro app, CarPlay, Shortcuts tweaks, and a bunch of new emoji.
An iPhone running iOS 18
Following a beta testing cycle involving four developer betas and two release candidates, iOS 18.4 is now ready to be used by the general public. The build number, 22E240, is identical to the RC2's build, indicating they are the same content-wise.
As usual, the iPhone operating system benefits from many changes in its updates, with Apple Intelligence continuing to feature prominently.
Apple Intelligence
Arriving since the first beta build, Apple Intelligence was expected to get some considerable updates to Siri, though that seems to have been put off to a future release.
What arrived in iOS 18.4 is an expansion of its availability and localization support. This includes support for localized English in India and Singapore, as well as eight additional languages: Chinese (simplified), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish.
Along with the expanded usability, there were some important image-based updates. The lesser of them was the introduction of a new Sketch style to Image Playground, giving users more imaging options.
More important is Visual Intelligence's expansion to more devices from the original iPhone 16 range release. Under iOS 18.4, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max users can set up the Action button to activate Visual Intelligence.
Visual Intelligence, Prioritize Notifications, and Control Center in iOS 18.4
Priority Notifications shifts important notifications to the iOS Lock Screen, with selections chosen by Apple Intelligence. This was tweaked in beta testing to enable users to change what app notifications get displayed.
Furthering user management of Apple Intelligence features, a dedicated Control Center section will display controls for features like Type to Siri, Talk to Siri, and Visual Intelligence.
Other smaller Apple Intelligence changes include AI summaries of App Store reviews, a faster animation for Type to Siri, and a prompt reminding users to use Genmoji.
Apple Vision Pro app
The Apple Vision Pro gains a new iOS app in this update, helping users get along with the headset from the start of ownership. The app provides instructions for using the device and offers essential information, such as its serial number.
The app also makes it easier to share the Apple Vision Pro experience, with it able to enable a Guest Mode for the headset. This eliminates most of the setup process for using the headset for guests, speeding up the time it takes to try it out.
Apple Vision Pro app in iOS 18.4
Users can also use the app to find new content, with the "Discover" section showcasing different apps, immersive videos, and games for the Apple Vision Pro. Spatial Gallery content is also viewable, allowing users to see spatial videos and photos in one convenient location.
CarPlay
Apple's in-car infotainment software, CarPlay, also gained a few changes in the betas. For a start, Apple added the option to display a third row of icons in the interface, but only on large screens.
A more important change spotted in the betas was one aimed at electric vehicles. As part of its EV Routing feature, the system will support North American Charging Standard (NACS) stations, which will let users more easily find compatible chargers on a route.
CarPlay also gains a Sports entitlement.
Shortcuts
There are many new additions to the Shortcuts app, which provides more ways to automate a user's apps and life.
The new shortcut commands include:
- Allow AV Adapter
- Set Audio Language
- Continue Watching Display
- Default Languages for Subtitles
- Download Cellular Quality
- Downloads Wireless Quality
- Purchase and Rental Quality
- Show Sports Scores
- Streaming Cellular Quality
- Streaming Wireless Quality
- Use Cellular Data for Streaming
- Use Cellular Data for Downloads
- Use Play History
Other iOS 18.4 changes
There were a lot of other changes affecting individual apps and services in iOS in the betas too.
Apple News+ gains a new feed for recipes, restaurant reviews, and kitchen tips. This does require an Apple News+ subscription for access.
The Wallet app changed its listing for Subscriptions and Payments to say Preauthorized Payments. Wallet users can also use Face ID to authenticate when viewing their savings account.
Messages gains a total of seven new emoji, as well as RCS updates for multiple carriers in the U.S. and France.
Aside from the Apple Intelligence additions, Control Center also has changes to the volume and brightness toggles. Focus Control gains up and down arrows in Control Center, and the cellular bars there also now reflect the actual carrier signal strength.
HomeKit users will soon have to update their Home architecture to continue getting HomeKit updates. Robot vacuums can be used with a service area cluster, and there's now support for Matter-enabled smoke detectors.
Find My has been enabled in South Korea for the first time.
Safari now shows recent searches to users when they open a new tab, so they could get back to what they previously researched quickly. Users can also disable their appearance in the tab to maintain privacy.
Also, Safari's preview for App Store links now show the whole app.
Meanwhile, the App Store has new options to pause updates and app installs.
How to install iOS 18.4
To install iOS 18.4 on an iPhone manually, open the Settings app, select General, then Software Update. With beta updates turned off, the final release version will appear unless it has already been installed.
Not everyone needs to do this manually. It's only if a user has set their iPhone not to automatically update.
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Comments
I’ll do it because there are likely some security updates, but I wish it were possible to not have all the AI stuff that, for me, just creates bloat.
On an iPhone 16 that was factory reset, there was 232.74 GB free space available on iOS 18.3.2 (Apple Intelligence off, iCloud off).
I installed iOS 18.4, ensured that both Apple Intelligence was off (the iOS 18.4 upgrade did *NOT* enable Apple Intelligence) and iCloud remained unconfigured, and shut down the phone. I rebooted and the iPhone 16 had 232.18 GB free space left.
So we're really talking about a 560 MB delta between 18.3.2 and 18.4. If you already have iOS 18.3.x on your phone, you might as well upgrade to 18.4 regardless of whether or not you use Apple Intelligence features.
App would have been really useful 6 months ago. Releasing it now? It's not unwelcome, though it's a bit of an odd timeframe.
But please, shower me with some more of your dullard sarcasm that makes you feel big and clever.
Turning ‘AI’ off has made using my phone less cluttered and much smoother. Like others here I’ll only be installing the update for the security stuff. I’m not holding my breath on CarPlay improvements in my three-year old KIA, though.
Automatic updates are on by default. If I have turned them off, I did so explicitly. To think that overriding my choice is a good idea is ... it's very Microsoft, basically.
I have AI enabled and have not had any problems with it. I do not use my phone a lot, so maybe I am not accessing stuff where the AI gets intrusive or irritating.
What little I have use, like the Writing Tools and Notification Summaries, work well for me. The Images Playground is okay. Some caricatures are spot on, while some look nothing like the people I base it off.
It is nice that I can use ChatGPT without creating an account for it. I trust Apple to maintain my privacy even when they open up Apple Intelligence to the other AI assistants.
For me, AI is not the bane that is killing my iPhone.
It is high time for TC to take his box of memorabilia and head home. He has completely lost the plot.
Had to unplug/replug the speakers reboot my iPhone and mess with settings.
One pair of speakers would fade in and out for about 1/2 until they finally settled in.
Shut off Apple Intelligence. I never used it, so why bother?