Apple Intelligence officially launched three months ago in iOS 18.1, and new features have steadily rolled out ever since. But the next iPhone update, iOS 18.4, is going to be especially big for new Apple Intelligence capabilities. Here are seven features and changes expected to arrive soon.
Onscreen awareness for Siri
One of the special ‘wow’ moments of using a Vision Pro is realizing that visionOS always knows what you’re looking at. As of iOS 18.4, Siri in a sense will gain a similar power on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Onscreen awareness means you’ll be able to make Siri requests that reference things you’re looking at, and the assistant will know how to make sense of your words. So for example, if your sister sends you her new address in an iMessage, you can simply say, “Add this address to her contact,” and Siri will do it with no further clarifying instructions.
Siri’s new app action catalog
Using a system called App Intents, iOS 18.4 will enable Siri to perform hundreds of new app actions—without ever needing to open the apps themselves.
What will be even more impressive is Siri’s ability to perform these actions across different apps. For example, you’ll be able to ask Siri to find a specific photo, apply edits to it, then drop that photo into a specific folder in the Files app—all using just your voice.
Personal context knowledge
Siri will also understand a lot more about you as an individual, tapping into the key knowledge about you that a real-life assistant would know.
For example, you’ll be able to reference a recipe a friend sent you—even though you can’t remember whether it was in an email, text, or note—and Siri will find it for you. Apple’s assistant will also be able to find and share info like your passport number, your calendar history, and more.
Priority notifications
Similar to the existing ‘Priority’ feature in the redesigned Mail app, AI will soon be able to surface the most important notifications right to the top of your notification stack.
Priority notifications use Apple Intelligence’s language understanding to determine what constitutes an especially important alert. This will enable users to do less notification management themselves, while never missing the most important updates.
Sketch style in Image Playground
Apple originally demoed the Image Playground app with three distinct style options for images: Animation, Illustration, and Sketch.
Currently though, the Sketch option is missing as of iOS 18.3. Expect to see it added in iOS 18.4, providing a new way of styling your original AI image creations.
Apple Intelligence in the EU
Apple has said that it’s bringing proper Apple Intelligence support to the EU starting in April with iOS 18.4.
Currently, AI features are only available on the Mac inside the EU, but soon both the iPhone and iPad will benefit from the Apple Intelligence feature suite too.
New AI languages
Finally, Apple also plans to introduce new supported languages for Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.4.
The company hasn’t said exactly which languages are getting priority, but it has confirmed that the following will be supported some time this year: Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, ‘and other languages.’
iOS 18.4 Apple Intelligence wrap-up
After iOS 18.4 arrives, if all of these expected features ship, Apple will have released its full slate of initial Apple Intelligence features. Everything demoed at WWDC last year will be in users’ hands. And not a moment too soon, since iOS 18.4’s April release date won’t be far away from June, and the next big wave of AI in iOS 19.
Which of these Apple Intelligence additions are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments.
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