Apple has released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 to the public and despite it not including the highly anticipated contextual Siri with on screen awareness, it still arrives with several noteworthy features. In this hands on video, we step through the top 10 iOS 18.4 features and changes that users should be aware of. Be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more iOS-related videos.
New Emoji
iOS 18.4 includes seven new emoji characters as teased by the Unicode Consortium last year. The new emoji, while far from exciting, fill in some gaps in the lineup. The seven new emoji include the following:
- Face with bags under eyes
- Fingerprint
- Leafless tree
- Root vegetable
- Harp
- Shovel
- Splatter
Users will need to be running iOS 18.4 or later in order to see these, so if you’re sending them to a friend who has not yet updated, it’ll appear as a blank space.
Video: Top 10 iOS 18.4 Features
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Ambient Music
Ambient Music is a new feature available within the iOS Control Center that lets users play back one of four ambient music stations on demand. As the name alludes to, these stations, by default, feature instrumental music devoid of lyrics.
The four Ambient Music stations include: Sleep (for restful sleep), Chill (for relaxation), Productivity (for focusing on tasks), and Wellbeing (for meditation and self-care). Each station can be customized with a specific playlist provided by Apple. The corresponding playlists are as follows:
Sleep
Chill
Productivity
Wellbeing
The Ambient Music interface is like a pared down version of the Music app, with the typical transport controls for managing playback. The mini app can be accessed directly from the Control Center shortcuts, or can be assigned to something like the Action button or the Lock Screen shortcut controls.
Ambient Music stations can also be customized with a custom user-playlist from Apple Music, meaning that you can basically customize a station with whatever type of music you prefer.
Prioritize Notifications
Users with Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones will find a new Prioritize Notifications feature in Settings → Notifications. With Prioritize Notifications enabled, notifications deemed important by Apple Intelligence will be showcased in a separate section on the Lock Screen so that that are easily seen. Users can select which apps that want to opt into prioritize notifications via the same settings panel.
Visual Intelligence Shortcuts
A new Visual Intelligence shortcut is available in Control Center in iOS 18.4, and it lets users with Apple Intelligence-capable iPhones access Visual Intelligence in more ways. Visual Intelligence is the feature that lets users gain knowledge about items within the camera view by invoking ChatGPT or Google Image Search to learn about what’s in frame. The feature was also recently updated with the ability to pull from Siri Knowledge for things like plant and animal identification, and adding events from posters to the calendar.
Previously, Visual Intelligence could only be accessed by long-pressing the Camera Control button on iPhone 16 devices, but since the newly launched iPhone 16e (watch my full iPhone 16e review) lacks such a button, Apple made it possible to invoke Visual Intelligence using other methods.
Visual Intelligence can thus now be launched via Control Center, via a Lock Screen shortcut, or by assigning the Control Center shortcut to the Action Button. iPhone 15 Pro users, who’s devices are fully compatible with Apple Intelligence from a specification perspective, have lacked Visual Intelligence up until now due to that device not having a Camera Control button. This iOS 18.4 update now fixes that glaring omission.
Apple News+ food recipes
If you’re an Apple News+ subscriber, you’ll find a new food recipes feature within the News app. This new feature is especially nice on the larger iPad display, and presents ingredients alongside articles, and step-by-step recipes. The recipes even included embedded timers where necessary, making following the recipes even more straightforward.
It’s not too difficult to imagine such a feature being a central part of Apple’s long-rumored HomePad device, as having easy-to-follow recipes on a large screen/speaker device seems like a natural fit for the kitchen counter.
Robot Vacuum support over Matter
If you own a robot vacuum that supports Matter, such as the SwitchBot S10, then you’ll be happy to know that you can now add these directly to the Home app, and start, stop, and schedule vacuuming sessions via Siri.
New macOS Proximity-based setup
iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS, have long enjoyed proximity based setup via a. nearby iPhone or iPad device, but up until now, the Mac has never had such a feature. That all changes with the release of iOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4, because users will finally be able to enjoy proximity based setup from a nearby iPhone or iPad with new Macs. I’ve tested the feature with the M4 Mac mini and it worked just as expected. If you purchased any of the recently-released Mac hardware, like the new M4 MacBook Air, the feature should work for those devices as well.
iPadOS Mail app updates
Up until the iPadOS 18.4 update, the iPadOS Mail app lacked the new categories feature that’s been available on iPhone for months. This changes with iPadOS 18.4, with the Mail app gaining parity, and bringing the Primary, Transactions, Updates, and Promotions categories to the app for easier mail management.
New Photos updates
The Photos app gains several helpful updates courtesy of iOS 18.4. These updates include the ability to sort the items in the utilities and media types sections, the ability to filter on items not in an album and Shared with You, alongside the ability to change the albums section from a list view to a key photo view.
Hide Recent Searches in Safari
Finally, users now have the option to hide recent searches in Safari by going to Settings → Apps → Safari, and disabling the Show Recent Searches Switch.
9to5Mac’s Take
If we’re being honest, iOS 18.4 is a bit of a disappointment due to the delay of the new Siri features that were largely expected to appear in this update. Instead, Apple has indefinitely delayed the new contextual Siri with on screen awareness for later, presumably in a future iOS 19 update. Yet, even with this delay, there are lots of new feature in iOS 18.4 that iPhone and iPad users should find useful, and actual, this is just a small sample of everything new. For a full look at all of the new features, be sure to watch our in-depth roundup of everything new in iOS 18.4.
What do you think about iOS 18.4? Sound off with your thoughts.
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