Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More

Apple today released iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3.


The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Apple has also released iOS and iPadOS 16.7.11 and iOS and iPadOS 15.8.4 for devices that aren't able to run ‌iOS 18‌.

iOS 18.4 adds Priority notifications for Apple Intelligence-capable devices, showing you your most notification first. There's a dedicated Apple Vision Pro app for Vision Pro owners, and a new Apple News Food feature for ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers.

Apple Intelligence (All iPhone 16 models, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max)
- Priority notifications appear at the top of your notifications, highlighting important notifications that may require your immediate attention
- Sketch is now available as an additional style option in Image Playground, allowing you to create gorgeous sketch drawings
- Apple Intelligence features support 8 additional languages and 2 additional English locales, including English (India, Singapore), French (France, Canada), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Japanese (Japan), Korean (South Korea), Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, and Spanish (Spain, Latin America, US)

Apple Vision Pro App
- The new Apple Vision Pro app, automatically installed for users with Apple Vision Pro, helps you discover new content, spatial experiences, and quickly access information about your device

Apple News+
- Recipes from some of the world's best recipe publishers are now available on Apple News+
- Recipe Catalog allows you to browse or search to find the perfect dish and save it to your Saved Recipes
- Cooking mode lets you easily follow step-by-step directions
- The Food section also includes stories about restaurants, kitchen tips, healthy eating, and more

Photos
- New filters to show or hide items that are not contained in an album, or synced from a Mac or PC, in the Library view in Photos
- Reorder items in the Media Types and Utilities collections in Photos
- Consistent filtering options in all collections, including the ability to sort by oldest or newest first in Photos
- Option to sort albums by Date Modified in Photos
- Ability to disable "Recently Viewed" and "Recently Shared" collections in Photos Settings
- Hidden photos are no longer included for import to Mac or a PC if Use Face ID is enabled in Photos settings

This update also includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:
- Safari recent search suggestions help you quickly get back to previous search topics when starting a new query
- Setup Assistant streamlines steps parents need to take to create a Child Account for a kid in their family, and enables child-appropriate default settings if parents prefer to complete setting up a Child Account later
- Screen Time App Limits persist even after a child uninstalls and reinstalls an app
- App Store includes summaries for user reviews so you can get helpful insights from other users at a glance
- Pause and resume of an app download or update on App Store without losing progress
- New widgets for Podcasts including a Followed Shows widget to track your favorite shows and a Library widget to get to your most used sections, such as Latest Episodes, Saved, and Downloaded
- Ambient Music offers the ability to instantly play music from Control Center, giving access to a set of hand-curated playlists that offer soundtracks for daily life
- Apple Fitness+ Collections can now be added to Library
- Matter-compatible robot vacuum cleaners can be controlled in the Home app as well as be added to scenes and automations
- Support for 10 new system languages including Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu

Some features may not be available for all regions or on all Apple devices. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit:
https://support.apple.com/100100

Apple will soon begin work on iOS 19, with the update set to be introduced at WWDC in June. Before that time, we may also get an iOS 18.5 update with additional features and performance improvements.

Related Roundups: iOS 18, iPadOS 18
Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

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Top Rated Comments

antiprotest Avatar
4 weeks ago
Don't brick me bro.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
4 weeks ago
Will have to update later. Hoping this fixes the no incoming Mail notifications and reduced cell signal strength bugs. ?


Updated: Apple fixed the incoming Mail app notifications bug. Not sure about cell signal/reception strength bug. Will need to spend more time using it to know for sure.

Annoyed to see that Apple turned on automatic iOS update download and install when they wwere turned off. I wonder what other settings changes Apple made (Apple Intelligence?) without our permission. Really not looking forward to having to go through all settings to make sure nothing else got changed. Arrgh!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
N0ughtsAndCr0sses Avatar
4 weeks ago

Bluetooth fixed yet? We need a lawsuit for this one.
Never had a problem mate

Looks like you’ll lose if you sue so stay put! ??
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
podycust Avatar
4 weeks ago

22E240
So the same as RC2
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
St. Germain Avatar
4 weeks ago

Updating turns on automatic updates/download. Also not seeing ambient music options in control center add list
The ambient music controls don't show up in Control Center by default. You need to long press on Control Center, then use "Add a Control" at the bottom. The ambient music choices will show up there so that you can add them to your CC.



Attachment Image
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jashar7 Avatar
4 weeks ago

('https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/31/apple-releases-ios-18-4/')

Apple today released ('https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/03/apple-intelligence-features-expand-to-new-languages-and-regions-today/') iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4, the fourth major updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating system updates that came out last year. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 come two months after Apple released iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3 ('https://www.macrumors.com/2025/01/27/apple-releases-ios-18-3/').



The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.

iOS 18.4 adds Priority notifications for Apple Intelligence-capable devices, showing you your most notification first. There's a dedicated Apple Vision Pro app for Vision Pro owners, and a new Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers.

Apple will soon begin work on iOS 19, with the update set to be introduced at WWDC in June. Before that time, we may also get an iOS 18.5 update with additional features and performance improvements.

Article Link: Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More ('https://www.macrumors.com/2025/03/31/apple-releases-ios-18-4/')
I’ll sit back and wait what’s going on, ain’t updating first.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)