Apple rolled out the first developer beta of iOS 18.4 this week, bringing with it plenty of design overhauls and tweaks. While the first beta isn’t quite the big Apple Intelligence upgrade it was tipped to be, there are still some handy new features we’re excited to see. Granted, it’s likely not enough to convert someone to make the switch, but if you already have one of the best iPhones, we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by iOS 18.4’s improvements to the overall iOS 18 experience.
So let’s dive on into everything added with iOS 18.4 beta one, including Priority Notifications, a new section of Apple News to get you cooking, and more.
What’s new in iOS 18.4 beta 1?
Priority Notifications is the big tentpole new feature coming with the first iOS 18.4 beta. Initially announced last year among a slew of planned Apple Intelligence-powered updates, it uses AI to identify more urgent alerts and push them to the top of your notification stack. Priority Notifications is disabled by default, but you can turn it on by going to Settings > Notifications > Prioritize Notifications.
The Genmoji icon for the Emoji keyboard has been updated. Gone is the multi-colored smiley face, replaced with the the more straightforward label “Genmoji” to make it obvious where users can go to play around with Apple’s customized emoji feature. The design tweaks don’t stop there: Apple has updated the Control Center with a new picker for switching Focus modes and a new animation for adjusting volume. The Cellular toggle also shows your cellular signal strength represented in bars now.
One nice improvement Apple is releasing comes to Image Playground, which will get a new Sketch style alongside its existing Animation and Illustration styles. Introduced with iOS 18.2, Image Playground is Apple’s answer to compete with the best AI image generators. The Sketch style makes your images look…well, sketched, like a talented artist just re-created your shot on a canvas. You’ll also find a new interface for editing your Albums list in the Photos app.
My fellow foodies out there will be happy to know the iOS 18.4 beta adds a new Apple News Plus Food section that brings “tens of thousands of recipes” to the service, a selection of which will be available to non-subscribers as well. It will also include “stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more” from leading food publishers like Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats, Apple says.
While early reports suggested Siri could get a big upgrade with iOS 18.4, Apple appears to be holding out for later betas, as the first only adds two new Australian voices for Siri. It does, however, add several new languages for Apple Intelligence support, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) along with localized English for Singapore and India.
The beta also introduces a new Ambient Music option that can be accessed straight from the Control Center or assigned to your phone’s Action button. There are four different sound categories: Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.
Apple’s latest update promises to further streamline how users engage with their default apps. The iOS 18.4 beta adds the option to set a default Translate app, and for users in the European Union, there is also an option to set a default Navigation app.
You’ll now be able to set your Preferred Language from the Apple Maps settings menu as well. Speaking of navigation, the CarPlay interface has been updated to include a third row of app icons on the Home screen, though the change only applies to certain cars.
New Library and Shows widgets makes playing your podcasts a cinch. The Library widget displays saved content while the Shows option presents programming you’re already subscribed to. Either can be added to your home screen on both iPhone or iPad. Apple also introduced two new Shortcuts action that lets you open a specific conversation in the Messages app or send a message.
Finally, the updated Mail app, which Apple first introduced with iOS 18.2, has revamped categorization options and can now automatically sort your emails into four distinct categories. Personal and time-sensitive emails appear under the Primary category, newsletters and social media notifications fall under Updates, deals and coupons under Promotions, and Transactions is for receipts.
You can download the new software update to your phone now by going to Settings, General and finally, Software Update. If you don’t immediately see the Update Now button with iOS 18.4 displayed, pull down to refresh the page. The full iOS 18.4 update is expected to roll out sometime in April.
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