iOS 18.4: 5 reasons to update now, including new Photos tools and Ambient Music

• Apple has officially released iOS 18.4
• New features include Apple Intelligence upgrades, new Photos tools, and ambient music
• All iOS 18-supported iPhones are compatible, from the iPhone 16 series to the iPhone Xs and Xs Max

Apple has released iOS 18.4, the latest mid-year update for iOS 18, bringing a handful of new useful and quirky features to iPhone users.

It seems that iOS 18.4 is a fairly substantial update by mid-year standards – Apple Intelligence continues its shaky rollout, the Photos app gets some new features, Apple News+ gets some tasty new recipes, and ambient music enjoyers are in for a surprise.

All iPhone models with iOS 18 compatibility – that's the iPhone Xs to the current-generation iPhone 16 lineup – support iOS 18.4, so if you're using an iPhone from within that range you should see a software update notification appear automatically.

If you're still rocking with an older version of iOS, head to our guide on how to download iOS 18 to get your iPhone up to date and loaded with the latest features.

New Apple Intelligence features

iOS 18.4 sees Apple continue the rollout of Apple Intelligence for compatible devices, with a handful of features first announced in 2024 finally making their way to users.

The big ticket item this time around is Priority Notifications, which uses AI to identify important notifications and pin them to your lock screen.

Image playground also gets an overdue feature in the form of the Sketch style, which allows users to create images inspired by hand-drawn sketches using AI.

Another minor addition is review summaries in the app store; that's AI-generated overviews of user-generated app reviews.

Apple Intelligence also gets support for eight new languages: Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), French (France, Canada), Italian, Japanese, Korean, and German, as well as two local dialects of English, for Singapore and India.

Siri is conspicuously missing from these release notes: we had originally hoped to see Siri get its long-awaited Apple Intelligence update with iOS 18.4, but it looks like we'll be waiting even longer for this (hopefully) game-changing upgrade.

It now seems more likely that Siri will get its AI upgrade with iOS 19, which will likely release in September alongside the rumored iPhone 17 lineup.

Photos app updates

iOS 18.4 brings a selection of new features to the Photos app, making it easier to organize and rearrange your photos and videos.

All collections get a selection of filtering options, such as including or excluding photos from a particular album or sorting by either the oldest or newest photos first.

Users also gain the ability to sort their media by date modified, rather than date created, which is helpful for keeping recently cropped or edited photos together.

It’s also now possible to disable the automatically created Recently Shared and Recently Viewed albums, and hidden photos will no longer be imported to Mac or PC if the user has enabled the Use Face ID security option.

Apple News+ gets recipes

With iOS 18.4, Apple News+ gains a new Food section full of stories about healthy eating, restaurants, and recipes.

It’s a fairly sizeable addition to the already fairly comprehensive Apple News+ service, and gives users plenty of new articles to dig into.

The Recipe Catalog allows users to save recipes for later, and a follow-along Cooking mode makes putting them into practice a piece of cake.

Keep in mind that this is a new feature for the Apple News+ service, which costs $12.99 / £12.99 / AU$19.99 per month, and not for the free Apple News app.

Vision Pro get its own iPhone app

iOS 18.4 adds the Vision Pro app to iPhone, giving Vision Pro users the ability to check for new spatial content and get quick information about their headset.

The app will automatically install for those with a Vision Pro headset registered to their Apple Account.

Ambient Music from the Control Center

This is a weird one. Apple is adding a dedicated Ambient Music feature to iPhone with iOS 18.4 – but it’s not its own app, or even a part of the Apple Music app.

Instead, users have to add the Ambient Music control to their control center, in a similar manner to the way Shazam is currently implemented.

Users then get access to four playlists of ambient music, titled Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing.

For those who haven’t come across ambient music before, it’s a form of relaxed, slow music that aims to be enjoyable to listen to without focus – typically we’re talking woodwinds, strings, synthesizers, and a lack of percussion.

The release notes don’t suggest that users will need an Apple Music subscription to use the new Ambient Music feature.

Other new features

As well as the new features listed above, iOS 18.4 also comes with a handful of smaller updates and bug fixes.

For example, screen time limits now remain in place when an app is uninstalled and reinstalled, and it's easier to add child-safe settings during device setup. Safari also gets recent search suggestions.

Additionally, 10 new system languages have been added to iOS: Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

Full release notes can be found on Apple’s developer blog. Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to most in the comments below.

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