Apple Releases iOS 18.4 With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music, New Emoji and More - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

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 Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18

Popular Stories

Apple Acquires Award Winning App Play Feature

Apple Acquires Award-Winning App 'Play'

Monday June 29, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
In February, Apple notified the European Commission that it would be acquiring certain assets from and have the right to hire certain employees from Rabbit 3 Times, the company behind the award-winning app design tool Play. The notification was published on the European Commission's website this week, following a four-month waiting period. Play was a Mac and iPhone app that allowed designers ...
American Express Gold Apple Pay Feature

American Express Announces New Apple Pay Feature

Tuesday June 30, 2026 10:27 am PDT by
American Express today announced that you can now redeem Membership Rewards points when checking out with Apple Pay on the web and in apps on the iPhone and iPad. When checking out with Apple Pay on iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 or later, tap on your eligible American Express card (Platinum, Gold, Green, and others) and select the Membership Rewards points option. You can use points to cover all or...
series 10 apple watch titanium digital crown

Report: Apple Watch Redesign Coming Next Year With New Band System

Tuesday June 30, 2026 8:45 am PDT by
A "major overhaul" of the Apple Watch's design is due to arrive next year with a new system for connecting bands, according to a known Weibo leaker. In a set of recent posts, the leaker known as "Instant Digital" linked the new claim to older rumors about an "Apple Watch X" model, which was said to introduce a fresh design and break compatibility with the existing watch band system. Citing...

Top Rated Comments

antiprotest Avatar
16 months ago
Don't brick me bro.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
N0ughtsAndCr0sses Avatar
16 months 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)
sw1tcher Avatar
16 months 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)
16 months 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)
podycust Avatar
16 months ago

22E240
So the same as RC2
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
n-evo Avatar
16 months ago
Update remained stuck on “Update requested…” for a while, but it went through after a while.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)

🔗 Related Apple News & Rumors

Stay updated with the latest Apple ecosystem news and verified rumors