Apple Releases iOS 18.4 Public Beta with Exciting New Features to Explore

Apple kicked off the first public beta of iOS 18.4 on Tuesday, bringing a fresh batch of enhancements to the table. However, if you were hoping for a significant AI-powered update to Siri, you might find yourself a bit let down.

What's New in iOS 18.4?

On the bright side, iOS 18.4 introduces some nifty additions to Apple Intelligence. One of the standout features is Priority Notifications, which uses AI to highlight the most important alerts at the top of your notification stack. To turn this on, head over to Settings, tap Notifications, then Prioritize Notifications, and flick the switch to enable it.

The Image Playground has also gotten a creative boost with a new Sketch style, joining the existing Animation and Illustration options. Plus, accessing Genmoji has become more straightforward with a dedicated "Genmoji" button.

Another exciting update is the expanded language support for Apple Intelligence, now including French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified), along with localized English for India and Singapore.

But remember, you'll need the right hardware to enjoy these features. That means an iPhone 16, an iPhone 15 Pro, an iPhone 15 Pro Max, an iPad with an A17 Pro or M1 chip or later, or a Mac with an M1 chip or later. Apple has also rolled out public betas for iPadOS 18.4 and macOS 15.4, which share many of the same enhancements.

For Apple News+ subscribers, there's a tasty new Food section packed with recipes and healthy eating tips. And if you're into ambient tunes, you can now choose from different sound categories like Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing through the Control Panel.

The Podcasts app has received new widgets: the Library widget shows all your saved episodes, and the Shows widget displays episodes from a specific show. CarPlay users with larger displays will see an extra row of icons, and language translators can now set a default translation app.

What's Missing from iOS 18.4?

On the downside, this beta doesn't bring any major improvements to Siri. Earlier reports hinted that iOS 18.4 would enable Siri to understand on-screen content and integrate with third-party apps, but those features are missing from this release.

Since this is just the first public beta, there's still hope for some tweaks to Siri before the official release of iOS 18.4. However, the big Siri updates seem to be on hold until the next major update, possibly with iOS 18.5, expected around late April or May.

Apple mentioned in a recent news update that "Apple Intelligence will continue to expand with new features in the coming months, including more capabilities for Siri." So, it looks like we'll have to wait a bit longer for Siri to get its much-anticipated AI boost.