For photographers, iOS 18.4 introduces useful tools for organizing and rearranging photos and videos in the Photos app. Collections now come with filtering options, such as including or excluding photos from specific albums or sorting by the oldest or newest first. There's also the ability to sort media by the date modified, which is perfect for keeping recently edited or cropped photos together. Users can also disable the automatically generated Recently Shared and Recently Viewed albums. If you enable the Use Face ID security option, hidden photos won't be imported to your Mac or PC.
iOS 18.4 crucially addresses a whopping 62 security vulnerabilities, some of which are serious, so Apple advises installing this important update as soon as possible.
The latest emoji update brings a few practical additions for iPhone users, like a harp, a shovel, a leafless tree, a splatter, afingerprint, and a root vegetable. My favourite is the 'face with bags under eyes' emoji – I can relate!
iOS 18.4 continues Apple's rollout of Apple Intelligence, bringing new features, including several first announced in 2024. The standout feature is Priority Notifications, which leverages AI to identify important notifications and pin them to your lock screen for easy access. Image Playground also gets a much-anticipated update with the addition of the Sketch style. This feature allows users to generate images that resemble hand-drawn sketches using AI.
Apple News+ users will also see a new Food section with articles on healthy eating, restaurants, and recipes. The new Recipe Catalog lets you save recipes for later, and a Cooking mode guides you step-by-step as you prepare meals. Please note this feature is part of the paid Apple News+ service, which costs $12.99 / £12.99 per month and isn't available in the free Apple News app.
For full release notes, visit iOS 18.4 Release Notes.