What’s New in iOS 18.4 Beta 1 for iPhone: Priority Notifications and New Image Playground Style
Apple has officially rolled out the iOS 18.4 Beta 1 update for iPhone, bringing a fresh set of enhancements, including features powered by its advanced AI suite, Apple Intelligence. Among the notable additions is Priority Notifications, a functionality initially showcased during WWDC 2024 in June as part of the iOS 18 announcement but only now making its debut. This feature is designed to refine how notifications are managed by leveraging AI to assess and highlight the most important alerts, presenting them in a distinct section on the lock screen.
According to Apple, this capability operates using on-device AI processing, ensuring that the content of notifications is analyzed without compromising user privacy. While it filters and displays only the most significant alerts, users still have the ability to swipe up and view all incoming notifications if they choose. The feature is not enabled by default, but those interested can activate it by navigating through the settings menu under Notifications and selecting the option to prioritize alerts.
In addition to this AI-driven enhancement, iOS 18.4 Beta 1 introduces a new Ambient Music option within the Control Centre. This feature automatically plays an assortment of sounds categorized under Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing, providing a seamless background audio experience. While users are unable to select specific tracks, they can still view the currently playing sound and skip through the selections using the integrated music player within the Dynamic Island.
Another update included in this release is an expansion of styles available in the Image Playground app. A new style called Sketch has been introduced, joining the existing Animation and Illustration options. Previously, this particular style was part of Image Wand, but it has now been extended to Image Playground, allowing users greater flexibility in selecting creative effects.
Apple has also broadened the language support for its Apple Intelligence suite, bringing compatibility to additional languages and regions. The update now includes support for Chinese (Simplified), English (India, Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish.
Beyond these enhancements, several minor refinements have been incorporated into this update. The Genmoji feature within the emoji keyboard now includes updated text, and Apple Maps gains a new option allowing users to set their preferred language. Additionally, users can now add Library and Shows widgets to their home screens for quick access, and there is an added functionality to set a default app for translation purposes.
