Early today, Apple rolled out the iOS 18.4 update officially, presenting aplethora of new features and performance enhancements to enrich the userexperience.
The standout new feature is the support for 5G-A (5.5G) network. Apple statesthat 5G-A theoretically provides peak speeds up to 10 times faster thanconventional 5G, significantly boosting connection speeds. Beta testers havereported speeds reaching 1400 Mbps with 5G-A enabled, which far surpassestraditional 5G speeds. Currently, this feature is only available on iPhone 13and later models.
Moreover, iOS 18.4 introduces Apple’s intelligent features and extends supportfor a vast number of languages. NEVErtheless, for mainland Chinese users, theChinese language support is awaiting regulatory approval and is currently notaccessible. Some mainland Chinese users also noted that the entire updatedescription was in English, perhaps an oversight or a bug.
In addition to these, iOS 18.4 brings changes to Photos and Control Center.The Photos app now has a library view filter, enabling users to show or hideitems not in albums or synced from Mac/PC. Users can also reorder items withinmedia types and utility collections. All collections now employ unifiedfiltering options, such as sorting by date (ascending/descending), and a newoption to sort albums by modification date. Additionally, users can disablethe “Recently Viewed” and “Recently Shared” collections in Photos settings,and when Face ID for Photos is enabled, hiding photos will no longer beimported to Mac/PC.
In the Control Center, iOS 18.4 adds quick access to ambient sounds forSeamless music switching. Apple Fitness+ curated content can also be added tothe library for a more convenient workout experience.
Finally, iOS 18.4 incorporates various other performance improvements and bugfixes. For instance, Safari now offers recent seARCh suggestions for fasteraccess to previous searches; the parental controls assistant streamlines childaccount creation; screen time app restrictions remain in force even afterchildren uninstall and reinstall apps; the App Store user reviews now have asummary view; users can pause/resume app downloads and updates without losingprogress; and Podcasts adds a follow feature and a library widget.
