Apple Releases iOS 18.4 Beta 4 Update for iPhone With Bug Fixes and New Features

Apple on Monday released the iOS 18.4 Beta 4 update for iPhone. The update is available to developers and beta testers. In line with the previous update, the latest version of iOS 18 beta does not contain any standout new features but focuses more on fixing issues reported by iPhone users. Thus, it is considered a minor update which rectified issues related to Apple Intelligence, Notifications, Siri, while also allowing an app with Live Activity support to use Nearby Interaction.

iOS 18.4 Beta 4 Changelog

According to Apple's changelog, the iOS 18.4 Beta 4 update fixes three issues related to Apple Intelligence — the company's artificial intelligence (AI) suite. It states that one of the instances required Siri to be enabled for using Apple Intelligence in languages other than English (US). Meanwhile, users also reported facing unavailability of Apple Intelligence features or seeing a “Downloading support…” message. The last issue required a device reboot for the AI features to work. The company says it has solved all of them with the latest beta update.

Another change is to Notifications. iOS 18.4 Beta 4 fixed a problem which prevented Notifications from flickering or collapsing momentarily. Meanwhile, some Siri suggestions failed to complete successfully in languages other than English, which does not persist anymore following the update.

It also includes fixes for other issues related to SwiftUI, StoreKit, UIWritingToolsCoordinator, Wi-Fi calling, and Writing Tools, while also fixing currently known problems in the new Apple Vision Pro app and StoreKit.

Meanwhile, the update also brings a new feature called Nearby Interaction. The Cupertino-based technology giant says apps which have Live Activities can now leverage Nearby Interaction to perform Ultra Wideband ranging. This essentially means that apps that use Apple's real-time notification system can now use Ultra Wideband technology to discover how far away other devices are.

Along with iOS 18.4 Beta 4, Apple also released the fourth developer beta updates of iPadOS 18.4, visionOS 2.4, macOS Sequoia 15.4, tvOS 18.4, and watchOS 11.4. The stable version of Apple's operating system for the iPhone is speculated to be released in April 2025.