Apple Releases iOS 18.4 Public Beta with New AI Features: What Users Need to Know

You May Want to Wait Before Installing the iOS 18.4 Public Beta on Your iPhone

With the release of the first iOS 18.4 Public Beta, we can now get a glimpse of the next round of iPhone features, some based on Apple Intelligence and others on new iOS capabilities. A new option uses AI to tag priority notifications, for example, and you can start playing ambient music directly in Control Center and view recipes in Apple News. But before you start that download, I'm here to remind you of the "beta" part of "public beta." Prerelease software is unfinished, and even though a public beta means Apple is confident enough to seed it on several thousand iPhones, the goal is to see how the update fares before it's deployed on millions of iPhones. And although the iOS 8.4 developer beta has been pretty stable, one never knows what bugs could slip through. For more on what iOS 18 brings to the iPhone, make sure you check out everything Apple announced at its September "Glowtime" event and how Apple Intelligence affects the way we use Apple devices. The public beta is more stable than the developer betas, which Apple has steadily released since the beginning of June, and are intended for... developers. But "more stable" isn't the same as "rock solid." Apple is still adding and changing features in the iOS 18.4 betas before the anticipated release of iOS 18.4 in April. If you do decide to install the iOS 18.4 public beta, I recommend doing it on a separate iPhone that isn't using your main personal phone. iOS 18.4 will work with models as old as the iPhone SE (second generation) and iPhone XR, so reach into the back of your tech drawer and put that forgotten iPhone into service. Also, as always, make sure you have good backups of your data. Now, to discuss why upgrading to the iOS public beta might be a bad idea. Software bugs at the development stage are to be expected -- in fact, that's kinda the point. Now is the time for bugs to skitter into the light so developers can catch them and Apple can fix them before the final release. Opening the public beta to more testers helps flush out odd interactions with a much larger pool of iPhones and third-party apps. When it comes to bugs, they can vary across the spectrum. You could face connectivity issues with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, or end up with third-party applications crashing from time to time. Features that work perfectly on iOS 18 might not be up to par on iOS 18.4, even if they aren't necessarily tied to new iOS 18.4 features. And runaway background processes could keep the system running hotter than normal, decreasing not just how long the phone operates on a battery charge, but potentially stressing the lifespan of the battery itself. To be fair, I've never dealt with any show-stopping, brick-your-phone bugs in a beta -- usually they're a series of annoyances that can grate on you after a while. But all of this is perfectly normal in developer and public betas. But if you don't want to deal with bugs and other issues that could make your phone more difficult to use, you probably don't want the iOS 18.4 public beta on your primary iPhone. Did you recently buy a recommended portable charger for your iPhone? Expect to make more use of it while running beta software. Energy efficiency is usually the last thing Apple's developers optimize, because the priority at this point is to make sure features work and bugs are stamped out. An iOS update also triggers a host of internal indexing, which consumes a lot of energy for a few hours or days after installation. The Photos app, for example, updates its database of recognized people, scans images for new recognizable objects or scenes for search purposes and looks for duplicates. Partially due to the reindexing of gigabytes of data on your phone, the iOS 18.4 public beta will almost certainly not deliver the performance you might be expecting. Processor-intensive apps and games also need to be tuned to work with the new iOS, so stutters and glitches are normal. Game Mode is a new feature for iOS (it first appeared in macOS Sonoma) that redirects resources to improve frame rates and Bluetooth latency, so the most demanding games might perform better than under iOS 17 or iOS 18. However, Game Mode works at a low level and could be interrupted by beta components. We already know many of the razzle-dazzle Apple Intelligence features won't be available right away, even though iOS 18.3 gave us a few more to play with. Such is the life cycle of development: some features get put on the back burner so others can be completed. I know it's tough to be patient when future features are just a download away. But I also don't want you to be burned (as I have in the past).

Now Anyone Can Try the Next Apple Intelligence Features in iOS 18.4 Public Beta. How to Download It

Nelson Aguilar is an LA-based tech how-to writer and graduate of UCLA. With more than a decade of experience, he covers Apple and Google and writes on iPhone and Android features, privacy and security settings and more. Only a few days after giving developers their first look at the next version of the iPhone's operating system, Apple has now released the iOS 18.4 public beta for anyone to install on their device. This beta brings new Apple Intelligence features to the masses, and not just early adopters. However, you can download it before then. In addition to Apple Intelligence features such as notification summaries and Genmoji, iOS 18.4 adds a new Food section to Apple News, a new Sketch style to Image Playground, ambient music buttons in Control Center and more. Read more: What Is Apple Intelligence? Everything to Know About iPhone 16 AI Features It's pretty simple to download and install iOS 18.4. All you need to do is sign up on Apple's Beta Software Program website and you'll be on your way to becoming a beta tester from the comfort of your couch. You're probably aware that the iOS 18.4 beta was made available to developers just last week. Not everyone wants to run the developer beta because it's for developers and is usually less stable than a public beta. Ultimately, both beta versions are not as stable as the general public iOS release. iOS 18, which is available to everyone, brings several new major features and overhauls to the iPhone, including a completely redesigned photo album, text messages via satellite, a dedicated app for passwords, better customization for your home screen, an overhauled control center and support for RCS messaging. Here's everything you need to know about downloading the iOS 18.4 public beta on your iPhone. Check out: How to Download the iOS 18.2 Developer Beta on Your iPhone You can download iOS 18.4 on any iPhone that supports iOS 18 (full list below), but unfortunately, Apple Intelligence is exclusive to the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max and the entire iPhone 16 series, including the new iPhone 16E. Visual Intelligence is exclusive to the iPhone 16 series. You can still get your hands on other non-AI features though. Here's the full list of iPhones that support iOS 18.4 A public beta is typically more stable than a developer beta, but it's still a beta, which means you may deal with bugs and other critical issues that could negatively affect your phone. If you have a spare iPhone in your drawer somewhere, use that to run any iOS 18.4 beta, whether it's the developer or public version. In my personal experience, it's usually fine to run a public beta on your main phone. You may encounter a bug here and there, maybe a function in a third-party app doesn't work exactly as intended because it's not yet optimized for any iOS beta software. It's never crippling, just maybe a little bit annoying, and if you don't mind that, running the iOS 18.4 public beta on the iPhone you use every day shouldn't be a big deal. Also, before you think of updating to iOS 18.2, first update to the latest iOS 18 version (currently 18.1) and then back up your device. Go to Settings > your name > iCloud > iCloud Backup and hit Back Up Now. You should check out our story on how to archive a backup on your computer in case you want to revert to iOS 18. Now that you've backed up your phone, you can download the iOS 18.4 public beta. Here's what you need to do: 1. On your iPhone, go to the Apple Beta Software Program website and sign in (if you're already a member) or sign up for the program. You need an Apple ID of course. If you're signing up for the first time, follow the prompts. 2. Next, tap the iOS tab and you should see more information about the iOS 18.4 public beta. Once your phone reboots, you should be running the iOS 18.4 public beta.