Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.4

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Apple today released macOS Sonoma 14.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sonoma operating system that launched last September. macOS Sonoma 14.4 comes over a month after macOS Sonoma 14.3, an update that brought collaborative Apple Music playlists.

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The ‌‌‌‌macOS Sonoma‌‌ 14.4‌ update can be downloaded for free on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System Settings. There's also a macOS 13.6.5 release for those who are still running macOS Ventura and a macOS 12.7.4 release for those who have macOS Monterey installed.

With macOS Sonoma 14.4, Apple is introducing new emoji characters and adding support for reading Podcast Episode text in full with search support. There are new features for Business Updates in Messages, along with a toggle for showing only icons for websites in the Safari Favorites Bar. Apple's release notes for the update are below.

macOS Sonoma 14.4 introduces new emoji as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.

Emoji
- New mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads emoji are now available in emoji keyboard
- 18 people and body emoji support facing the opposite direction

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Podcasts Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, clicked to play from a specific point and used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast, and VoiceOver
- Business Updates in Messages for Business let you get updates that you've opted into, like order status, flight notifications, fraud alerts or other transactions from trusted businesses
- Safari Favorites Bar adds an option to show only icons for websites

Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.

For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

More information on the features that have been introduced in macOS Sonoma to date can be found in our macOS Sonoma roundup.

Related Forum: macOS Sonoma

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Top Rated Comments

AAPLGeek Avatar
AAPLGeek
26 months ago
Once again, emojis take the lead on release notes.

Apple should just rebrand macOS to toyOS now, the transformation is nearly done.
Score: 52 Votes (Like | Disagree)
B
bhagemann
26 months ago
Sheesh folks, get a grip. ENOUGH with the emoji bitching. Its been explained way too many times that this 1) isn't how standards work -apple isn't creating these, just adding them as approved, and 2) certainly do NOT have folks pulled off systems development teams to do this.

Out of 13 comments so far.. EIGHT (?!) have been about whatever deal you have with emojis pushing your buttons or something. take a break please. please. seriously. not funny anymore.

I'm guessing most of us would much rather read actual feedback and comments about the system changes... I'm especially interested in photos, music & the changes in the printing system.

Music (doesn't seem to have much in terms of changes here, still have an issue with importing mp3s to a new playlist and having them disappear until i do it a 2nd time, then its fine)

Photos - would love a way to search for unnamed faces, but found a nice script that helps with that finally. Recognition seems better all the time though of faces and objects. I did notice for the first time that when browsing the photos you get a little 'i' for 'info', normally the photo meta details, place and so on. and if the app finds something of interest in the photo it adds a pulsing star to the icon. for me, a cat picture when i clicked that, not only did it pull up info about cats, but correctly identfied the breed of my cat!
Score: 51 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F
Fuzzball84
26 months ago

Once again, emojis take the lead on release notes.

Apple should just rebrand macOS to toyOS now, the transformation is nearly done.
fpacOS... Fisher Price Activity Center Operating System

Critical Update: New Emojis added, Emoji security flaw patched, Emoji designs updated, Emoji desktop enabled
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F
Fuzzball84
26 months ago
Apples marketing research revealed the following customer priorities

1. Emoji
2. Emoji
3. Emoji
4. Emoji
5. Emoji

78290. Desktop wallpapers

193523. Critical Security Patches

2389162674626. Core OS functionality and stability
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
A
Asbow
26 months ago
Are updates to Messages and Podcasts really worthy mentions. These are apps that should be separate downloadable updates.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
Realityck
26 months ago
Released today

* macOS 14.4 (23E214) - March 7, 2024
* tvOS 17.4 (21L227) - March 7, 2024
* visionOS 1.1 (21O211) - March 7, 2024
* watchOS 10.4 (21T216) - March 7, 2024
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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