Apple Seeds First Public Betas of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, and macOS Sequoia 15.4

Apple today seeded the first public betas of upcoming iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS Sequoia 15.4, watchOS 11.4, and tvOS 15.4 updates, allowing public beta testers to try out the new features in the software ahead of its public launch. The public betas come a few days after Apple provided the beta updates to developers.

iOS 18
Public beta testers can download the updates from the Settings app on each device after opting into the beta through Apple's public beta testing website.

The new software for iPhone, iPad, and Mac includes Priority Notifications, an Apple Intelligence feature designed to show you your most important notifications first, plus it adds a new Sketch style for Image Playground.

There is a new Apple News+ Food section for ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers that aggregates recipes, food stories, and tips for healthy eating, plus an Ambient Music feature for playing chill music from Control Center.

iOS 18.4 will include a Vision Pro app that will allow Vision Pro owners to manage the headset. It will support content discovery and acquisition, letting new apps, games, and TV content to be downloaded on the Vision Pro with the ‌iPhone‌. The ‌iPhone‌ and ‌iPad‌ will also support managing Vision Pro Guest Mode, making it easier for people to try out someone's headset.

On the ‌iPad‌ and Mac, the new updates introduce Mail Categorization, a feature that was previously limited to the ‌iPhone‌.

More on the new features in the updates can be found in our iOS 18.4 beta post.

Related Forums: iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia

Popular Stories

Tim Cook WWDC 2018

Report: Tim Cook to Step Down as Apple CEO 'as Soon as Next Year'

Saturday November 15, 2025 2:40 pm PST by
Apple is preparing for Tim Cook to step down as CEO of the company "as soon as next year," according to the Financial Times. The company's board of directors and senior executives "recently intensified preparations for Cook to hand over the reins," the report said. While the report said that Apple is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, it went on to ...
iOS 26

Everything New in iOS 26.2 Beta 3

Monday November 17, 2025 3:20 pm PST by
Apple provided developers with the third beta of an upcoming iOS 26.2 update, and there are still new features that are being added with each beta that we get. We've rounded up all of the changes that Apple made in beta 3. AirDrop Apple added new AirDrop functionality, providing a way for two people to share files temporarily without having to add one another as contacts. iOS 26.2...
AirPods Pro Firmware Feature

Apple Releases New Firmware for AirPods Pro 2, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods 4

Thursday November 13, 2025 11:35 am PST by
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods 4, and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 firmware is 8B21, all up from the prior 8A358 firmware released in October. There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 with ANC, and AirPods Pro 3...
best early black friday deals

Best Black Friday Apple Deals Live Now - Save on AirPods, iPads, and Apple Watches

Saturday November 15, 2025 1:45 pm PST by
We're officially in the month of Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When ...
Apple Wallet ID Illinois

iPhone Driver's License Feature Launching in Illinois

Tuesday November 18, 2025 8:47 am PST by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Starting this Wednesday, November 19, the feature will be available to residents of Illinois. The announcement confirmed that the...
iPhone Pocket Short

iPhone Pocket Now Available to Order, But Already Selling Out

Friday November 14, 2025 6:20 am PST by
Apple recently teamed up with Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE to create the iPhone Pocket, a limited-edition knitted accessory designed to carry an iPhone. iPhone Pocket is available to order on Apple's online store starting today, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. However, it is already completely sold out in the United...
apple silicon mac lineup 2024 feature purple m5

Apple's 2026 Mac Plans

Friday November 14, 2025 3:23 pm PST by
Most of Apple's Macs are slated to get M5 chips across 2026, and there's a possibility we'll even see the first M6 chips toward the end of the year. Updates are planned for everything from the MacBook Air to the Mac Studio. MacBook Air (Early 2026) The MacBook Air will be one of the first Macs to get a 2026 refresh, with an update planned for the first few months of the year. The MacBook...
applecare apple care banner

Apple Brings New AppleCare+ Options to India

Tuesday November 18, 2025 8:42 am PST by
Apple today announced an expansion of AppleCare+ coverage in India, with new options for monthly and annual plans, and the addition of Theft and Loss for iPhone for the first time. Options for monthly and annual AppleCare+ plans in India provide more choice and flexibility, allowing users to keep coverage for as long as they require. Apple's vice president of Worldwide iPhone Product...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Here's When Tesla is Expected to Add Support for Apple CarPlay

Sunday November 16, 2025 6:49 am PST by
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that Tesla plans to add Apple CarPlay support to its vehicles "in the coming months." This is easily the biggest news for the regular version of CarPlay in years, should Tesla actually follow through with offering the system in its vehicles. As noted by Gurman, this would be a stunning reversal for Tesla and its CEO Elon ...
tvOS 26 Profiles

tvOS 26.2 Adds a Useful New Feature to Your Apple TV

Friday November 14, 2025 10:02 am PST by
Starting with the upcoming tvOS 26.2 update, currently in beta, additional profiles created on the Apple TV no longer require their own Apple Account. In the Settings app on the Apple TV, under Profiles and Accounts, anyone can create a new profile by simply entering a name and indicating whether the profile is for a kid. The profile will be associated with the primary user's Apple Account,...

Top Rated Comments

tarunc Avatar
10 months ago

macOS has a virtualization bug that's causing kernel panics with Parallels and other VM's. Be careful if you update to this (assuming its the same build as the developer beta from last week).
Beware! VMware Fusion, Parallels, and others all stop working on M4 processor based machines.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaveOP Avatar
10 months ago
macOS has a virtualization bug that's causing kernel panics with Parallels and other VM's. Be careful if you update to this (assuming its the same build as the developer beta from last week).
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
PsykX Avatar
10 months ago
iOS 18.4 will be a pretty great release for non-English speakers.

Some things to note :
- Siri is still as stupid, as I thought. As long as its foundation continues to rely on non-LLM tech, it'll remain bad.
- Email: I reverted to the old version. I don't like the new categories - I ended up missing emails for the first time in my life.
- Image Playground : I've had some fun with it, it'll last a few days. I had never seen Image Playground before, so it's hard for me to say, and obviously I know it's a beta, but it still has quite a lot of performance hiccups. I also feel like it's pretty limited in terms of what you can generate with it.
- Genmoji : Sometimes the emoji feels like it's been erased at a few places.
- Photos Cleanup tool: Still takes some time to download, still takes a few seconds to cleanup something. Results are still pretty bad.
- Recipes : I feel like this is US-only, despite Apple's article not implying that.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tywebb13 Avatar
10 months ago
full installers for the sonoma and ventura rc1s are up now but still waiting on the sequoia beta full installer

but the sequoia 15.4 beta 1 ota update was just as big as a full installer this time so it is possible they won't do a full installer this time which would be a shame because then you can't easily make the usb installer

i hope this isn't the beginning of an idea of depreciating such functionality because i and others would consider that a retrograde step.

the ipsw for the sequoia is already up though and has been so for a few days now

so here are the builds for the new macos's

15.4 beta 1 build 24E5206s

14.7.5 rc 1 build 23H510

13.7.5 rc 1 build 22H510
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
er2429 Avatar
10 months ago
If you have an M4 machine and use virtualization... DO NOT INSTALL THESE! Virtualization causes a hard crash when you attempt to start Docker, Parallels, etc.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WhatYearIsThis Avatar
10 months ago
With iOS 18.4 Apple Intelligence works here in the EU, but does iPhone Mirroring work in combination with MacOS 15.4 in the EU?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)