iOS 18.4 update: Key India region-specific features you should know

iOS 18.4 brings a whole lot of features particularly for iPhones in India. It includes the Apple Intelligence support for Indian English. It will work systemwide seamlessly, including native apps such as Siri digital assistant, Notes, iMessage, Mail, Photos app and even third-party apps.

The much awaited iOS 18.4 major update was supposed to be released in April, but Apple sprung a surprise by rolling it out on March 31.

It brings a whole lot of features particularly for iPhones in India. It includes the Apple Intelligence support for Indian English. It will work systemwide seamlessly, including native apps such as Siri digital assistant, Notes, iMessage, Mail, Photos app and even third-party apps.

iOS 18.4: Key India region-specific features you should know

Apple Intelligence with Writing Tools and Compose: With this, users can ask Apple Intelligence feature to compose a message or an email with correct grammar. It can also do proof read and rewrite to make it personal or professional looking message. And, it can also summaries a long message into simple points.

For those who want to experience advanced-gen AI tech on Apple devices, the iPhone will offer the option to interact with OpenAI's ChatGPT 4o. It is free and users need not have to open any ChatGPT account.

Apple Intelligence Features.

Here's how to rewrite messages using Apple Intelligence-powered Writing Tools

Apple Intelligence-powered Writing Tools.

Step 1: While writing, select the text you want to refine, tap the '>' (Forward button), then tap Writing Tools.

Tip: You can also tap the Apple Intelligence button in the top-right corner of the keyboard.

Step 2: Do any of the following:

-- Rewrite text: Tap Rewrite.

-- Rewrite the text in a particular tone: Tap Friendly, Professional, or Concise.

-- Rewrite the text based on a description: Tap “Describe your change,” then enter a description—“Make this more enthusiastic,” for example.

A rewritten version of your text appears.

Step 3: Do any of the following:

--Try the rewrite again: Tap Rewrite. To undo, tap the Undo button.

--Switch between the updated and original versions of your text: Tap Original.

-- Revert to the unedited version of your text: Tap Revert.

Step 4: When you’re finished, tap Done.

Genmoji: Here, users can generate personalised emojis with just text descriptions.

The new Genmoji feature comes with iOS 18 update.

Image Playground: With this, the device can churn out synthetic images with text prompts. It will be available as a standalone app and will also baked into the iMessage app. Initially, it will offer three styles: Animation, Illustration, or Sketch.

Apple iPhone 16e supports Apple Intelligence features.

Visual Intelligence: It is exclusive to only the iPhone 16, 16e, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max models. With this users can just point the camera to an object and get information about it. At the start, it will be able to identify plants and animals. Also, it can add an event to the Calendar from a poster or a flyer.

Apple iOS 18.4 bring Apple Intelligence features to iPhones in India.

Priority Notifications: Apple Intelligence will work in background of the system and apps, to display only the messages that are marked high priority on notifications tab. Unimportant messages will be offered in summarised format on the lockscreen.

In Mail app, it also offers the option summarise long email threads to get the whole context in quick time. And, with smart reply option, it can generate email response in a few seconds. Users have to just proofread it and tap the send the button.

Apple iOS 18.4 update brings support for 10 new system languages including Kannada.

10 Indian system langugage options: The iOS 18.4 brings support for 10 new system languages including Kannada, Bangla, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

User Privacy

Since the very beginning, unlike other big tech companies, Apple has taken a very balanced approach to bring gen AI features with user privacy security at its core. In that order, it is leveraging the powerful multi-core Neural Processing Unit (NPU) of Apple silicon to deliver smooth on-device AI performance with less dependence on cloud servers.

For image generation and other complex queries, Apple devices will connect with proprietary Private Cloud Compute servers powered by Apple silicon.

Apple Intelligence will improve the user experience on the iPhones.

All private conversations with Apple Intelligence relayed between the cloud server and the device remain anonymous; no entity including Apple can access it.

However, for ChatGPT integration with Compose, Writing Tools and Siri, the device will ask the user for permission to send queries to OpenAI's cloud server for responses to the queries. Here too, no personally identifiable details will be shared with the third-party firm.

In a related development, iPad-exclusive Apple Intelligence feature Image Wand is coming with iPadOS 18.4. It can instantly transform rough artwork into visually pleasing digital artwork. After drawing an object, the user has to simply circle it using Apple Pencil; it instantly turns into a photorealistic image.

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