I installed iOS 18.4 dev beta and the big Siri intelligence update is nowhere to be found lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff) | usagoldmines.com

• iOS 18.4 Dev Beta is here
• The big Siri update is not
• There are some notable and possibly useful additions

Apple released its first developer beta for iOS 18.4, and it’s missing the single biggest and likely most requested Apple Intelligence update: the new and much smarter and more useful Siri.

A big caveat here: No one is encouraging you to install a developer beta on your best iPhone. These updates are intended for developers and ultra-nerds like me who are desperate to try the very newest stuff. So downloaders, beware.

Even so, the exclusion of what should be Apple Intelligence’s crowning feature is worrisome. Apple started its AI journey almost a year ago and has been rolling out Apple Intelligence features since the summer and through September with the release of the iPhone 16 lineup. Since then, there have been numerous updates, but Siri has remained frustratingly behind. Sure, there have been smaller enhancements like more app awareness, but full system cognition and the ability to engage in a conversational manner that connects the prompts to everything the iPhone knows about you is still missing.

As far as I can tell, Siri on iOS 18.4 Dev Beta 1 is unchanged. Siri can still easily open the camera app on command, but if I ask it to open the camera and take a picture, it only completes the first task. When I ask it to analyze my calendar and emails to see if I have too much going on, it has no idea what I’m going on about.

What you do get

iOS 18.4 (and iPadOS 18.4) is not devoid of enhancements. The update brings a new News+ Food section, which Apple notes in a release on the update will include “tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the world’s top food publishers, including Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats.” This feature was not evident, though, in this first developer beta, and Apple says it will arrive in April for Apple News+ subscribers.

Image Playground gets a tiny update in the form of a new illustration style: Sketch, which delivers a visual output that looks more like, say, a colored pencil sketch.

The update also promises the new Vision Pro app, a sort of utility, control, and information update that gives you a clearer iPhone connection to the powerful and expensive mixed reality wearable, which is also getting Apple Intelligence.

Even though this beta isn’t bringing a ton of Apple Intelligence updates, its release does mark an expansion of sorts. Apple Global Head of Marketing Greg Joswiak tweeted on X that Apple’s brand of AI is expanding to eight more languages on iPhone, Mac, and iPad. The Vision Pro Apple Intelligence update is set to arrive in April.

I’m sure there are quite a few other bug fixes and updates, big and small, in iOS 18.4, but it’s hard to get truly excited without the full Apple Intelligence-infused version of Siri. It’s like getting a cream-filled donut, biting into it, and finding the cream missing; there’s just an empty cavity.

Apple surely has one or two more major iOS 18 updates to go before they call us all to Cupertino for WWDC 2025 to talk iOS 19 and the next big Apple Intelligence update. If Apple wants to finally deliver whatever Siri is going to finally be before then, it better get moving.

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