Apple has released the first iOS 17.4 RC (release candidate) ahead of the expected final version shipping next week.
iOS 17.4 addresses new regulation in the EU as required by the Digital Markets Act. The primary change is in policy with Apple now forced to allow app markets to compete with the App Store on iPhone. iOS 17.4 delivers the system-level infrastructure to support alternative app stores.
Globally, iOS 17.4 has a collection of feature additions including updates to CarPlay, the latest emoji characters, and more.
Table of contents
Summary
iOS 17.4 emoji characters add new ways to express approval or denial, break through the chains, rise from the ashes, or just express that limes are superior to lemons. There’s also a mushroom that looks less out of Mario World and more out of the grocery store.
The new emoji characters are also available in macOS 14.4 on the Mac, watchOS 10.4 for Apple Watch, and iPadOS 17.4 for iPad. For Apple Vision Pro owners, they appear in visionOS 1.1.
CarPlay in iOS 17.4 includes a new way to present Apple Maps data on cars with instrument cluster secondary displays.
Prior to iOS 17.4, the main display presented street-level directions while the instrument cluster showed the overview of your route while navigating.
Starting with iOS 17.4, cars with instrument cluster displays can toggle the main display between a street-level view and the route view. Toggling modes swaps which view appears on which screen.
Effectively, this means that turn-by-turn directions can appear behind the steering wheel now rather than the overview mode. Most CarPlay implementations use a single display with a toggle for switching between views.
Other changes include auto-generated transcripts in Apple Podcasts, a new setting for Stolen Device Protection, a setting for ignoring Double Tap on Apple Watch when using Vision Pro, and more.
Release notes
Emoji
- New mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads emoji are now available in the emoji keyboard
- 18 people and body emoji add the option to face them in either direction
Apple Podcasts
- Transcripts let you follow an episode with text that highlights in sync with the audio in English, Spanish, French and German
- Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, tapped to play from a specific point and used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast, and VoiceOver
This update includes the following enhancements and bug fixes:
- Music recognition lets you add songs you have identified to your Apple Music Playlists and Library, as well as Apple Music Classical
- Siri has a new option to announce messages you receive in any supported language
- Stolen Device Protection supports the option for increased security in all locations
- Battery Health in Settings shows battery cycle count, manufacture date, and first use on iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models
- Call Identification displays Apple-verified business name, logo, and department name when available
- Business updates in Messages for Business provide trusted information for order status, flight notifications, fraud alerts or other transactions you opt into
- Apple Cash virtual card numbers enable you to pay with Apple Cash at merchants that donât yet accept Apple Pay by typing in your number from Wallet or using Safari AutoFill
- Fixes an issue where contact pictures are blank in Find My
- Fixes an issue for Dual SIM users where the phone number changes from primary to secondary and is visible to a group they have messaged
Availability
We expect iOS 17.4 to be released publicly by this time next week. Today’s release candidate build could be the same build that we see go live then.
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