Apple Releases iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4; Bringing Enhancements to VoiceOver and Braille

Entering a password when using a Braille display appears fixed.

Text replacements appear to work when using a Braille display.

This is a game changer. Nice to see it is added.

Sometimes she works sometimes she does not. No changes regarding siri. 16 pro max.

I really like the new control setting within VO verbosity settings. Now I don't need to here VO state Button all the time lol. I also like the new ambient music setting in control center. Have to try it when I can't sleep at night. :)

A similar bug exists in MacOS. Normally, I open a message and VoiceOver begins reading the message body. Other times, VoiceOver focus is stuck somewhere else, some larger container around both the header and body. When this happens, VoiceOver fails to read the body text. Workaround is to close the message and reopen. Sad to see this bug spreading.

Told ya!

Just wait until you discover the joy of handling threads. Whether or not it correctly announces the newly highlighted messages when you use the Messages rotor option is so hit-and-miss that it's arguably easier to just expand the thread in the message list and work with the previews, if they're long enough. Which, sometimes, they are, and sometimes you can't tell because they're clearly broken.

This is a terrible stumble and I suspect people will notice pretty quickly because it imposes a completely unavoidable penalty that, unless you know how to work around it, is very frustrating to figure out. So very sad. The saving grace, if you can call it that, is that there is a very reliable solution: disable Apple Intelligence. That works!

Oh well. I tried.

Disable threads issue solved. I have never used threaded mail.

I never use threads on my iPhone. I use them on MacOS all the time.

The issue I logged last June during the first iOS 18 beta, in which VoiceOver incorrectly jumps focus when using the Stopwatch feature of the Clocks app, is fixed. Open the champagne! It is rare indeed when I get to go into Feedback Assistant and close a bug.

I am surprised to find that I do a lot of email triage and, sometimes, even write replies on my iPhone. BSI is wonderful in this regard.

How do you look at threads in reverse chronological order and keep in your mind a notion of what's been said and what remains to be said, without having easy access to just the messages in that thread? That's definitely out of my league, I fear. My short-term memory just wouldn't stretch to it. Even if it were possible for threaded conversations to all be expanded by default, life would be a great deal easier.

OK, I went to setting, assessibility, VO, and... Did not see anything about making sure VO does not say it. Help. Thanks.

I asked Siri how can I stop VO from saying button. She said "from stopping voiceover saying button, turn off voiceover". Nuts.

There's no arguing with such impeccable logic, surely?

Anyway, it's Settings, Accessibility, VoiceOver, Verbosity, Controls.

Thanks, it worked but the stupid app library pop and it took several times to stop it. Nuts.

it can be found in Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Verbosity > Controls, and allows you to choose whether control types are spoken before or after the contents of the control, or not at all.

I did the same thing, and on my iPhone I asked VoiceOver how I stop VO from saying button. It's answer:
First, open VoiceOver utility. Second, click the speech category. Third, click the Voices tab. Fourth, check mute speech.
First of all, that will stop VoiceOver from speaking, and will not stop VO from saying button. That stops VO from talking all together. Second, that isn't iOS. That's macOS!
The correct macOS instructions would be to select the verbosity category, click the speech tab, and set button to custom and uncheck the type box.

There seems to be a bug using voiceover to edit the new music playlist options you can add to control center. If anyone has figured out how to change the default playlist for chill, productivity, sleep, etc., please post. TIA

No Apple Intelligence, so no Apple Intelligence bugs. Score one point for old-schoolin’ it.
Also, I too do not use threads in Mail, when you disable that, you get the nice classic list view. which us old folks enjoy very much. Score 2 for old-schoolin’ it.
So far I am enjoying this new update. We will see how things go over this next week.

Note this works better for me. However I've seen others say it doesn't work for them. If you are having issues and are on the beta fill out a Feedback report. Include:
1 make and model of your braille display.
2 System language your using for Braille.

if you are on a call and receive a second call the Call Waiting Caller ID is now read

I went into the control center and it looks exactly like it did before.

1. Open control center, then swipe up or down and double tap on Edit Controls.
2. Swipe up or down again, this time double tap on Show Controls Gallery.
3. Now, navigate by heading until you find Ambient Music heading.
4. Finally, swiped to the right through the list of ambient music choices, such as Sleep, Chill, Productivity, etc, and double tap on the ones you want to add to your Control Center.
Enjoy Tilda

Sure could be useful.

I know there are relatively few Chinese users here, but there must still be some, so I have to mention this. Since the first beta version of iOS 18, there has been a serious error in Chinese voice reading numbers, such as iOS 18.4 often being read as iOS 10.4. This error mainly occurs with the TingTing voice, which is frequently used by Chinese users.

Hi, If you are on the beta keep reporting it. If your not on the beta keep reporting it.
Send an email to
[email protected]
If your on the beta use the feedback assistant.

So after waiting for a long time, I finally updated my 15 Pro Max to iOS 18.4, and once the deluge of all of my Apple products were all updated, minus the watch, I unlocked my phone, opened the Control Center and noticed the new item there called "Visual Intelligence".

After tapping on it, got some popup letting me know that it was downloading a language model, with a Settings button at the bottom.

I selected the Settings button, and as expected, was brought to the "Apple Intelligence" area of the phone's settings, and when swiping passed the "Apple Intelligence" toggle, found a new toggle for "Visual Intelligence", with VoiceOver saying it was downloading and that the toggle was currently set to off.

After a few minutes, I checked again and the download was complete and the toggle was now set to the on position.

I'm still trying to comprehend how this feature functions, but the odd thing I noticed today is this, after opening the Settings app again, going to "Apple Intelligence and Siri" and swiping passed the "Apple Intelligence" toggle, the "Visual Intelligence" toggle is no longer there and seems to have disappeared.

I've restarted my phone several times and each time I've returned to this area, the toggle is still missing.

Anyone else encounter this? Did I hallucinate again and thought I had seen the toggle? Maybe after my 40+ years, my mind is starting to play tricks on me again.

I got a kick out of hearing your accounts of talking with an AI. Sounds a bit like interrogating a Klingon.

Ok VI does seem to have vanished. I came across it a few versions ago and couldn't work out what it would be used for. So, never revisited it. Now just checked and can't find it anywhere on my iPhone 15 pro. So guess it was pulled at least on the 15 phone series.

Now you can bring it up by using action button if you want.

Wow, I really hope Apple did not pull vision intelligence from the iPhone 15 Pro/Max users.

Holger found it lol. However, I still don't get it. Unless I set it up wrong and if so any way of altering the settings you have to take a photo and then it shunts it off to chat gpt and gives you info. Very slow compared to other apps and seems rather pointless unless I'm missing something.

Yeah it looks like Holger posted just a few moments before I posted my last reply. Lol
As for VI being slow, why not just use one of the control center shortcuts to ask any of the various AI applications a question with photo? For example, I have Perplexity, Claude, and Co-Pilot (to name a few), and I have the ability to ask any of those a question with a photo via a control center shortcut.

That is what I mean. As it stands don't see the worth of VI.

If you take the picture, it will give you info about the place, if is a restaurant, it will give you the menue. Pet, plants, and so on. Had not done it yet.

Once you have assigned the action button to activate visual intelligence, you don't necessarily need to take a photo. There is an option to ask what's around, and this will instantly give you information relating to your surrounding, without taking a photo.,

When I posted my comment earlier, I was asking if the toggle for Visual Intelligence is still visible under Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri?

For me, when I originally launched it after updating, the Visual Intelligence toggle was visible in Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri, and after it had downloaded the language model, the toggle itself went from being toggled off to on.

Now, when I open Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri, the toggle is no longer there.

The feature itself is still in the Control Center and in the list of options for use with the Actions button, but the toggle itself in Settings>Apple Intelligence & Siri is not visible anymore.

I need to see if I can't get one of the Be My Eyes shortcuts to work within Control Center. I'd take that over using Perplexity or Claude to describe a scene. 🙂

Perhaps not exactly what you are describing, but this is what I get on a non-apple intelligence device, using the control center shortcut with perplexity.
Nope, this is my desk.

The image shows a desk setup featuring multiple items:

1. **Devices**:
- A laptop with a visible screen and keyboard in the foreground.
- A monitor positioned behind the laptop, which is turned off or displaying a black screen.
- A smaller purple electronic device (possibly a tablet or small laptop) placed on the left side of the desk.

2. **Decorative Items**:
- A pink and white plush toy resembling a gnome or similar figure is positioned behind the monitor.
- A small purple figurine, shaped like a creature with horns, sits near the laptop.

3. **Other Objects**:
- A white circular object, possibly a speaker or smart device, is placed next to the monitor.

4. **Desk Covering**:
- The desk is covered with a red fleece blanket featuring playful designs such as dog bones, hydrants, paw prints, dog houses, and other pet-related imagery.

The overall setup appears functional with a mix of technology and decorative elements for personalization.

I really like the way Perplexity describes my environment.
The purple creature with horns, is a 3D print of the 😈 emoji that we have here on iOS. Not sure if the actual emoji is purple, but the person who made it for me, painted mine purple, so there yah go.
The pink gnome is a housewarming gift from a friend. She is a little eccentric… 😅

From what apple demonstrated it is more than, it also is able to get more info about it, if you use VI by pointing to an object on the store, it will tell you more. Like I stated had not use it. Looks nice but with apple I am not sure any more.

Fair enough. Still, I am satisfied with what my device can do even without the fabled Apple Intelligence. :)

So, I am not sure if this is a bug or not, but pretty much since iOS 17, when I believe the lock screen widgets became a thing, I have noticed that the Date & Time widget has a small quirk.
If you are using this widget, set VO focus on it, then explore by touch and ever so slightly move your finger upward. You will find a clock that VO reads clearly.
Yet, I cannot seem to focus on that clock with swipe gestures, it only seems accessible via explore by touch.

Has anyone else noticed this, and if so, are you able to access the clock portion via swipe gestures?

One question that doesn't appear to have been dealt with thus far: how do you do the indefinite double tap and hold in Braille Screen Input command mode? In that mode, we don't have eight dots to play with.

I have image descriptions enabled, and I have also assigned a 3-finger single tap to read image descriptions.

Last night, I was in the app switcher, and using the 3-finger single tap to read the image descriptions for various apps, just farting around to see what it came up with. Everything worked quite well. I'm pretty sure the last app image it described for me was BARD Mobile. Anyhow, this all worked fine. I turned my phone off and went to bed.

This morning, when I went to weigh myself, I opened my smart scale app (called Zep Life). As soon as I placed focus on the tab bar at the bottom, Image Description read out the descriptions for one of the apps from app switcher, the description for the BARD Mobile app.

This was very repeatable. I put my phone to sleep, unlocked it, went back to Zep Life, and got the same behavior.

It wasn't just Zep Life. If I placed VO focus on anything with an image, in any app, even on the lock screen, VoiceOver would read out the image description for the BARD Mobile app.

You know, just once, I'd like to see a software release from Apple that doesn't break something.

@Bingo Little
if you are on the beta certainly submit feedback this needs to be an option you should have all 8 dots. Is it they can't put 8 dots on the screen the reason you don't have it? I wonder if that is the reason?

If you aren't on the beta, I would send an email to [email protected]. Explain that this is a feature you would use. You are unable to use it because
you don't have 8 dots, and it is not available in BSI mode.

Yes, this one has been going at least since 18.3. To make it shut up, stop and restart Voiceover.