Apple has now begun rolling out iOS 11.4 to all the eligible devices including iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The iOS 11.4 update brings a host of improvements, in addition to the long-awaited AirPlay 2 support, which was announced at WWDC last year. The update also brings new controls for HomePod, however, the biggest feature that is a part of this update is Messages in iCloud that will now enable the synchronisation of messages on iCloud to end the related clumsiness.
The iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users can go to the settings page on their devices, followed by a tap on the General. The users then need to tap on Software Update to check for the update. Should the users receive the iOS 11.4, they will need a Wi-Fi connection to download the update. The iOS 11.4 is 280.9MB in size. Before installing the update, it is recommended to back up all the data on the device.
Talking about the new features, the AirPlay 2 will now allow the users to control multi-room audio within the house. The users will be able to play the same song on different Apple devices inside the house, either by playing the music manually on a device or asking Siri to do that for you. The AirPlay 2- enabled devices will also be available in the iOS Control Centre on the lockscreen. The users will also be able to play games on your device without the unwanted pause to the music playback via AirPlay 2.
The update also brings support for HomePod that can now be set up using iPhone or iPad with the stereo pairing. The pairing feature on the HomePod will sense where it is kept in a room to automatically optimise the sound accordingly. The HomePod speaker will also receive the same update over-the-air, given that the user has given the automatic update permission on the iPhone or iPad.
The next big feature is the Messages on iCloud. Apple has now released a long-awaited feature that has annoyed many users – they couldn’t conveniently sync the messages across devices. The text messages, images, videos, and Animoji sent to a user via iMessage will now be synced on iCloud, so that they are available whenever the user wants to restore them. To enable this feature, the users need to go to iCloud settings on their iOS device. After they enter the settings, the toggle for Messages needs to be turned on to enable syncing.
The iOS 11.4 update also addresses the ‘black dot’ bug that widely affected WhatsApp, as well as iMessage for many users. The bug caused the app to jam for a while, sometimes leading to an unexpected crash.
