Released iOS 11.4 for iPhone and iPad with AirPlay 2, iCloud messaging and more

May 30, 2018

Yesterday afternoon at 20:00 Apple officially released version 11.4 for iPhone and iPad. This is the fourteenth version of iOS which came a month after the release of version 11.3.1, which fixed a bug regarding the operation of third-party displays.

iOS 11.4 is available for all devices that can accept it, through "Settings". More specifically, to install iOS 11.4 from within your iPhone or iPad you will need to do the following path: Settings > General > Software Update. Of course, the update can also be done through iTunes. Compatible devices are iPhone 5s or later, iPad mini 2 or later, iPad Air or later and the sixth generation iPod Touch.

iOS 11.4 would be an update aimed at audio, as it introduces support for multi-room audio through a protocol that combines it with the brand new AirPlay 2, which also made an appearance.

AirPlay 2

AirPlay 2 is compatible with both Apple TV and HomePod, but in the future it will also be available for third-party speakers such as Bang & Olufsen, Bluesound, Bose, Bowers & Wilkins, Denon, Libratone, Marantz, Marshall, Naim, Pioneer and Sonos.

With AirPlay 2, you can play the same song simultaneously on multiple speakers in the house and move music from one room to another or play music to/from any room using an iOS device, HomePod, Apple TV or Siri via voice commands.

Through AirPlay 2 you can also control where you want music to play from, either through Control Center or through other apps on an iOS device.

Stereo pairing and multi-room audio for HomePod

HomePod for its part has gained support for stereo pairing designed to allow two speakers to work together to provide the long-awaited multi-room audio experience.

Messages in iCloud

iOS 11.4 also finally brought messages to the cloud (iCloud), a feature we were waiting to see in version 11.3. We should point out that Apple has been working on it for several months and had presented it in June at WWDC 2017 with the announcement of iOS 11.

So far, incoming iMessages appear on all devices that are connected to the same Apple ID, but there's no real syncing capability. Now, with messages in the cloud, we can download iMessages to new devices. Even older messages are stored in iCloud, so we can save storage space on our devices.

As for the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, there is a new wallpaper (PRODUCT)RED. It is still doubtful whether the USB Restricted Mode feature has also been introduced, with which the device can via the Ligtning cable only be charged when connected to a computer once it has not been unlocked for at least 7 days.

The version identifier is 15F79.

New updates have also been made to watchOS (4.3.1), tvOS (11.4) and iTunes (12.7.5).