Apple released iOS 18.4 on March 31, more than two months after the release of iOS 18.3. The latest update introduced a handful of new features, like more emoji and additional controls in Control Center, to all iPhones. The update also makes it easy to find new recipes to try at home with a new Food section in Apple News.
You can download iOS 18.4 by going to Settings > General > Software Update, tapping Update Now and following the prompts on your screen.
Read more: An Expert’s Guide to iOS 18
The new section features recipes from publications like Good Housekeeping, Food & Wine and more. You can find other food and restaurant related stories there, too.
Here’s what you need to know about Apple News Food in iOS 18.4.
What is Apple News Food?
Apple News Food is a new section in the Apple News app that will be available with iOS 18.4. “With the new Food feature, users will be able to find stories curated by Apple News editors, as well as browse, search, and filter tens of thousands of recipes in the Recipe Catalog — with new recipes added every day,” Apple wrote in an email.
How do I access Apple News Food?
1. Open News.
2. Tap Following in the bottom-right corner of your screen.
3. Tap Food.
You’ll see options for Recipe Catalog and Saved Recipes near the top of the page, and you can scroll down to see other recipes and articles. You can also tap the fork and knife symbol in the top-right corner of your screen at any time while in the Food section to access the Recipe Catalog. Once you’re in Recipe Catalog, the fork and knife symbol will be replaced with a box symbol that you can tap to access your Saved Recipes. To save recipes, tap a recipe that you’re interested in and then tap Save. The recipe will be stored in your Saved Recipes.
How much does Apple News Food cost?
The Food section is free to everyone, but the free version only gives you access to a few stories and recipes each day. With the free version of this section, I could access recipes like million dollar sausage balls and this cucumber-avocado-tomato sandwich. I’m not a picky eater and will gladly try both of these, but I couldn’t access many other recipes I was interested in with the free version.
However, if you subscribe to Apple News Plus ($13 a month) or the premier tier of Apple One ($38 a month), you get full access to the Food section. That means you can browse a catalog of thousands of recipes and articles, save recipes in your own digital cookbook and access recipes offline. The recipe catalog makes it easy to find dinner ideas, vegetarian recipes and even cocktails.
What else can you do with Apple News Food?
You’ll also be able to access what Apple calls cook mode in Apple News Food, which will show step-by-step instructions in full screen on your device. You’ll see one step at a time, but you’ll have to swipe on your screen to go to the next step. I tried to ask Siri to go to the next step, and the digital assistant ignored my pleas. This could be a problem if you’re cooking and your hands are covered in flour, grease or anything else you don’t want to get on your phone, but you still have to go to the next step.
This feature does prevent your iPhone from going to sleep or dimming the screen. Which is nice, because then you don’t have to unlock your phone every minute to make sure you’re following the directions (not that I’ve ever done that or anything).
Cook mode can also display the entire list of ingredients for each recipe by tapping Ingredients near the top of your screen, which means that you don’t have to write down an ingredient list the next time you go to the store.
However, you can’t copy and paste these ingredients or directions from News into another app, like Notes. You can share a link to the recipe, or save it as a quick note, but if you want to ask your roommate or partner to pick up a few ingredients while they’re out, you can’t easily copy and paste those ingredients into a message.
To access cook mode, tap a recipe in the app you want to try then tap Cook.
For more on iOS 18, here are all the features included in iOS 18.4 and our iOS 18 cheat sheet. You can also check out all the latest emoji on your iPhone and what new controls iOS 18.4 brought to the Control Center.
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