iOS 18.4 beta introduces AI-powered review summaries in the App Store

Macworld

Earlier this week, Apple released iOS 18.4 beta 2, featuring a new pause/resume button for active downloads in the App Store. That, however, isn’t the only new change brought to the company’s digital storefront. With the latest iOS and iPadOS betas, users can view AI-generated summaries of reviews left by others on App Store listings.

As discovered by Macworld, the latest betas of iOS and iPadOS 18.4 bring Apple Intelligence-powered review summaries to the App Store. The feature, initially referenced by an App Store Story last October, is currently rolling out to eligible app and game listings in the US. Some of the criteria include the language being English and the app having a sufficient number of user reviews to generate a fair summary. According to Apple, the feature will support more languages and regions “over the course of the year.”




Screenshot
Foundry

The AI-generated summaries appear just before user reviews on the App Store, highlighting the most common thoughts and themes expressed by users. The processing seemingly takes place in the cloud, as my iPhone and iPad both display identical summaries for the same app listings. As such, it’s not clear whether these summaries will be available to everyone or only devices running Apple Intelligence.

Given the unpredictable nature of AI-generated content, Apple has provided both developers and users with the option to report problematic review summaries. Apple will then presumably regenerate or hide them altogether. To keep the App Store summaries up to date, Apple states that it refreshes them at least once a week. This ensures that the latest user reviews are taken into account. Those interested in individual reviews can continue to read and sort through them based on recency, helpfulness, etc.

Beyond AI-powered review summaries on the App Store, iOS 18.4 beta 2 introduces seven new emojis, Visual Intelligence on the iPhone 15 Pro, new actions in the Shortcuts app, and a standalone Apple Vision Pro app. We expect the version to roll out to all users beginning next month.