Apple iOS 17.4 Adds Over 100 New Emoji, Better Battery Health Tracking And More

Apple has released its highly anticipated iOS 17.4 update, bringing new emojis, better battery health tracking, and more. Those in Europe are being treated to something extra, as Apple has made changes to the App Store ahead of the deadline for companies to comply with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) in the European Union.

Who doesn’t love a new emoji to express themselves with? Well, Apple has added six new emojis to its already extensive catalogue, with a new mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads. Also included are 18 people and body emoji with the added option to face them in either direction.


For the Apple Podcast lover, Apple also included an update that allows users to follow an episode with text that highlights in sync with the audio in English, Spanish, French, and German. The new feature, called Transcripts, also allows for reading the text in full, searching for a word or a phrase, tapping to play from a specific point, and the ability to be used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast, and VoiceOver.

One of the included updates for “Battery Health” is only for those who own an iPhone 15 Pro or 15 Pro Max. The new screen on the select iPhones adds the ability to view the battery cycle count, manufacture date, and the first time the battery was used. This feature can be found via the Settings app > Battery > Battery Health.


A few of the other updates include:

• Music recognition lets users add songs they have identified to their Apple Music Playlists and Library, as well as Apple Music Classical. 
• Siri has a new option to announce messages received in any supported language. 
• Stolen Device Protection supports the option for increased security in all locations. 
• Call Identification displays Apple-verified business name, logo, and department name when available. 
• Apple Cash virtual card numbers enable users to pay with Apple Cash at merchants that don’t yet accept Apple Pay by typing in the user’s number from Wallet, or using Safari AutoFill.

There are also two fixes included, with one fixing an issue where contact pictures are blank in Find My. The second fixes an issue for Dual SIM users where the phone number changes from primary to secondary and is visible to a group they have messaged.

For those in the EU, the iOS 17.4 update includes opening up the iPhone to “alternative app marketplaces” for the first time. This translates into users being able to install apps from alternative app stores, get support for other web browser engines, and access other payment methods. One drawback, however, is that alternative iPhone app stores will stop working if the user travels outside of the EU for too long. Apple stated that users who venture outside of the EU will be given a “grace period” for short travel, but if gone for too long, access to app marketplaces will be revoked. Apple did not specify an exact length of time the “grace period” provides.

Perhaps the most important updates to be included in iOS 17.4 address several security flaws, including two vulnerabilities that have been reported to have been actively exploited in the wild. CVE-2024-23225 deals with a memory corruption issue in Kernel that a would be attacker with arbitrary kernel read and write capability could exploit to bypass kernel memory protections. CVE-2024-23296 addressed a memory corruption issue in the RTKit real-time operating system that an attacker with arbitrary kernel read and write capabilities could exploit to bypass kernel memory protections. Apple did not reveal how these issues were being exploited, but did confirm both issues were addressed with improved validation in iOS 17.4, as well as iPadOS 17.4, iOS 16.7.6, and iPadOS 16.7.6.