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Not everyiOS 18addition has to be monumental to be useful.
An new capability iniOS 18.4that gives you greater control over App Store downloads proves that.
Before iOS 18.4, you could only stop app downloads, not pause them.
That means the feature will be a part of the wider iOS 18.4 release expected to arrive in April.
Pausing app downloads probably hasn’t been a part of your iOS wish list.
It certainly wasn’t on mine.
Before iOS 18.4, you could only stop app downloads, not pause them.
Before iOS 18.4, you had one option cancel that download and loop back and try some other time.
That’s not particularly convenient.
Like I said, this is not a game-changing addition to the iPhone experience.
iOS 18.4 adds a pause button for downloads, and lets you resume that download later.
But it does make managing your apps a lot more convenient than it was before.
How pausing app downloads works
Here’s an example of the iOS 18.4 addition in progress.
I tried downloadingCall of Duty: Mobile on an iPhone running an earlier version of iOS 18.
Now, let’s switch over to a phone running iOS 18.4.
Instead of that stop button, though, there’s now a pause button.
The new software is also supposed to bring AI-generated summaries of customer reviews to select apps.
Alas, none of those entries had any summaries in their Ratings & Reviews section.
Which side of the divide will App Store review summaries fall on?
Once they start showing up on my iOS 18.4-equipped iPhones, I’ll be able to let you know.
Now it sounds as ifthose are getting pushed back, possibly to 2026.
That’s abig black eye for Appleno matter how you want to spin it.
Because even small changes can make a big difference when it comes to improving how your iPhone works.