Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.4 - MacRumorsOpen MenuShow RoundupsShow Forums menuVisit ForumsOpen Sidebar
Skip to Content

Apple Releases macOS Sonoma 14.4

Apple today released macOS Sonoma 14.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Sonoma operating system that launched last September. macOS Sonoma 14.4 comes over a month after macOS Sonoma 14.3, an update that brought collaborative Apple Music playlists.

sonoma desktop wwdc
The ‌‌‌‌macOS Sonoma‌‌ 14.4‌ update can be downloaded for free on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System Settings. There's also a macOS 13.6.5 release for those who are still running macOS Ventura and a macOS 12.7.4 release for those who have macOS Monterey installed.

With macOS Sonoma 14.4, Apple is introducing new emoji characters and adding support for reading Podcast Episode text in full with search support. There are new features for Business Updates in Messages, along with a toggle for showing only icons for websites in the Safari Favorites Bar. Apple's release notes for the update are below.

macOS Sonoma 14.4 introduces new emoji as well as other features, bug fixes, and security updates for your Mac.

Emoji
- New mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads emoji are now available in emoji keyboard
- 18 people and body emoji support facing the opposite direction

This update also includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
- Podcasts Episode text can be read in full, searched for a word or phrase, clicked to play from a specific point and used with accessibility features such as Text Size, Increase Contrast, and VoiceOver
- Business Updates in Messages for Business let you get updates that you've opted into, like order status, flight notifications, fraud alerts or other transactions from trusted businesses
- Safari Favorites Bar adds an option to show only icons for websites

Some features may not be available for all regions, or on all Apple devices.

For detailed information about the security content of this update, please visit: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222

More information on the features that have been introduced in macOS Sonoma to date can be found in our macOS Sonoma roundup.

Related Forum: macOS Sonoma

Popular Stories

imac video apple feature

Apple Released Yet Another New Product Today

Friday March 20, 2026 2:39 pm PDT by
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as...
iPhone 18 Pro Deep Red Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

Wednesday March 18, 2026 7:39 am PDT by
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...
ios 26 4 pastel

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

Friday March 20, 2026 2:44 pm PDT by
iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...

Top Rated Comments

AAPLGeek Avatar
27 months ago
Once again, emojis take the lead on release notes.

Apple should just rebrand macOS to toyOS now, the transformation is nearly done.
Score: 52 Votes (Like | Disagree)
27 months ago
Sheesh folks, get a grip. ENOUGH with the emoji bitching. Its been explained way too many times that this 1) isn't how standards work -apple isn't creating these, just adding them as approved, and 2) certainly do NOT have folks pulled off systems development teams to do this.

Out of 13 comments so far.. EIGHT (?!) have been about whatever deal you have with emojis pushing your buttons or something. take a break please. please. seriously. not funny anymore.

I'm guessing most of us would much rather read actual feedback and comments about the system changes... I'm especially interested in photos, music & the changes in the printing system.

Music (doesn't seem to have much in terms of changes here, still have an issue with importing mp3s to a new playlist and having them disappear until i do it a 2nd time, then its fine)

Photos - would love a way to search for unnamed faces, but found a nice script that helps with that finally. Recognition seems better all the time though of faces and objects. I did notice for the first time that when browsing the photos you get a little 'i' for 'info', normally the photo meta details, place and so on. and if the app finds something of interest in the photo it adds a pulsing star to the icon. for me, a cat picture when i clicked that, not only did it pull up info about cats, but correctly identfied the breed of my cat!
Score: 51 Votes (Like | Disagree)
27 months ago

Once again, emojis take the lead on release notes.

Apple should just rebrand macOS to toyOS now, the transformation is nearly done.
fpacOS... Fisher Price Activity Center Operating System

Critical Update: New Emojis added, Emoji security flaw patched, Emoji designs updated, Emoji desktop enabled
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
27 months ago
Apples marketing research revealed the following customer priorities

1. Emoji
2. Emoji
3. Emoji
4. Emoji
5. Emoji

78290. Desktop wallpapers

193523. Critical Security Patches

2389162674626. Core OS functionality and stability
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
27 months ago
Are updates to Messages and Podcasts really worthy mentions. These are apps that should be separate downloadable updates.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Realityck Avatar
27 months ago
Released today

* macOS 14.4 (23E214) - March 7, 2024
* tvOS 17.4 (21L227) - March 7, 2024
* visionOS 1.1 (21O211) - March 7, 2024
* watchOS 10.4 (21T216) - March 7, 2024
Score: 15 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Related Apple News: Sport | Health | Local News | Opinion | Business