iOS 26.4 is currently in beta testing with developers and public beta users. The update adds a number of new features to iPhone, including improvements to Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Messages and more.
Here are all the new iPhone features in iOS 26.4, plus everything else you need to know.
iOS 26.4 details
iOS 26.4 is available in beta now for developers and public beta users. The latest iOS 26.4 beta 3 is the latest version, with a new build expected soon.
iOS 26.4 is expected to be released for everyone sometime in late March or early April, just like my colleague Ryan noted earlier. For example, iOS 18.4 was released on March 31.
iOS 26.4: New Features
Apple Music
Apple Music is a big focus of iOS 26.4, adding many new features and design changes:
- Concerts: The ability to find concerts near you and tour dates for artists in your Apple Music Library.
- New full-screen artwork that “brings your music to life” for albums and playlists.
- A redesigned Profile section with easier access to manage your account, subscriptions and more.
- Support for adding a song to more than one playlist at the same time.
Playlist Playground
Also in Apple Music, iOS 26.4 adds a new Playlist Playground feature. It allows you to create playlists using Apple Intelligence by simply providing text descriptions. For example, you can type in something like “sad songs from the 1990s for a rainy day” and Apple Music will automatically create a playlist based on that request.
Once Playlist Playground generates a playlist, you can then iterate over it with further requests without starting the process over.
This feature is still in beta, so it’s not perfect. Still, it’s an example of how Apple is integrating Apple Intelligence throughout the iPhone experience.
Read more: iOS 26.4 beta adds new AI feature ‘Playlist Playground’ for Apple Music
New widgets
iOS 26.4 adds a new collection of Ambient Music widgets that you can add to your iPhone’s home screen. This allows you to easily start playing music for one of four moods:
- quietly
- Productivity
- sleep
- Welfare
The widget is available in small and medium sizes.
Reminder app
In iOS 26.2, Apple added a new “Urgent” label to tasks in the Reminders app. When you mark a task as generated, the Reminders app will also set an alarm to remind you of it.
iOS 26.4 builds on this by adding a new smart list that outlines all the tasks you’ve set as urgent.
RCS Encryption in Messages
last march, Apple announced its plans to add support for end-to-end encryption for RCS messages.
iOS 26.4 adds testing support this feature. After updating to iOS 26.4 beta 2, iPhone users can go to Settings > Messages > RCS Messaging and look for the new “End-to-End Encryption (Beta)” key — which should be enabled by default.
Additionally, when you message someone with RCS encryption enabled, you’ll see a new lock icon on the chat thread. This icon will also appear in iMessage themes, as iMessage has supported encryption since 2011.
Apple, however, says that end-to-end RCS encryption won’t actually ship as part of iOS 26.4. Instead, it is included in this beta for testing purposes and Apple says will be available in a future iOS 26 update.
Apple Podcasts
iOS 26.4 brings a major update to Apple Podcasts with “advanced video podcasting capabilities.”
This refresh simplifies switching between watching a video podcast and listening to an audio podcast. The features are powered by Apple’s HLS technology, enabling automatic quality adjustment based on network conditions.
Apple is also adding support for dynamic video ads to Apple Podcasts with iOS 26.4.
Read more: Apple Podcasts app gets ‘enhanced video podcast experience’ in iOS 26.4
The health of the apple
iOS 26.4 adds more Sleep and Vitals data to the Apple Health app. There’s a new average sleep time metric that lets you track your average sleep time along with the previous night’s sleep time for comparison.
Blood oxygen readings are also added to the Vitals chart. This comes after Apple GOING a “redesigned” version of the feature last August amid an ongoing patent dispute.
Read more: iOS 26.4 adds more Sleep and Vitals data to Apple Health
Stolen device protection
Stolen device protection is now enabled by default in iOS 26.4. When this feature is enabled, you’ll need to authenticate with Face ID to perform some tasks when you’re away from trusted places like home and work. It also includes a time delay for a second biometric authentication for some sensitive actions.
Prior to iOS 26.4, Stolen Device Protection had to be manually enabled by iPhone users.
More iOS 26.4 features and changes
- In the App Store and Games apps, Apple has moved the search bar back to the top of the Search tab. The tab is also now integrated into the bottom navigation bar instead of being separated into its own floating circle.
- The Wallpaper Gallery has been redesigned in iOS 26.4 with more separation between the different categories of available options.
- The gallery of Apple Watch faces has been redesigned with more separation between the different options.
- iOS 26.4 adds a new “Reduce Highlighting Effects” in the Accessibility menu of Settings. This change should reduce the lighting effects around the edges of buttons, sliders, and app icons, but it’s not fully functional yet.
- When your iPhone is in dark mode, the menu pop-ups in Control Center will also appear with a dark background.
- Freeform Creator Studio is now live for subscribers.
- iOS 26.4 adds a new iCloud setting allows users to enable a setting that allows them to search for Photos and iCloud Drive content in iCloud.com.
iOS 26.4 is out
Apple is likely to make more changes to iOS 26.4 as beta testing continues. In the meantime, what’s your favorite change? What do you think about the new features in Apple Music? Tell us below in the comments.
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