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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Apple’s iOS 26.4 spruces up Apple Music, Podcasts, and extra.
- watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS even have been up to date.
- However the brand new and improved Siri nonetheless is ready within the wings.
iPhone customers can now formally obtain and set up iOS 26.4, a brand new replace that provides a wide range of options. Nobody merchandise by itself is earth-shaking. However collectively, they do provide a number of helpful enhancements, in addition to the same old safety patches.
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1. Apple Music
First up are some intelligent additions to the Apple Music app. With the brand new Playlist Playground, you should utilize AI to create the kind of playlist you need. For instance, inform the app that you really want it to construct a playlist of jazz tunes from the Fifties, and it ought to generate one based mostly in your music library.
The brand new Live shows characteristic factors you to close by stay reveals by artists who seem in your library. You will additionally obtain suggestions for brand new artists and reveals based mostly in your favorites.
Additionally: Spotify vs. Apple Music: I’ve subscribed to both streaming services, and prefer this one
The built-in Music Recognition characteristic can now work offline to establish a tune that you just hear after which present you the outcomes if you’re again on-line. And as a neat visible impact, the Music app now shows full-screen background pictures for supported albums and playlists. For instance, the display screen for The Beatles’ well-known White Album is painted completely in white.
2. Apple Podcasts
The Apple Podcasts app can now show video feeds for supported podcasts. You may simply change between the audio and video, based mostly on whether or not you wish to watch or simply take heed to an episode.
3. New emoji
Subsequent up are eight new emoji. Need to boost your textual content messages with some cool pictures? Faucet into the Emoji keyboard, and you will find new ones for a ballet dancer, Bigfoot, a distorted face, a flight cloud, a landslide, an orca, a treasure chest, and a trombone.
4. Keyboard repair
That brings us to a long-awaited characteristic, or moderately repair. Many iPhone customers have been pissed off by keyboard accuracy issues, complaining that the fallacious character generally seems once they faucet a key on the on-screen keyboard. This drawback has been extra noticeable if you’re typing at a quick fee. With iOS 26.4, Apple has reportedly mounted this glitch, so hopefully you may stumble upon fewer typos if you’re typing or tapping away.
5. Accessibility enhancements
The Accessibility choices included in iOS can assist you higher work along with your iPhone, particularly if in case you have sure limitations or sensitivities. Right here, iOS 26.4 provides just a few new gadgets. Now you can decrease brilliant flashes if you faucet on buttons and different components. Should you’re delicate to display screen movement, the setting to cut back movement can reduce the animations for Liquid Glass.
And you may extra simply activate subtitles and captions whereas watching a video.
6. Buy sharing
With the Household Sharing characteristic, you possibly can share purchases throughout your whole household. Previously, although, you had to make use of the household organizer’s fee technique. With iOS 26.4, every member of the household can use their very own fee technique to fund their on-line purchases.
7. CarPlay additions
Need to chat along with your favourite AI within the automobile? You will quickly have the ability to do this. iOS 26.4 now helps voice-based conversational apps for CarPlay. This opens the door for such apps as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Claude AI to help you as you wend your approach to your subsequent vacation spot. The builders themselves first have to increase their apps to assist CarPlay.
However as soon as that is executed, it’s best to have the ability to keep on a full dialog with the AI of your selection.
8. Safety patches
Apart from all the brand new and improved options, the newest iOS model delivers a number of safety patches. With 34 fixes in complete, the patches restore flaws in such options as Audio, iCloud, Mail, Printing, Siri, and the iOS kernel. The identical fixes apply to iPadOS 26.4.
To put in the newest replace in your iPhone or iPad, head to Settings, choose Normal, after which faucet Software program Replace. Enter your passcode, after which enable the brand new model to obtain and set up.
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Past the iPhone and iPad, Apple additionally up to date its different respective working methods. Meaning you may discover new 26.4 variations for watchOS, macOS, tvOS, and visionOS.
No new Siri
Although the brand new options and fixes are definitely welcome, there’s one evident omission, particularly Siri. Earlier rumors had urged that iOS 26.4 might bring the new and improved Siri to the forefront, at the least for testing. However we’re caught with the identical outdated flawed and fallible voice assistant.
There’s nonetheless hope that iOS 26.5 might unveil a greater Siri, one powered by Google’s Gemini AI on the backend. However this objective has been delayed so many instances, as Apple has run into issues making an attempt to enhance its voice assistant. Even when we do see some key adjustments within the subsequent model of iOS, we might have to attend till iOS 27 for Siri to totally bloom.
Additionally: Your iPhone has a secret button that’s seriously useful – here’s how to unlock it
In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg reporter and Apple watcher Mark Gurman mentioned that Apple is testing a devoted Siri app much like those for rival AIs. This Siri would additionally higher combine with the apps and settings in your system that can assist you management and handle all of it. If true, then we should always see the brand new Siri debut at Apple’s 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference, beginning June 8.
