Apples Releases the 26.4 Versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS

Apple has just released the 26.4 versions of all of its software platforms, and there are some new features for Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and the Freeform app, eight new emoji, Liquid Glass tweaks, and more. Unfortunately, the long-awaited Siri revamp has been delayed to a future update.

Here are the common changes included in iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4:

Apple Music improvements: The new ‘Playlist Playground’ feature uses AI to generate a custom playlist from a text prompt. The update also adds nearby concerts for artists in your library, an Ambient Music widget with curated playlists, and an offline music recognition tool in Control Center.

Apple Podcasts improvements: For podcasts with video support, it’s now possible to seamlessly switch between video and audio, and videos can also be downloaded for offline viewing

Freeform improvements: The digital creation app is getting advanced image creation and editing tools and a premium content library for Apple Creator Studio subscribers

Liquid Glass improvements: The Reduce Motion setting will more reliably reduce animations for users sensitive to screen motion.

Reminders improvements: It’s now possible to mark reminders as ‘urgent’ and filter these urgent reminders in Smart Lists.

Subtitles and captions: Settings are now available from the captions icon, with a real-time preview.

Purchase Sharing: Members of a family will now be able to use their own payment method instead of the one from the family organizer to purchase content on the App Store and other apps.

New emoji: This update adds 8 new emoji, including distorted face, trombone, landslide, ballet dancer, and more.

For Mac users, macOS 26.4 brings back the compact tab bar layout in Safari that disappeared when macOS 26 came out in September. Apple Watch users are getting a redesigned Workout app, while Apple Vision Pro users will enjoy a new ‘fovetead streaming’ feature that will allow apps to display immersive content with a high resolution and low latency.

Lastly, tvOS 26.4 brings some notable updates to Apple TV users: There’s a new “Continuous Audio Connection’ setting that will help to make transitions between audio formats sound more seamless. The subtitles menu is also getting a new ‘Styles’ option, and the Apple TV app can now recommend movies and TV shows with ‘Genius Browse.’ Moreover, users will notice that the standalone Movies and TV shows from the iTunes era have disappeared, which makes sense as all their content is now available from the Apple TV app.