Apple just released iOS 26.4 and it's a

major update with new emojis, big

changes to the music app, a major bug

fix for the keyboard, more liquid glass,

and so much more. So, in this video,

we're going to be covering everything

new along with the performance and

battery life, if you should update or

not, and what's coming next. Okay, so

let's start by talking about what's new

in iOS 26.4. And throughout this video,

I will have iOS 26.3 on the left, iOS

26.4 on the right. And the very first

change is going to come on the software

update screen. So now with iOS 26.4, you

can tap on the text of the update where

it shows 26.4 beta 2 to see and reveal

the build number for that update before

ever installing it. And then also in the

settings, if you go to general about and

then iOS version, you now have to tap on

that text to see the build number,

whereas before it just showed it there

by default. On the passcode entry

screen, the circles down here and the

text is now centered, whereas before it

was left aligned. And also the X is in

the upper left now instead of the upper

right. Now let's go into the music

application because there are some

pretty massive changes here in iOS 26.4

and it starts with a new Apple

intelligence feature called playlist

playground. So now if you go to your

library section and you look up top in

the upper right hand corner we have a

new little option there that shows like

a playlist with a plus on it. If you tap

on that this gives you the option to

create a playlist with just a text

prompt. So, this uses Apple

Intelligence, which by the way, this is

still in beta, as you can see right

here. And this is also only available in

certain countries for now. So, if you're

not seeing this, it might not be

available for your country or you just

need Apple Intelligence, the models to

download onto your device. You can see

that you do get some playlist ideas

here. So, it will give you some options

and also some suggested songs. Okay, so

I typed in upbeat songs from the 2000s

to work out to. And you can see you get

this little animation down here while it

creates this playlist for you. and it

will give you a playlist of about 25

songs and you can choose which ones you

want to keep. And you can see right here

it shows 25 songs, an hour and 42

minutes and you can see over here you

can reorder these in the playlist it

shows you the total time. If you go down

to the bottom you can add songs or you

can continue to customize it. So if you

want to add things onto it or if you

want to refresh it, you could do that

right there as well. And once you tap on

the check mark up here in the upper

right hand corner, it will create that

playlist for you and then it treats it

just like a regular playlist. You can

see it shows it right here. And of

course, you can rename it and change the

artwork if you would like to, but it

will create that playlist for you just

like a normal one. And you might have

also noticed that we have a completely

different look here as well for this

playlist. So, if you go into what this

looks like on iOS 26.3, take a look at

the difference. So, the playlists will

now look so much more modern in iOS 26.4

because it has full screen artwork. And

you can see that color continues down

this playlist. And it's not just for

playlists, it's also for albums. So, if

we go into an album, let's just go into

this album right here. Take a look at

this. It's the same thing. You can see

that the artwork goes completely down.

And it also looks good for animated

artworks. Let me show you that. So, take

a look at the animated artwork in iOS

26.4 on the right compared to iOS 26.3

on the left. It looks so much better, so

much more immersive, and that color how

it kind of just goes all the way down

just makes it look so much more modern

than it did on previous versions of iOS

26. And you'll also notice if we go into

a playlist or an album, we have new

buttons now. So you can see shuffle on

the left, download on the right, whereas

before we had play on the left, shuffle

on the right, and they were also much

larger buttons with text. Now they're

just glyph icons with play right there

in the middle. Also, when you go to add

a song to a playlist, so we'll haptic

press and go to add to playlist. You'll

see up in the upper right hand corner,

we now have this where you can filter

your playlist in this section right

here. Also, you have this down here in

the bottom right where you can add this

song to multiple playlists. You can

choose if you want to add one specific

song to multiple playlists at the same

time. You couldn't do that before. Also,

take a look at the search bar right

here. So, before it was gray, now it's

white. Also, it said new playlist up

here before, but now new playlist is

down here. Just a plus in the bottom

lefthand corner. And it's not just

creating a new playlist. You could also

create a new folder by just selecting

one song. Now, here's a cool one. If you

go to the homepage in iOS 26.4 for and

scroll all the way down near the bottom,

you will see that there's a brand new

section called concerts. And this is

going to show you concerts nearby. So,

it's going to use your location. The

first time you open this on 26.4, you

will have to give access to your

location. And then it will show you

concerts nearby that are coming up. And

if you're wondering about a certain

artist and when they have a concert

coming up, you can go to the artist page

and it will show upcoming concerts right

here. That's new. And also, if you

scroll down, it will show all upcoming

concerts right here. You can tap on that

and it will show you all those upcoming

dates along with, you know, where

they're at and the time. And if you go

into that specific date, so say we go

into this one right here, you can see it

shows the ability to get tickets, play,

it shows more details about it,

including the set list. Also, in iOS

26.4, we have offline music recognition.

So, if you start trying to detect a song

that's maybe playing in public and you

don't have an internet connection, it

will now still take that information in

and it will give you that result once

you come back online. There's also new

ambient music widgets. So, if you do use

like sleep sounds, for example, you can

now access them easily with a widget.

And you can see you can even have all

four in one right here as well. And by

the way, you'll probably notice that

when you haptic press right here and go

to edit, this view is new as well. So,

that's liquid glass. Before on iOS 26.3,

if you tapped on edit, you can see that

that section was not liquid glass. So,

that is a change there. It looks much

better here in iOS 26.4 4 when you press

edit right there on the home screen.

Now, if you're not a fan of some of the

liquid glass elements, there is a way to

disable those with iOS 26.4. So, if you

go into your settings and then go down

to accessibility and then into display

and text size and you scroll down,

there's a new option here called reduce

bright effects. And what this does is it

will reduce the bright flashes when you

tap on buttons or menus throughout iOS.

Let me show you. So, it's pretty subtle,

but if you take a look at this menu

right here, for example, when I go ahead

into this element, you'll notice that

the whole box, this whole element

brightens as I start interacting with

it. So, the whole thing gets brighter.

And you can see every time I tap on it,

that whole box gets brighter. So, what

this feature does, what this change in

accessibility does is if I turn this on

and I go back and do the same thing,

you'll notice that the whole box does

not light up anymore and we don't have

that flash effect like we had before.

And you may not have even noticed the

areas where this little flash effect

takes place. Like for example with the

text field right here. If you tap on

that, you'll notice that, you know,

especially in dark mode, you could see

it, but it also shows up in light mode

that there's kind of this little flash

when you tap into that element. And when

you turn this feature on again, it will

reduce that. It will basically eliminate

that. So now when you tap on it, we

don't have that flash around the text

field. Also, if we go back into our

accessibility settings and go to motion,

if we turn on the reduce motion feature,

which is not new, but now, if you have

this enabled in iOS 26.4, it will more

reliably reduce the animations of liquid

glass. So, if you're sensitive to

onscreen motion, and those animations

were maybe too much for you, now with

reduced motion, it will eliminate those

effects more accurately. There's also a

change to captions with iOS 26.4. So, if

you go into accessibility and then into

subtitles and captioning, there's a new

option here for automatic subtitles when

languages don't match. Before, we only

had show when muted and show on skip

back. Now, it's when languages don't

match. So, for example, if your

preferred iPhone language is English,

but you're watching a Spanish movie, it

will now show subtitles automatically

because it knows that your primary

language is English. And then if we go

into the TV application and go to the

three dots down here, you'll see that

when we go into subtitles, we have a

couple of changes here. First off, it's

not, you know, super overwhelming by

seeing all these languages pop up right

away. You have to go into the language

section there now. So you have to go

into language and from here you can

choose the language you want. And then

also we have the section on there for

style. So you can change the style

straight from this menu. You could do

that before in the settings, but now you

can do it straight from this little menu

right there. And also you have the on

mute or off right there as well. And by

the way, when you go into the style

right here, you'll also notice a change

in the bottom right hand corner. Before

there was an expand section there. Now

that is no longer here. If you're in

dark mode and you have to press into

this menu right here, you'll see that

when you go to one of these drop downs,

the text, the background now is dark

instead of being light. So this is kind

of not cohesive with being in dark mode

before, but now it's fixed with 26.4.

This update also includes video podcast.

So now if you're following a podcast

where there is a video, you can see that

the video now plays in line in the

podcast application. And if you don't

want the video to be playing, if you

only want to hear audio, you can also

just turn the video off if you would

like to. It's a very easy way to turn

that video on or off. iOS 26.4 also

includes eight new emojis. So we now

have this distorted face right there,

which is undoubtedly going to be one of

the most used emojis in iOS. We also

have a Bigfoot or Sasquatch, an orca, a

treasure chest, a trombone, a rock. We

have a fight cloud, and a ballet dancer.

There's also a new animation when you're

composing a new message. So, before when

you tapped on this, you can see there's

kind of no animation. It kind of just

comes up from the bottom. But in iOS

26.4, take a look at this. So, if you

press on compose, there's kind of an

animation that comes from the right hand

side. If you go to add a new wallpaper

to your device, you'll notice that we

now have packs of default wallpaper. So

weather, you can see is no longer

installed by default unless we tap on

get. And you'll see that as you continue

going down. So emoji, kaleidoscopes,

unity, you can see that they're no

longer just there taking up space. You

now have to kind of download those to

get them on your device. And they show

up like this. And if you go into the

watch application and go into the face

gallery, you'll see the same thing here.

So if you go down, you can see that you

will have to kind of download these

different ones. So Metropolitan, Nike

Bounce, Globe, all of those. They're no

longer just installed by default. Now,

here is a controversial change in iOS

26.4, take a look at the bottom right

hand corner in the App Store. So now in

iOS 26.4, the search option is now

combined with the rest of the navbar

down at the bottom instead of being

separated. And also when you go into

search, take a look at this. Search is

now at the very top instead of down here

at the bottom. And also, if you take a

look at the text, it now says games,

apps, stories, and more. Whereas before

it said games, apps, and more until you

tapped on it and then it said stories.

And if you go into your profile page on

the app store, there are several changes

here. So first off, before it just said

account and it was centered. Now it says

Apple account and it's left aligned

along with a colorful glyph icon to the

left of it. Beneath that we have our

name, which is now in bold. And beneath

it, it doesn't say our email address

anymore. It now says account info,

payments, and settings. Also, game

center now has a different glyph to the

left of it. and it shows our username in

smaller text. We now have subscriptions

at the very top whereas before apps was

at the very top and also apps and

purchase history are now combined

instead of being separated. And you can

see down here all of these are changed

as well. So add money, redeem code, send

gift. Those are now separated and they

are buttons now instead of a list of

little links right here. And then also

at the bottom we have family settings

and app store settings. And before you

were able to scroll down to updates, but

now you have to go into the updates

section to see your updates. And also

update all is now a separate section.

It's kind of separated from these right

here. So it still says upcoming

automatic updates, but update all is its

own button above that. iOS 26.4 adds a

new urgent section in the quick toolbar

right here. So before you could mark

things as urgent, but they didn't have

their own section up here before.

There's also a change to video recording

in iOS 26.4. So, if you go into your

camera settings and go down, we have

record sound right here. If you go into

that, down at the bottom, we have audio

zoom. So, it says recorded audio is

focused on the subject when the camera

is zoomed. So, this has been here for

quite some time. This is not a new

feature. However, we never had the

option before to disable audio zoom. So

now, if you want to zoom in on a

subject, but not necessarily focus the

audio on that subject that you're

zooming in on, you can disable that. the

health app. If we go into our vitals

right here, it now shows our blood

oxygen again. So, that was missing in

iOS 26.3, but now our blood oxygen will

show up in this section. Also, if we go

back and go into our sleep, and if we go

into the sleep section, we have a really

nice change here that I find very

beneficial, and that is that it shows

your average bedtime now. So, it's going

to record your average bedtime for the

past two weeks to give you a better idea

of how your bedtime impacts your sleep.

So you can see my average was 2:41, but

my last night's bedtime was early at

1:30, which is nice. Also, in the code

of iOS 26.4, we do have CarPlay video

enabled. So, this is referenced in the

code. So, you should be able to launch

Apple TV and other applications while

you're in park. This update also adds

CarPlay support for chat GPT, Claude,

and Gemini on CarPlay. If you get a

missed call in iOS 26.4, it now shows

you more information on your lock

screen. So it will now show you the city

and the state that that number called

you from. We also have a change in the

contacts application. So if we go into

contacts right here, you'll see that we

now have liquid glass. So before on iOS

26.3, the buttons right here were just

regular buttons, but now they are liquid

glass in 26.4. Also, if you scroll down

to where you can see the phone number,

email, all of that, we now have glyph

icons to the right of those, whereas we

didn't have anything before. And also

before card and test contacts, for

example, were grayed out. Now they are

white like everything else. And if you

go ahead to the edit button up here, you

can see that's liquid glass as well. And

it also now shows when a contact is a

downtime contact right there above their

name. This update also has a change for

family sharing, specifically when making

purchases. So if you go into here, you

can see that we have purchase sharing.

So this is a new feature that allows you

to basically no longer be forced to use

the same payment method for all

purchases. So, this is big because

before Apple required everybody in a

family sharing group to use a single

shared payment for any type of app

purchase or content purchase when

purchase sharing was turned on. But now,

each adult member of that family can set

up their own payment method. The free

form application has a new app icon and

when you go into that, you will see some

changes here as well. So, down here in

the bottom lefthand corner, we can now

tap on this and it will give us a lot

more options for things that we can add

because this is now a part of the

creative studio. So you have a lot more

things you could add here in free form.

There's now a new action in the

shortcuts application for setting a

battery charge limit. So if you search

for battery, you will see that we have

set battery charge limit. Now if you go

into your settings and go to privacy and

security and then into location services

and scroll down until you get to system

services, there's a new option here for

managed device. And speaking of privacy

and security, if you go down here to

stolen device protection, this is now

enabled by default after 26.4. Also,

some people were asking about end to-end

encryption for RCS. That was only a beta

feature in iOS 26.4 throughout the beta

stages. That is not here in the final

official release, but we should be

seeing that at some point in the near

future. There's also a change to beta

updates in iOS 26.4. So, if you have

betas toggled on, but you don't install

any betas for 4 months, Apple will

automatically switch you to the public

release audience, where it basically

turns beta updates off. Now, perhaps one

of the biggest changes in iOS 26.4 for

is a bug fix. And it's not just any bug

fix. This is perhaps one of the biggest

bugs that people have been facing for

months now. And that is with the

keyboard. So Apple actually says in the

release notes, improved keyboard

accuracy when typing quickly. So if you

were typing really fast before,

sometimes the characters would not be

recognized as you tapping on it. So they

would not be inserted into the text that

you're putting in there. So when missed

letters were, you know, inserted into

whatever you were typing, that would

lead to misinterpreted autocorrect. So

autocorrect would not work because your

iOS keyboard missed that you actually

tapped on a key. So then it would really

mess up the words and a lot of people

are going crazy over this. But that's

been fixed with iOS 26.4. So now if you

type quickly, you can, you know, rest

assured that your text is going to say

what you want it to say. There was also

a bug in iOS 26.3 that's been fixed and

that had to do with the spotlight search

and the top hits feature. So before in

26.3 sometimes when I would search for

something the top hits just simply would

not show up or the application I was

searching for would not show up. So

that's been fixed here in 26.4 as well.

And if you had any issues with home

screen stutter specifically when going

from the lock screen to the home screen

that appears to have been fixed as well.

And when it comes to security patches,

Apple has not yet published the security

patches as of the recording of this

video, but they will be out very

shortly, and I will include that link

down in the description below because

security patches are almost always good

enough reason to update to the latest

software version to keep your device as

secure as possible. Now, when it comes

to the performance on iOS 26.4, I did

score a very high 10,157

on the multi-core and Geekbench and a

3890 on the single core. Now, those

numbers don't really mean a whole lot

just from having the numbers, but I can

tell you that, you know, just from using

the software for the past week, I was on

the RC build, which is essentially the

same as the final build, just for beta

testers, it has been rock solid. So, the

performance is absolutely improved from

26.3 for me. I had issues on 26.3 and

26.2. Those appear to have been fixed

completely here with iOS 26.4, which is

great. And of course, the keyboard bug

is going to be a major one that a lot of

people want to update for just that

alone. And then when it comes to the

battery life, I'm currently at 88% right

now. So you guys will have to tell me

what I started this video with. Please

tell me actually. I'm very curious

because battery life has been very good

on 26.4. So I don't say that in every

video. You can go back and watch. A lot

of times I just say it's been okay or

about the same as before. But I have to

say that 26.4 battery does feel better

than iOS 26.3. and I've noticed

improvements over the past week

specifically with this final build. So

that is also good news if you're facing

issues with your battery. So with all

that being said, should you update to

iOS 26.4? And I would say that if you're

on iOS 26.3, 26.3.1, or really any

version of iOS 26 at this point, you

should absolutely go ahead and update to

iOS 26.4. As a matter of fact, I think

no matter what version you're on, you

should update to iOS 26.4 for because

you get the new emojis which if you

don't you know have the update you're

not going to be able to see the new

emojis when people send them to you.

You're going to have the keyboard fix

which you use the keyboard several times

on a daily basis. You have the new

changes in music. There's just a lot to

love about iOS 26.4. So I think that

everybody should go ahead and update

especially because we do also have

security patches and performance and

battery life improvements as well. So

overall it's a pretty solid update. Now

a lot of you might be wondering where is

the Siri 2.0? Where is the big Siri

revamp that we heard about for so long?

Well, that's not included in iOS 26.4.

However, it might be included in the

next update, iOS 26.5, and that's

possibly going to be a much bigger

update than typical with the.5 updates.

Usually, those are pretty small updates,

but this time around, we could be seeing

part of the new Siri revamp that is

powered by Google Gemini. So, we should

be seeing that in beta relatively soon,

but I would not expect the final release

of that to come until the end of April,

potentially even early May. And then

after the release of iOS 26.5, all eyes

will be on iOS 27, which we now know the

official date when that will be

announced and shown off. And that's

going to be on Monday, June 8th. That's

going to be the first day of Apple's

WWDC 2026 where we will see our first

look at iOS 27 and all the new features

that are going to be included. So, of

course, you guys know to keep it locked

to the channel if you want to see really

all the new features and changes because

Apple never tells you all of them. So,

make sure to stay tuned for that. But

that's going to be a big update as well

because after 26.5, the next updates are

going to be relatively minor. So, there

you have it. That is iOS 26.4, a big

update for your iPhone. Hope you guys

enjoyed this video. Let me know your

favorite feature and also your favorite

new emoji down in the comments below.