Apple just released iOS 26.4 RC or

release candidate for developers and for

public beta testers. Now along with this

release, Apple also released the RC

build for iPad OS 26.4, watch OS 26.4,

Mac OS Tahoe 26.4, tvOS and HomePod

version 26.4, and then we also got the

RC build for iOS and iPad OS 18.7.

But of course, in this video, we are

talking all about iOS 26.4 for and what

is new in the update. So, first off,

taking a look at the size of this

update. It came in at about 8.7 GB on my

iPhone 17 Pro Max. Of course, we're not

actually going to lose all that storage.

That is just the size of the update. And

if we head into our settings to check

out the build number, if we go into our

settings, general about the new build

here, if we tap on it, is 23E244.

That is the new build for 26.4. That

will most likely be the final release

build as well, unless it changes by a

couple of numbers at the end. And then

if we go down here to the modem

firmware, that is 1.55.04

for the 17 series, the iPhone 17 series.

All right, so now what's new here in iOS

26.4 RC. Now, as you guys know, we do

have new emojis and several other new

features that we've covered in previous

betas. But in this video, I just want to

cover what's new in the RC build because

I will be covering every single new

feature and every single new change in

iOS 26.4 once the final official public

release goes out. So, that should be

next week, but we'll talk more about

that in a moment. Now, anyways, let's

take a look at what's new here. Because

if we head into the release notes for

this update, Apple actually gave us some

release notes, which is very helpful.

And when you read these release notes,

you'll see a couple of things that stand

out. And the most important one is

coming here in a moment. But let's first

start right here where we have offline

music recognition in control center,

which identifies songs without an

internet connection and delivers results

automatically when you're back online.

So if you go into the control center

right here, if you have the music

recognition, which I have right here,

that is the Shazam icon, that will now

work when you're offline. Now, I did

also want to address the most mysterious

setting in the iOS 26.4 for beta cycle

and that's inside of our accessibility

settings and then into display and text

size. And if we scroll down, we have

reduce bright effects. Now, this setting

is not new. It was moved around and

renamed throughout the betas. But this

is not new along with the description

below. That's not new. However, in the

release notes here in the RC, Apple does

tell us a little bit more about this.

So, they say that this setting minimizes

bright flashes when tapping on elements

like buttons. And like I showed you guys

in previous videos, what that means is

if we go ahead into like the menu right

here, if we go to edit and we go ahead

and tap on this, you can see how the

background doesn't kind of flash and it

doesn't have a lighter, you know, color

to it now. So, let me show you with that

off. You can see that when I tap on this

now that it's off, it's disabled. We

have that light effect of liquid glass.

We can really see the background pop and

get a lot lighter, a lot brighter than

it did beforehand. And Apple also says

that the reduce motion setting now more

reliably reduces the animations of

liquid glass, which if you go into the

motion section, reduce motion is right

there. So, it's now better, you know,

works better with liquid glass. And

also, we have a change to subtitle and

caption settings. But easily the most

important change in this iOS 26.4 RC is

down here near the bottom, actually at

the very bottom, and that is improved

keyboard accuracy when typing quickly.

That is massive. I've had so many

comments here on the channel and so many

of you guys have had so many issues with

the keyboard over the past several

months and now for the first time

officially Apple has addressed this as a

bug fix in iOS 26.4. And keep in mind

this says when typing quickly because

before the bug was that if you typed

quickly characters that you tapped on

might not be inserted. So, if I just

started tapping right here, you know,

maybe if I tapped on a Y right there, if

I'm typing really fast, if I'm going

back and forth between different things,

maybe it would not register and it would

not be inserted into my sentence that

I'm forming there. So, that also led to

other issues because if you had missed

letters, that meant that the autocorrect

feature would not work properly because

words would be missed or misinterpreted

by autocorrect. But now that we have

this fixed, everything that you tap on

in the keyboard should register and you

should not have any issues with typing

even when you're doing so at a fast

rate. Now, I mentioned that this could

be fixed in previous betas. I mentioned

that a lot of you guys told me that the

keyboard greatly improved. I believe it

was after beta 2. So, a lot of users

have already been seeing, you know, the

effects of this bug fix in 26.4 compared

to iOS 26.3 and 26.2, maybe even back to

iOS 26.0. zero at this point. But you

guys let me know. You guys download the

RC if you've been having issues with the

keyboard and let me know in a comment

down below if you can confirm that this

has been fixed for you. And here's

another enhancement in 26.4. So it says

purchase sharing lets adult members and

family sharing groups use their own

payment method when making purchases

without relying on the family organizer.

So, if you have a family set up in here,

you know, this is great because now each

member of the family, each adult can use

their own payment method for purchases

rather than being forced to share a

payment method because before this

change, everybody in a family sharing

group had to use a single shared payment

for, you know, anything they purchased

in the app store or anywhere else. So,

that was a kind of inconvenience for a

lot of people, but now it's been fixed

and you can have your own separate

payment method for purchases. Now,

something else I wanted to mention here

is related to the end to-end encryption

for RCS messaging. So, if you go into

our settings, messages, and then into

RCS messaging, you'll notice that on the

RC build, the end to-end encryption

toggle is missing. And that's because,

as I mentioned in previous beta videos,

that was only a beta feature that was

never going to launch in the final

release of iOS 26.4. So, don't expect to

see that setting return here just

because this is an RC. Again, that was a

betaon feature and it will return in the

future. But keep in mind, end to-end

encryption only matters when you're

actually sending the message. So this

doesn't mean anything about your

messages moving forward. It doesn't mean

that messages you sent in the past are

no longer like secure. Like end toend

encryption just means that nothing can

get interrupted or you know intercepted

in between you sending that message and

the other person receiving it. So

nothing is you know a downgrade here

because that's missing. And then also in

the release notes, Apple does mention

Free Form gains advanced image creation

and editing tools and a premium content

library joining Apple Creator Studio,

which again we did cover this in a

previous beta. So if we go into Free

Form, the application icon has changed.

And if we go into one of these boards,

you can see what that looks like. And

then since people are still asking me,

the search button is still combined with

all the other buttons inside of the App

Store. So like I mentioned before, I

don't think that was a bug. I never

thought it was a bug to begin with. And

you can see here in the final release,

we still have the search button combined

with the other, you know, menus inside

of the navbar. And the same goes with

the games application. So if we go into

games, you'll see that it's conjoined

with everything else down there in the

navbar, which is different from the

music app. So if we go into the music

app, you can see that search is

separated. So it's pretty inconsistent

with those, but just so you know, that

is how it is here with 26.4. Now, as far

as the performance goes on iOS 26.4 4

RC. Everything feels fine to me. It

doesn't really feel too much different

from the previous beta build, which is

kind of expected when we get to, you

know, the end of cycle like this for a

point4 update. But performance, I've had

no complaints on. I've been using this

on my main device daily, which is my

iPhone 17 Pro. And I've had zero issues

and I would expect the same here with

the RC. Now, I did run a Geekbench test

here, and we scored a 3890 single core,

101 157 on the multicore, and you can

kind of see how that compares to

previous runs, which is pretty strong.

That is the second highest ever

multi-core score, only being beat out by

a previous 26.4 beta, but in that run,

the single core was not as high as the

single core that we scored here in the

RC. So, overall, it looks like this

might be the most stable and best build

of 26.4, for at least according to the

Geekbench results. Now, as far as

battery life goes, I'm currently sitting

at 60% battery life remaining. You guys

will have to tell me what I started this

video with. Don't look at the screenshot

at the very beginning. Just look

throughout the video and see. But so

far, so good with battery life. Like,

battery life has been okay for me on the

early betas, but the last beta was

pretty solid and it felt more like an

official release. So, again, I'd expect

the same here with battery life on 26.4

for RC since again this is most likely

the final release that everybody in the

public will be getting later. And let's

talk about when that later could be. So

today is Wednesday, March 18th, a pretty

random day for an RC release. It's not

super unheard of, but typically we get

RC's on Monday or Tuesday. But anyways,

we did get the RC today and that means

that typically based on Apple's history,

we should be seeing the final official

release that goes out to the public and

not to beta testers within the next week

or so. So, if that's the case, I could

see iOS 26.4 getting released on Monday,

Tuesday, or Wednesday of next week. So,

the 23rd through the 25th seems like a

good bet as to when we can expect the

release of iOS 26.4 for because keep in

mind we are also getting the AirPods Max

2 at least the pre-orders we're getting

next week on the 25th and that's why I

say that the final release could be you

know into the 25th because that's when

we are getting the pre-orders for the

AirPods Max 2 and those will be

releasing at some point in April but we

are of course going to have 26.4 before

that. Now the only way that it would not

come next week is if we get an RC2 for

some reason. Now, typically Apple does

not really plan an RC2 as far as I know.

There has to be an issue that comes up

in the RC to push out another RC build

before the final release. So, that seems

unlikely in this case. So, I would say

that next week is a good bet to when we

see iOS 26.4 and then we should see iOS

26.5 beta 1 very shortly after. And that

could be part of a pretty big update

because we could be seeing the first

signs of an improved Siri. So the Siri

that is powered by Google Gemini that

could be starting to show up in 26.5 at

least according to Mark German. So that

could actually be a more exciting update

than the point4 update which is pretty

rare because usually the point4 updates

are the big ones but of course we know

that Apple has delayed that you know new

and improved Siri. But anyways that is

iOS 26.4 RC. Again I will be back with

my full official video on iOS 26.4 when

it does release to the public. and

that's where I'll be showing every

single new feature and change, which I

found some that nobody else has so far.

So hopefully you guys stay tuned for

that video. But anyways, hope you

enjoyed it. If you did, let me know in a

comment down below. Let me know what

you're excited for, what your favorite

new emoji is, all that good stuff down

there in the comments. But anyways guys,

thanks for watching and I'll see you