The Music app now has its very own version of Apple’s Image Playground. This new AI feature called Music Playground lets you describe your dream playlist and the Music app will create it for you. AI will also be able to help you find nearby shows and discover new artists based on your listening preferences.

It will now be possible to use the Control Center’s music recognition feature, which lets you identify music you hear out and about, even if you are offline. There’s also improvements to Ambient Music, allowing it to offer playlists on your Home Screen. Finally, the Music app has a redesign that now gives albums and playlist pages full-screen backgrounds.

This update is known for the release of new emojis, so please enjoy the trombone, orca, treasure chest, landslide, fight cloud, ballet dancer, Big Foot, distorted face, and apparently an apple core (which I do NOT see in my list of emojis).

• Reduce Bright Effects is a new accessibility feature that prevents bright flashes from occurring when you tap on buttons.

• GenAI applications Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT are now available in CarPlay (with limitations to prevent them from distracting drivers).
• The Health app can tell you your average bedtime to help you get a better picture of your overall sleep health.

• If you participate in Purchase Sharing, adult members of your household will now be able to use individualized payment methods.

• The Podcasts app now offers support for video podcasts, so you can watch and download video editions of your favorite podcasts.

• The captions icon will let you customize and preview subtitles and caption settings.

• The Reduce Motion setting will help reduce Liquid Glass animations to help those with motion sickness.

• Marking reminders as urgent is now possible by pressing and holding or using the Quick Toolbar. You can also now filter urgent reminders within your Smart Lists.

• The Freeform app gets folders, a premium content library, advanced image creation and editing tools, and joins Apple Creator Studio.

Stolen Device Detection is not a new feature, but starting in iOS 26.4, it will be enabled by default. This means that if someone happens to see your passcode or get your password, they will still not be able to turn off Find My without using Face ID or Touch ID.

 It also adds a security delay of one hour so that it’s harder for a thief to change any critical security settings on your phone. Plus you can choose to have the security delay to occur Always or when you are Away from Familiar Locations.

Of course, there is also the RCS end-to-end encryption between Apple and Android devices that helps protect your privacy when sending messages.

Apple shook the world when it announced a more advanced Siri, tied to Apple Intelligence's debut, on June 10, 2024. Then Apple did it again a few weeks ago by announcing that Siri will be using Google’s Gemini AI. So much hype but Siri is still just… Siri. Will iOS 26.4 get a better Siri? No, and I don’t think we're likely to see one until iOS 27 if not iOS 28.

Since the iOS 26.5 beta is not available yet, we don’t know anything for sure. I’m sure that rumors will circulate promising the updated Siri powered by Google’s AI Gemini, which I doubt we’ll see any time soon. Here’s hoping that by the time iOS 26.5 comes out, Apple will finally have RCS end-to-end encryption between Apple and Android devices figured out. I don’t need flashy new features, but I would like all the promised features to actually work. 

See you next time!

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