The Biggest Update Since iOS 26? Here’s What’s New in iOS 26.4
The Biggest Update Since iOS 26? Here’s What’s New in iOS 26.4
Publish Date: 2026-04-02 00:20:00
Source Domain: www.cnet.com
Apple released iOS 26.4 on March 24, about a week after the tech giant released iOS 26.3.1 (a), the company’s first Background Security Improvement update. The most recent update brings a slew of features to your iPhone, including new emoji and video podcasts, plus more than two dozen bug fixes and security patches.
You can download iOS 26.4 now by going to Settings and tapping General. Next, select Software Update, tap Update Now and follow the prompts on your screen.
Here are some of the new features iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone.
New emoji
All the new emoji iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone.
With iOS 26.4, your iPhone gets eight new emoji:
The Unicode Consortium is responsible for creating emoji, and it approved these eight in September as part of Unicode 17.0. But this is the first time the emoji are showing up on iPhones.
Watch this: Don’t Wait: iOS 26.4 Brings New Emoji, Keyboard Fixes, AI Playlists
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Video podcasts come to Apple Podcasts
The iOS 26.4 update also brings video to your Podcasts app. To view these video podcasts, open the Podcasts app and start listening to an episode with the video player icon in the top right corner of the title card. Once you’re listening, open the media player and tap the Turn Video On button near the podcast’s progress bar. The podcast’s artwork will be replaced with the video. To turn the video off again, tap Turn Video Off and the podcast’s artwork will return.
Video podcasts are a fun addition to the Podcasts app.
Reduce some Liquid Glass effects across your device
Apple’s iOS 26.4 update adds another setting to minimize Liquid Glass effects across your device: Reduce Bright Effects. Here’s where to find this setting.
1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Display & Text Size.
4. Scroll down the menu to find Reduce Bright Effects.
Reduce Bright Effects can eliminate some Liquid Glass effects.
Apple says the setting will minimize…
