CUPERTINO, California, March 11, 2026, 01:59 PDT
Apple rolled out iOS 26.4 beta 4 on March 9, marking the fourth beta for its upcoming iPhone software, with build 23E5234a. That same day, the build became available to public beta testers, and Apple also issued beta 4 versions for iPadOS 26.4, macOS 26.4, tvOS 26.4, visionOS 26.4, and watchOS 26.4.
The 26.4 cycle is notable. It brings over iPhone updates already spotted in previous betas—think tweaked Apple Music album and playlist layouts, Apple’s new AI-driven Playlist Playground, plus beefed-up video podcast features. Beta 4 now lands, offering developers and testers a sharper view of which features are sticking around into the late stages.
Apple is still facing calls to demonstrate concrete advances in AI. Back in March 2025, the company announced that some of Siri’s more personalized AI features wouldn’t arrive until 2026. Meanwhile, Google put Gemini into its assistant, and Amazon released a major AI update for Alexa, according to Reuters.
Beta 4’s standout new feature for users is a set of emoji the Unicode Consortium signed off on last year. 9to5Mac reports that among the additions are a distorted face, orca, trombone, treasure chest, and landslide—matching the characters Unicode previewed for 2025.
According to MacRumors, Apple has tweaked one of its accessibility settings, changing the name from “Reduce Highlighting Effects” to “Reduce Bright Effects”—now described as minimizing flashing and bright highlights on buttons and keyboards. The publication also noted that beta 4 is the initial release available for installation on the iPhone 17e and the M4 iPad Air. MacRumors
But there was movement in the opposite direction for a key feature. According to MacRumors, Apple pulled the test build of end-to-end encrypted RCS from beta 4, after it had previously been available in earlier 26.4 betas. RCS—short for Rich Communication Services—is the latest texting protocol, and end-to-end encryption keeps messages limited to just sender and recipient. Apple had already indicated that encrypted RCS wasn’t planned for the initial public iOS 26.4 release, but would arrive in a later update.
That tracks with Apple’s messaging around its AI delays. At WWDC 2025, software boss Craig Federighi admitted the initial Siri upgrade just hadn’t “converge[d]” on Apple’s quality target, while marketing head Greg Joswiak argued it would’ve been even more disappointing to launch early and fall short of the company’s standards. The Verge
Apple’s initial AI playbook for 2024 sounded ambitious, with Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen calling it a bet on “the next era of computing, interfaces and experiences.” Fast forward to this beta: MacRumors notes the feature list is thinning out, describing beta 4 as more about minor tweaks and a handful of updates. Reuters
Apple’s 26.4 lineup is tracking together. The company pushed out beta 4 for iPadOS 26.4, tvOS 26.4, and other platforms on March 9, per 9to5Mac, which also reported that users should see the full slate of updates within the next few weeks.
