iOS 26.4 has been officially launched. This update brings a series of practical new features to iPhone, with significant enhancements and adjustments from system experience to daily tools. The following is a collection of 6 built-in applications that have been updated in this version, allowing you to quickly grasp their new highlights and improvements, so that you can understand the key points of this upgrade immediately.
iOS 26.4 brings new features to 6 iPhone apps
Apple Music
Apple Music has received five important updates in iOS 26.4, making it one of the apps with the biggest changes in this version:
- Playlist Playground, an artificial intelligence playlist creation tool
- Albums and playlists feature a new, beautiful full-screen design
- Home screen ambient music widget
- Show information from artists and local venues
- Ability to add songs to multiple playlists at once
Of all the updates, my favorites are the new full-screen visual design and the Playlist Playground, which allows you to quickly create personalized playlists, although the latter requires an AI-enabled iPhone to use.
remind
In iOS 26.2, launched at the end of last year, “Reminders” added a new feature that I like very much-“Urgent” reminders. Now, any time-based reminder can be marked as “urgent”. When it expires, it will no longer be just a normal push, but will be presented as an alert, and will continue to be displayed through a special lock screen and real-time updates until you complete it or choose to be reminded later.
With iOS 26.4, Apple has further optimized this feature. All “urgent” reminders are now automatically concentrated in the dedicated smart list at the top of the app, allowing you to quickly master all the most important and time-sensitive tasks in one place.
Apple Podcast
Before the rise of YouTube and Spotify, Apple Podcasts had already supported video content. However, this old feature has always lacked a modern experience. iOS 26.4 has just brought a comprehensive upgrade to it. Starting with this release, Apple Podcasts introduces an “enhanced video podcast experience.” According to Apple, users can now seamlessly switch between listening and watching, and can play videos directly within the app, switch to landscape full-screen mode, and even download for offline viewing. HLS technology will also automatically adjust the image quality according to network conditions to ensure smooth playback under Wi‑Fi or mobile networks.
There are still not many video podcasts on the platform, but this update is expected to attract more creators to invest and make the content ecosystem richer.
Apple TV
In iOS 26.4, the Apple TV App makes adjusting subtitle styles more intuitive. When watching a video, just click the subtitle button to see a new style menu. Selectable styles include classic, large font, outline text, transparent background, etc. You can also further enter “Manage Styles” to customize the appearance of subtitles.
This feature used to be hidden in accessibility settings, but is now directly integrated into the Apple TV App, making subtitle adjustments easier to see and more convenient to use.
healthy
One of the highlights of the Apple Health App is “Highlights,” which present your health data in trending formats. iOS 26.4 adds a new “Bedtime” key visual to the sleep item, which allows you to quickly grasp the sleep pattern of the past two weeks through average values, bar charts, and the previous night’s bedtime markers. In addition, this update also puts blood oxygen data back into the “Vital Signs” chart. Blood oxygen readings were previously removed due to the dispute between Apple and Masimo. Now that the blood oxygen function of Apple Watch has been restored, iOS 26.4 has also reintegrated relevant data into the health interface.
Boundless Notes
Earlier this year, Apple launched Apple Creator Studio, bringing new “advanced” features to subscribers in Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. At that time, Apple also predicted that Boundless Notes would add the same capability in the future, and iOS 26.4 officially fulfilled its promise.
Now, Boundless Notes has integrated the same content center as other iWork apps, allowing users to directly access Apple’s selected photos, graphics, and background materials. In addition, Ziji has also added a new AI image generation function, allowing you to create new visual content through OpenAI’s image model, expanding the space for free imagination.
Source: KOCPC Chinese