{"id":493441,"date":"2026-03-24T23:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/493441\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:29:08","slug":"apple-releases-ios-ipados-macos-26-4-with-a-long-list-of-medium-size-tweaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/493441\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple releases iOS, iPadOS, macOS 26.4 with a long list of medium-size tweaks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Apple has released the 26.4 updates to all of its major software platforms today, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS, visionOS, and the HomePod. The most important reason to install each update is the big pile of included security fixes\u2014you can see the ones Apple is disclosing for <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/126792\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">iOS\/iPadOS<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/126794\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">macOS<\/a> on its security website\u2014but the updates also include a few significant new features, a change from <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/02\/apple-releases-ios-26-3-with-updates-that-mainly-benefit-non-apple-devices\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the mostly quiet 26.3 release<\/a>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n<p>We covered <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/02\/5-changes-to-know-about-in-apples-latest-ios-macos-and-ipados-betas\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">many of the most notable features<\/a> when the first versions of these updates were released through Apple\u2019s beta testing channels. Those include charging limits for MacBooks, for those who don\u2019t want to allow their batteries to charge to their full capacities; the return of the \u201ccompact\u201d tab view for Safari running on macOS Tahoe and iPadOS 26; and enabled-by-default <a href=\"https:\/\/support.apple.com\/en-us\/120340\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Stolen Device Protection<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Other features include the handful of new emoji from the Unicode 17.0 release (<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.emojipedia.org\/apple-ios-26-4-emoji-changelog\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">see Emojipedia for more<\/a>); AI-generated Apple Music playlists; new <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2026\/01\/seven-things-to-know-about-how-apples-creator-studio-subscriptions-work\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Creator Studio features<\/a> for the built-in Freeform app; and the ability for adults in a Family Sharing group to use different payment methods from one another when making purchases.<\/p>\n<p>One feature that Apple is publicly testing but which isn\u2019t in the final version of the 26.4 release is end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging. For now, texting with Android users will continue to use the unencrypted version of RCS that <a href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/gadgets\/2024\/09\/ios-18-brings-rcs-to-major-carrier-iphones-but-prepaid-plans-are-still-waiting\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple began rolling out in 2024<\/a> (or, in some cases depending on carrier compatibility, SMS). The version of the RCS standard that supports end-to-end encryption (version 3.0, for the record) also supports things like inline replies and editing or unsending texts\u2014Apple supports these features in iMessage, but it\u2019s unclear whether the RCS update will add them for green-bubble text threads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple has released the 26.4 updates to all of its major software platforms today, including iOS, iPadOS, macOS&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-493441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}