Apple’s latest iPhone update brings long-awaited Apple Music features, new emoji, and improvements to keyboard accuracy.

Apple’s iOS 26.4 update is here. From the AI Playlist Playground to critical Liquid Glass display fixes and 8 new emojis, we break it down.

This article, first published on March 24, has been revised to add information on more fixes and updates in the release, and how it affects AirPods Pro Max 2. Apple released the latest iPhone software update,

One of the more meaningful changes in iOS 26.4 is that Stolen Device Protection is now enabled by default, rather than requiring users to opt in. The feature, which adds biometric requirements for sensitive actions when your iPhone is away from familiar locations, is now on by default for everyone.

Should you update to iOS 26.4? From the critical iPhone keyboard fix and "Liquid Glass" UI toggles to AI Playlists, here are 8 things you must know before installing.

Redditors discuss steps to update Apple iOS on their iPhones on a forum.

Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4. Registered developers can download the betas from the Settings app on the iPhone or iPad by going to the General section and selecting Software Update.

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.