New Emoji, Playlist Generator and More: All the New Features iOS 26.4 Brings to Your iPhone

Apple released iOS 26.4 on Tuesday, March 24, almost a week after the release of the tech giant iOS 26.3.1 (a)the company’s first update for Backdoor Security Improvements. The latest update brings a bunch of features to your iPhone, including new emoji and video podcasts.

You can download iOS 26.4 now by going to Settings and hitting General. Next, choose Software Updatespress on Update Now and follow the instructions on your screen.

Here are some of the new features that iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone.

Eight new emojis

With iOS 26.4, your iPhone gets eight new emojis. Those emojis include:

The Unicode Consortium is responsible for emoji creation, and approved these new emoji in September as part of Unicode 17.0. But this is the first time that emoji has appeared on iPhones.

Video podcasts are coming to Apple Podcasts

The iOS 26.4 update also brings video to your Podcasts app. To watch these video podcasts, open the Podcasts app and start listening to a podcast episode with the video player icon in the upper right corner of the title card. When you’re done listening, open the media player and press the button Open the video button next to the podcast progress bar. The podcast artwork will be replaced by video. To close the video again, tap Close Video and podcast artwork will return.

Reduces other Liquid Glass effects across your device

Apple’s 26.4 update gives you another setting to reduce Liquid Glass effects across your device, called Reduce Bright Effects. Here is where you can find this setting.

1. Tap Settings.
2. Tap Accessibility.
3. Tap Display & Text Size.
4. Scroll down the menu to find out Reduce Bright Effects.

“Reduce contrast and brightness when interacting with on-screen objects, such as buttons or the keyboard,” Apple writes in the setting’s description. So if you find some flash features annoying, you can now disable them.

The playlist playground in Apple Music

The iOS 26.4 update also brings a new playlist generator for Apple Music subscribers, called Playlist Playground. Apple says this feature can create playlists based on your description. Once you enter your description it will create a playlist with a title, song list and general description.

To access Playlist Playground, you must first be an Apple Music subscriber. Then, open Apple Music and go to your library. In your library, you’ll see a new icon at the top of your screen with a link and a few lines next to it. Tap this and you’ll be prompted to define your playlist.

Apple notes that this feature is still in beta so it may cause unexpected results. So you might ask for a good gym mix and get Whitney Houston out of the blue — but who’s to say Whitney isn’t good gym music?

Find nearby concerts with the aptly named Concerts feature

iOS 26.4 brings you a new Concerts feature in your Apple Music app.

“Concerts helps you find upcoming shows from artists in your library and recommends new artists based on what you’re listening to,” Apple wrote in the update’s description. That way, you can easily find the nearest shows.

To find Concerts, press the magnifying glass icon at the bottom of your Apple Music screen and tap Concerts. The feature may ask for your location the first time you use it. Then you’ll see popular shows next to their dates, times and locations. Tapping on any of these shows gives you more information about the show, as well as a link to buy tickets.

Shazam works offline — sort of

With iOS 26.4, your Shazam Control Center app can work in multiple ways. Now, if you’re offline and use the Control Center app to identify a song, the app will eventually tell you the song’s identity when you’re back online.

Ambient Music home screen widgets

Apple introduced two Ambient Music widgets to your home screen with iOS 26.4. These widgets allow you to easily access four Ambient Music playlists — Sleep, Calm, Productivity and Wellbeing. Now you can quickly open a relaxing playlist to wind down after a long day, or a playlist to help you focus on the task at hand.

Apple introduced this playlist on your iPhone side by side iOS 18.4 in 2024. However, you can only access those playlists in your control center at that time.

Let other adults in your Family pay for it

In iOS 26.4, other people in your Family sharing group now they can use their payment instead of depending on the group organizer’s payment method. That means if you’re an adult and you have a family group that shares your parents, siblings or other family members, you can now buy a new game, movie or something else with your own information instead of using someone else’s information and paying them using their money.

This can be a useful feature that allows you to avoid the hassle of paying someone else using their payment information. And if you’re someone whose card is always in use, it can be a great way to make sure others are paying for their stuff and not freeloading.

Multiple caption options when watching videos

With iOS 26.4, you can easily change the caption style when watching something on certain apps, such as Apple TV.

To see these options, start playing a video and tap the speech bubble icon in the lower right corner of your screen to open the subtitle menu. Tap Style and you will see subtitle options The old one (default setting) The Great Text, Outline Text again Transparent Background. So if you and a few other people are watching something on your iPhone and you want to make sure everyone can see the preview, you can choose The Great Text.

More control over wallpaper collections

The iOS 26.4 update also provides more control over which Wallpaper Collections are on your iPhone. Now, if you go to Settings > Wallpaper > Add new wallpaper, you can touch Find out under categories such as Weather and Astronomy.

If you want to remove a Collection from your device, tap the check mark to the right of the downloaded Collection and the option Remove from gallery it appears. Tap this and you’ll remove the Collection from your iPhone, saving you some precious space.

Here are the iOS 26.4 release notes.

Apple Music

• Playlist playlist (beta) generates playlists from your description, complete with title, description, and tracklist.
• Concerts helps you find upcoming shows from artists in your library and recommends new artists based on what you’re listening to.
• Offline Music Recognition in Control Center identifies songs without an Internet connection and automatically delivers results when you’re back online.
• Ambient music widget for sleep, relaxation, productivity, and wellness brings curated playlists to your home screen.
• The full screen background gives the album and playlist pages a more focused look.

Accessibility

• The setting to reduce light effects reduces the brightness when you tap features such as buttons.
• Subtitle and caption settings are available from the caption icon while viewing media, making it easy to find, customize, and preview.
• Reduce motion setting reliably reduces Liquid Glass animation even more for users sensitive to screen motion.

This update also includes the following improvements:

• Support for AirPods Max 2.
• 8 new emojis including orca, trombone, landslide, ballet dancer, and inverted face are available in the emoji keyboard.
• Freeform benefits from advanced video creation and editing tools, as well as a library of premium content, joining Apple Creator Studio.
• Mark reminders as urgent in the quick toolbar or by touch and hold, then filter urgent reminders in your smart list.
• Shopping Sharing allows older members of Family Sharing groups to use their own payment method when shopping, without relying on a family planner.
• Improved keyboard accuracy when typing faster.

For more iOS news, check out what features are included iOS 26.3 again iOS 26.2. You can also look at our iOS 26 cheat sheet for more tips and tricks.

Watch this: Don’t Wait: iOS 26.4 Brings New Emoji, Keyboard Fixes, AI Playlists

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