Apple Releases iOS 26.4 Beta 3: Here are the New Features Coming

Apple has released iOS 26.4 beta 3 for iPhone, iPad and more. Check out what’s available to download right now for developers:

• iOS 26.4 beta 3 (23E5223f)
• iPadOS 26.4 beta 3 (23E5223f)
• tvOS 26.4 beta 3 (23L5224d)
• visionOS 26.4 beta 3 (23O5225f)
• watchOS 26.4 beta 3 (23T5226e)

As for what’s new in iOS 26.4 beta 3? Here’s a breakdown according to Brandon Butch and zollotech:

New Features & Functional Changes

• Apple Music “Playlist Playground”: A new AI-driven feature that suggests playlist themes like “morning coffee music” or “1970s disco.” It can generate a full, personalized playlist in about 30 seconds based on your listening habits.
• New App Splash Screens:
  • Freeform: Highlights new “Generate Images” capabilities to create or transform visuals from scratch.
  • TV App: Now explicitly promotes Formula 1 and MLS integration within the app.
  • Vision Pro App: New onboarding for discovering content and using AirPlay.
• Fitness Milestone Sharing: Hidden code reveals a new “Share Message” feature, allowing users to send custom status updates for activities, such as “I swam in open water with the fitness app on my iPhone.”
• Emoji Preparation: Support for the latest Unicode standard (including an orca, a trombone, and a distorted face) is now in the system. While they currently appear as placeholders (squares with question marks) on iOS, they are functional and visible when sent to Android devices.
• Accessibility Toggle: A new “Reduce Highlighting Effects” option has been added under Display & Text Size settings, though its visual impact is still being refined by Apple.

Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements

• Spotlight Search: A major fix for the broken search bug that caused no results or significant lag when swiping down on the home screen.
• App Store & Arcade Speed: Resolves the “excruciatingly slow” loading and navigation issues found in Beta 2; searching and switching tabs is now significantly snappier.
• RCS Encryption: Fixes an issue where end-to-end encryption for RCS messages with Android users was failing, which previously caused messages to default to SMS.
• Gmail Stability: Resolves a system-level bug that prevented users from sending emails within the Gmail app.
• Video Podcast Captions: Captions now appear consistently and instantly, fixing the “hit or miss” behavior from previous builds.
• Storage Management: Further stabilization of the “system data” bug that previously caused storage to balloon for some users.
• Modem Firmware: Updated to version 1.55.03, aimed at improving cellular connectivity and reliability on the iPhone 17 series.

UI & Visual Refinements

• Liquid Glass Design: The new translucent design for the home screen editing menu remains from Beta 2 but feels more stable.
• Navigation Bar Integration: In the App Store and Games app, the search item remains connected to the main navigation bar, confirming this is an intentional design change rather than a bug.
• Profile Alignment: Minor “pixel-level” adjustments were noted in the App Store profile section, specifically the alignment of the “Add Money” button.

When will Apple release the final version of iOS 26.4 for the masses? It should happen sometime in the next week or so, especially now that the iPhone 17e and M4 iPad Air have been announced (with a rumoured ‘low cost’ MacBook coming tomorrow).