Apple Seeds Fourth Betas of iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 for Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of the upcoming iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, and the software comes a week after Apple offered the third beta to developers.

Registered developers can download betas from the Settings app on an iPhone or iPad by going to the General section and selecting Software Update.

iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 add many new features to iPhone and iPad. The playlist playback feature in Apple Music allows you to generate songs for any idea, feeling, emotion, or activity using text-based information. There’s also a concerts near you feature to find local shows, as well as a redesigned look for albums and playlists with full-page artwork.

Apple Podcasts is getting native video podcasting capabilities that will make it easier to create, distribute, and monetize video podcast content through the Podcasts app. The video episodes will be integrated with existing features of Apple podcasts, such as personalized recommendations and editing suggestions.

Apple is testing RCS end-to-end encryption, which will eventually bring full encryption to text conversations between Android and iPhone users. Apple is testing RCS for iPhone-to-iPhone conversations and iPhone-to-Android conversations.

Stolen Device Protection is enabled by default, there’s a new ambient music widget, new average sleep time metrics in the Sleep app, and more. All the features in iOS 26.4 can be found in our iOS 26.4 beta features guide.