Cupertino has kicked off the release of the first beta of iOS 26.4, with various new features coming for iPhone users. The update is available in the beta channel and weighs over 10 GB with build number 23E5207q. As you can imagine from its size, some improvements and features are being introduced, although at the moment the most important one is still missing.
All the new features of iOS 26.4 Beta 1: Apple has missed the mark with the new Siri
The first beta of iOS 26.4 was supposed to introduce the new Siri, or at least an initial taste of the renewed version of Apple’s famous assistant. From the collaboration between Cupertino and Google, a new incarnation of Siri will be born, thanks to Gemini: from a basic assistant to a real chatbot with which to interact in a fluid and dynamic way.
However recent leaks have revealed a delay in the works: the testing ground will be iOS 26.5, arriving in May. The future release will introduce some changes to Siri while the full transformation will take place with iOS 27.
Below is an overview of the changes in iOS 26.4 Beta 1, now rolling out from Cupertino.
- AI playlists in Apple Music: the new PlayliSt Playground feature allows generating personalized playlists from textual prompts or based on your interests;
- Restyling of Apple Music: the interface for Albums and Playlists has been redesigned. A new Home Screen widget dedicated to quick access to Ambient music has also been added.
- New wallpaper picker: the interface for choosing wallpapers has been redesigned to be cleaner. To save space, wallpapers are no longer downloaded automatically by default;
- Apple Podcasts: introduced the ability for video podcasts with the option to switch smoothly between the audio and video versions of podcasts, with adaptive streaming for quality and offline viewing support;
- Stolen Device Protection: The Stolen Device Protection feature is now enabled by default and requires biometric authentication when the phone is located away from trusted places;
- End-to-End Encryption for RCS: finally arrives E2EE protection for RCS messages, though at the moment it is limited to some carriers and specific devices.
