iOS 26.4 beta now available, what’s new?

Welcome to 9 to 5 Mac Daily for Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. I'm your host, Chance Miller. We are sponsored this week by Stuff, the clean and powerful to-do list application. Leading off today, yesterday we talked about all of the new hardware in Apple's pipeline. Shortly thereafter, Apple announced a special event for next month, inviting members of the press to an event on March 4th, 2026 at 9 a.m. Eastern Time, 6 a.m. Pacific Time. Apple is branding this as a quote-unquote special Apple experience rather than your typical Apple event. I was invited to the event on behalf of 9to5Mac in New York City. Apple is also hosting separate gatherings for press in Shanghai and London. So this doesn't sound like your typical Apple event. it doesn't seem like there will be anything available for a live stream viewing from home. Instead, the in-person gatherings will focus on hands-on time with new hardware, as well as briefings with Apple representatives. It sounds like the actual new products will be announced in press releases on Apple's website. It's a different strategy than what Apple usually utilizes for new product launches, but it could be helpful to give press that hands-on time with the new hardware and provide impressions to readers, listeners, and viewers. As a refresher, Apple is expected to announce a new low-cost MacBook, the M5 MacBook Air, more powerful MacBook Pros, new Mac displays, the iPhone 17e, the A18-based model iPad, and the M4 iPad Air. Whether or not Apple announces all of those products at this March 4th launch remains to be seen, but again, there is clearly a lot in the pipeline. Next up today Apple has released the highly anticipated adoption statistics for iOS 26 for the first time This comes after some analysts suggested that people were updating to iOS 26 at a lower pace than usual as a sort of pushback against liquid glass As it turns out, that's not really the case. Apple says that of devices introduced in the last four years, iOS 26 is installed on 74% of iPhones. iOS 18 is installed on 20% of phones, and an earlier version of iOS is installed on 6% of phones. The obvious question is how does this compare to the iOS 18 launch last year? The iOS 26 adoption numbers come after 150 days of availability. So again, the number is 74% of devices introduced in the last four years after 150 days of availability. iOS 18, meanwhile, was installed on 76% of devices after 127 days of availability. So yes, iOS 26 adoption has been ever so slightly slower than iOS 18, but there's a lot of nuance to these numbers. Primarily, iOS 26 dropped support for three iPhone models this year. The update is not available on the iPhone XS, XS Max, or iPhone XR. iOS 18, meanwhile, was supported on all of the same iPhone models as iOS 17. This plays a big role in update rates. And even though iOS 26 adoption might be slightly slower than before, it's clear that it hasn't been a disaster like some pundits would want you to believe. For a software update as big and dramatic as iOS 26, these numbers are actually quite respectable. You can hit the link in the show notes to view more statistics and more details on comparisons to prior iOS updates. We are sponsored this week by Stuff the clean powerful to list app that makes organizing long lists effortless checking off tasks satisfying and tracking your progress simple You can add tasks by typing talking or using the camera and it turns what you thinking into actionable tasks right away Lists and stuff are built like completable projects, so that trip you want to plan or the business you want to start can actually start to take form, step by step. Download stuff today for free at trystuff.app or by searching stuff in the App Store. And to enjoy everything Stuff has to offer, get 50% off your first year of extra Stuff with code 925 at checkout. Get Stuff done and start enjoying your to-do lists again. My thanks to Stuff for sponsoring the show. Riding out today, Apple has released the first beta of iOS 26.4 to developers. This update was expected to include a range of new Apple intelligence features, in particular the next generation version of Siri. But unfortunately, that hasn't actually materialized just yet. Instead, what iOS 26.4 includes is a range of other new features and changes. In the Messages app, Apple has added support for testing encrypted RCS messaging. Apple first adopted RCS for richer communication between iPhone and Android devices in iOS 18.1. Then a year ago, it announced its plans to add support for end-to-end encryption for RCS messages in a future software update. What's rolling out in iOS 26.4 is an early way for people to test that support. In this initial implementation, RCS encryption is only available on iPhone-to-iPhone messaging. So that means communication between iPhone users who have iMessage disabled. Apple says that the capability will be expanded for testing on other platforms, like iPhone and Android communication, in a future software update. iOS 26 updates the Apple Podcasts app with new advanced podcast capabilities for videos This update makes it easier to switch between viewing a video podcast and listening to the audio podcast It's based on Apple's HLS streaming technology, which allows it to power automatic quality adjustments based on network conditions. Apple is also adding support for dynamic video ad insertion for video podcasts with iOS 26.4. The Music app has gotten a handful of notable changes in 26.4. When looking at select albums and playlists, you'll now see full-screen artwork that Apple says brings your music to life. The app also adds support for finding concerts near you and tour dates for artists in your Apple Music library. There's also a new Apple Intelligence feature in the Music app. Something called Playlist Playground lets you create playlists based on text descriptions and pre-selected prompts. You can access this in the Apple Music app by tapping the new playlist icon in the upper right corner of the library page. Then you simply enter a text prompt and Apple Music will generate a playlist based on your request. You can also manually add and remove songs and reorder the tracks. And once a playlist is created, you can choose to add it to your Apple Music library. There are a handful of other changes in iOS 26.4, including that Solon device protection is now enabled by default. some small design tweaks to the App Store, and more. You can hit the link in the show notes for our full roundup of everything new in the update, which again is currently available to developer beta testers, with a public beta expected in the next couple of weeks. That wraps up another episode of 9to5Mac Daily. You can find all of the latest Apple news on 9to5mac.com, follow along with me on threads at Chance H. Miller, and we'll be back tomorrow for a new episode of 9to5Mac Daily.