New CarPlay features, more

Welcome to 9to5MacDaily for Thursday, February 19th, 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, last June at WWDC25, Apple announced that Rosetta 2, the software that translates Intel apps for Apple Silicon, would be discontinued starting after macOS 27. In this week's beta of macOS 26.4, Apple has started warning Mac users about this upcoming change. To back up a little bit here, when Apple announced the transition to Apple Silicon in 2020, it launched this Rosetta 2 platform. It's essentially a translation layer that allows Apple Silicon-based Macs to run apps that were created for Intel Macs. It was intended, however, to be a temporary solution to give developers time to update those Intel apps to Apple Silicon apps. Then at WWDC25, Apple announced that Rosetta 2 would be fully supported through macOS 27, but starting with macOS 28, it would be mostly discontinued. Once you update to macOS 26.4, which is currently available in beta testing for developers and public beta users, you'll now see a pop-up notification on your Mac when launching an app that still requires Rosetta 2. The pop-up says that this version of the app will not open in a future release of macOS. It then invites the user to learn more about how to update to an Apple Silicon version. Mac OS 28 will likely be released in the fall of 2027, so users still have plenty of time to make sure their apps are updated to native Apple Silicon versions. This pop-up is meant to give users that early heads up about the change so that they can either seek out updated versions of the app and a reminder for developers who haven yet updated their apps to be native on Apple Silicon So again if you see this pop up in macOS 26 there no urgency just yet It just a reminder to take your time to go through your apps and find ones that still need Apple Silicon versions. Next up today, we have more changes in iOS 26.4. In addition to everything we've covered so far, there are two specific changes to the Health app, improvements to the Vitals metrics, and a new data point for sleep tracking. The update to the Vitals app brings new blood oxygen features back to the iPhone. Apple removed the blood oxygen feature from Apple Watch in January 2024 due to a patent dispute with the health technology company Mossimo. Apple then launched a redesigned version of the feature last August, which lets users take a blood oxygen reading on their Apple Watch, then view the result on their iPhone. You cannot, however, view the result on the Apple Watch, and that hasn't changed. But even after the launch of the redesigned version of the feature, blood oxygen was still not present in the vitals chart in the health app on iPhone. You could only view it as a separate metric. With iOS 26.4, Apple has added blood oxygen readings back to the vitals graph in the health app. This restores functionality to how the Vitals app and blood oxygen feature worked before being removed in January of 2024 This means you can now view five metrics in the same Vitals chart Heart rate, respiratory rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and sleep duration And speaking of sleep, iOS 26.4 also adds a new sleep metric You can now see a breakdown of your bedtime over the last two weeks You can see your average bedtime along with last night's bedtime for comparison. You can hit the link in the show notes for a closer look at how both of these new features work 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're 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 9 to 5 at checkout. Get stuff done and start enjoying your to-do lists again. My thanks to Stuff for sponsoring the show. Writing up today, we have more details about new features coming to CarPlay. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that Apple was preparing to update CarPlay with support for voice-based interactions in AI apps like ChatGPT and Gemini. As of this week's release of iOS 26.4 Beta 1, that support has officially arrived. So for those unfamiliar, Apple limits the types of apps that are allowed in CarPlay. This is done for safety reasons as well as design limitations of Apple's CarPlay framework. Unlike iPhone apps, CarPlay apps must be built around Apple-provided templates within that CarPlay framework. In the February 2026 edition of its CarPlay Developer Guide, Apple says that voice-based conversational apps are now permitted in CarPlay and that developers of those apps can reach out to request the CarPlay entitlement. Voice-based conversational apps must have a primary modality of voice upon launch, and after launch appropriately respond to questions or requests and perform actions, according to Apple. It says that these apps should optimize for voice interaction in the driving environment and not show things like text or images in query responses The important part to remember here is that this will require adoption from app developers. While Apple has added the underlying support for these types of apps in CarPlay with iOS 26.4, it is up to companies like OpenAI and Google to actually update their apps with CarPlay availability. Separately, Apple continues to lay the groundwork for watching videos in CarPlay with iOS 26.4. The company first announced its plans for this feature as part of iOS 26 last June, but noted that it was still a ways away from actually shipping as a feature. iOS 26.4, however, includes multiple new references to the feature, including direct references that the Apple TV app itself will at some point be supported on CarPlay. In fact, a developer named Thomas Dye was able to unlock some of the user interface elements that we haven't seen before by simulating CarPlay in a development environment. This gives us our first look at what the Apple TV app looks like on a CarPlay screen. There's also a look at a new UI element for moving a video between an iPhone and the connected CarPlay display. Ultimately, this is all very promising for drivers eager to start using video in CarPlay while parked. The first step was Apple deciding to allow support, and now it appears Apple is completing the work on its side to actually support the feature. There is still, however, required adoption from automakers, so it remains to be seen exactly when this feature will launch in any cars. That wraps up another episode of 9to5Mac Daily. As always, 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.