Apple launches iOS 26.4 with AI playlists, purchase sharing, and more

iOS 26.4 is here, and it comes with a bunch of small but notable updates. That includes a new Playlist Playground launching in beta in Apple Music, which uses AI to generate a song playlist — complete with a title, description, and tracklist — based on a text prompt.

Apple Music is also adding a new concert discovery feature, allowing you to find nearby shows featuring artists from your library, as well as new ones recommended by the app. Other updates include full-screen backgrounds for album and playlist pages, along with a new Offline Music Recognition tool that “identifies songs without an internet connection and delivers results automatically when you’re back online.”

Apple’s Family Sharing feature, which allows you to share Apple subscriptions with up to six other people, will now let each adult member add their own payment methods to make purchases (instead of just using the method belonging to the group organizer). Additionally, iOS 26.4 adds eight new emoji, including an orca, trombone, landslide, ballet dancer, and distorted face. It also improves the accuracy of its keyboard when typing quickly, according to Apple.

There are a few new accessibility features, too, including an update to Apple’s “reduce bright effects” setting that now minimizes flashes that occur when tapping on certain elements like buttons. Apple is making subtitle and caption settings easier to find as well, and says its “reduce motion” setting now “more reliably reduces the animations of Liquid Glass.”

Apple released its macOS 26.4 update as well, which introduces a new compact tab bar option in Safari and the ability to set charging limits from 80 to 100 percent to help preserve the lifespan of your device’s battery.