- Apple’s iOS 26.4 beta update has landed for iPhones
- The update includes several interesting new features
- But it lacks the new Siri powered by Apple Intelligence
Apple’s iOS 26.4 update is here – at least in beta form – and it’s brought with it a number of new features and improvements. From health metrics to camera tweaks, there are a lot of upgrades found in the beta – and one glaring absence.
We’ve rounded up some of the most important changes below so you can see what you’ll get if you decide to download and install the beta. If you decide to go that route, be sure to back up your iPhone in case something goes wrong.
1. Audio zoom in the camera app
Apple’s camera app has received a new ‘Audio Zoom’ option in iOS 26.4. When enabled, recorded audio will be focused on the subject of your video when you zoom in. This can help ensure that distracting sounds are cut out – or at least out of focus on your video – and that you can properly hear the sound coming from your subject.
2. Health App Updates
There are several changes to the Health app in iOS 26.4 that should hopefully enable you to better understand your well-being. For example, the Sleep section of the app includes a new average bedtime metric that shows the number of times you went to bed over the past 14 nights.
In addition to that, the Vitals section of the Health app now includes your blood oxygen level on the daily summary graph. Although previous versions of iOS had a section for blood oxygen information, your levels were not as easy to find.
3. Personal hotspot
Do you find yourself using the Personal Hotspot setting to share your iPhone’s data allowance with other devices? In iOS 26.4, it’s now much easier to see how much data you’re using this way. In the Personal Hotspot section of the Settings app, you can tap Data Usage to see how much data has been sent to your Apple devices, with non-Apple products listed under the Other Devices heading. Your total personal hotspot usage is displayed next to the Data Usage button.
4. Apple Music
Want to add a track to multiple playlists in Apple Music? Until now, you couldn’t, which was a frustrating limitation of Apple’s music streaming service. Now that’s all changed in iOS 26.4, with the update allowing you to select a song and select multiple existing playlists to add it to. It should save you tons of time repeatedly adding tracks and managing your music library.
5. Shortcuts
Apple’s Shortcuts app is a great – and very underrated – tool on your iPhone. With iOS 26.4, it gets a set of battery charge limit controls. This lets you automatically set a limit on your iPhone’s charge percentage, which can help extend its life and slow down battery wear. It works in 5% increments from 80% to 100% and mirrors a similar shortcut recently added to macOS 26.4.
Where is the new Siri?
Despite all the updates, there is one feature notable by its absence: a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence. Previous rumors had suggested that this would be introduced in iOS 26.4, but despite these claims, we’re still stuck with the default version of Apple’s virtual assistant.
In recent days, claims have been made that Apple was struggling with the new version of Siri, and that the feature could be pushed back to later versions of iOS 26, or even to iOS 27. That sounded like bad news for Apple, and now that the absence of the new Siri has been confirmed, it raises serious questions about Apple’s ability to measure up to its artificial intelligence rivals. The new Siri really needs to blow people away to give Apple any chance of competing – when it arrives.
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