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New Emoji, Playlist Generator and More: All the New Features iOS 26.4 Brings to Your iPhone

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Why This Matters

The iOS 26.4 update introduces significant new features such as eight fresh emoji, video podcasts, and enhanced accessibility options, reflecting Apple's ongoing commitment to user customization and multimedia integration. These updates not only improve user experience but also demonstrate Apple's focus on expanding content engagement and accessibility for a broader audience, which can influence industry standards and consumer expectations.

Key Takeaways

Apple released iOS 26.4 on Tuesday, March 24, about a week after the tech giant released iOS 26.3.1 (a), the company's first Background Security Improvement update. The most recent update brings a slew of features to your iPhone, including new emoji and video podcasts.

You can download iOS 26.4 now by going to Settings and tapping General. Next, select Software Update, tap Update Now and follow the prompts on your screen.

Here are some of the new features iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone.

New emoji

All the new emoji iOS 26.4 brings to your iPhone. CNET/Apple

With iOS 26.4, your iPhone gets eight new emoji. Those emoji include:

The Unicode Consortium is responsible for creating emoji, and it approved these new emoji in September as part of Unicode 17.0. But this is the first time the emoji are showing up on iPhones.

Video podcasts come to Apple Podcasts

The iOS 26.4 update also brings video to your Podcasts app. To view these video podcasts, open the Podcasts app and start listening to an episode with the video player icon in the top right corner of the title card. Once you're listening, open the media player and tap the Turn Video On button near the podcast's progress bar. The podcast's artwork will be replaced with the video. To turn the video off again, tap Turn Video Off and the podcast's artwork will return.

Video podcasts are a fun addition to the Podcasts app. Apple/Screenshots by CNET

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