Everything New in iOS 26.4 Beta 4

Apple continues to beta test iOS 26.4 and the latest update is now available to developers and public beta testers. As testing progresses, there are fewer new features in each beta version, but today's version adds new emoji characters and a few other changes. New emojis Apple added new emoji characters, including trombone, treasure chest, distorted face, furry creature, fighting cloud, killer whale, and landslide. There are also new skin tone modifiers for struggling people and bunny-eared dancers, as well as a gender-neutral option for the ballet dancer emoji. Reduce shiny effects Apple renamed the previous accessibility setting for Reduce Highlight Effects to "Reduce Brightness Effects" and explained what it does. Apple says the feature "minimizes highlighting and flickering when interacting with on-screen elements, such as buttons or the keyboard." RCS encrypted messaging Apple removed the RCS end-to-end encryption beta in the fourth beta of iOS 26.4 after testing it in the previous three betas. Apple already said that end-to-end encryption for RCS would not be released in the iOS 26.4 update, but would be introduced in the future. Apple tested end-to-end encryption for iPhone-to-iPhone RCS conversations and iPhone-to-Android conversations. iMessage communications are already encrypted, but in a future iOS update, the full implementation of RCS encryption will mean that iPhone to Android text message conversations will have the same level of encryption. Support for new devices iOS 26.4 and iPadOS 26.4 beta 4 are the first beta versions that can be installed on the new iPhone 17e and iPad Air M4. More new features We have a list of all the features found in previous beta versions in our iOS 26.4 features guide.