iOS 26.4 Beta 4 Is Here: Apple Music Gets a Concert Finder

Apple dropped iOS 26.4 developer beta 4 — and its matching public beta — on Monday March 9, pushing the fourth test build of one of the most feature-rich point updates in recent iOS history closer to its anticipated late March or early April public release. Beta 4 follows a rapid testing cadence that began with the first iOS 26.4 beta on February 16 — and with four betas now in the books, the update is approaching the final stretch of developer testing before Apple signs off on a public release for the more than one billion iPhone users worldwide. If you have been tracking what is coming in iOS 26.4, the picture is now very clear. And it is genuinely impressive. Here is everything new, everything updated, and everything you need to know before the update lands on your iPhone. Apple Music: The Biggest Upgrade in Years Apple Music is the undisputed star of iOS 26.4 — and the breadth of what Apple is adding to the platform in this update represents the most significant investment in the Music app's feature set in recent memory. The headlining addition is a concerts feature — a long-requested capability that allows Apple Music subscribers to find upcoming concerts near their location and browse tour dates for artists already in their Apple Music library. The feature is deeply integrated with the library — meaning it surfaces shows by artists you actually listen to rather than generating generic event listings — and is designed to sit naturally within the app's existing discovery interface. Alongside the concerts feature, iOS 26.4 brings new full-screen artwork that Apple describes as bringing your music to life for albums and playlists — a visual upgrade that takes advantage of the Liquid Glass design language introduced in iOS 26 to create a more immersive listening experience. A new collection of Ambient Music widgets lands on the Home Screen in iOS 26.4 — available in small and medium sizes, each widget is tied to one of four moods: Sleep, Chill, Productivity, and Wellbeing. Tapping the widget starts ambient music playback for that mood instantly — no need to open the app, navigate to a playlist, or search for something appropriate. It is the kind of frictionless feature that sounds minor in a feature list but becomes indispensable within a week of use. And for users who want AI help building their music collections, Playlist Playground — an Apple Intelligence-powered feature that generates personalised playlists based on prompts — has been further refined in beta 4, building on the foundation laid in earlier beta releases. RCS End-to-End Encryption: Testing Begins, Shipping Later One of the most technically significant additions in iOS 26.4 is also one of the most carefully caveated. Apple has added a toggle in Settings > Messages > RCS Messaging called End-to-End Encryption (Beta) — enabled by default for users running iOS 26.4 beta 2 and later. The addition marks a major step toward securing cross-platform messaging between iPhone and Android users — closing the long-standing security gap between iMessage's native end-to-end encryption and standard RCS messaging, which has historically transmitted messages without end-to-end protection. The caveat is important and Apple has been explicit about it: RCS end-to-end encryption will not ship as part of the public iOS 26.4 release. It is included in this beta for testing purposes only — with Apple stating the feature will be available in a future iOS 26 update. For now, the toggle exists to allow developers and beta testers to verify the implementation before it goes live for all users. The direction is clear. The timeline is not yet. Apple Podcasts: Video Gets a Major Upgrade iOS 26.4 brings what Apple is calling advanced video podcast capabilities to the Podcasts app — a significant refresh that simplifies the experience of switching between watching a video podcast and listening to the audio version of the same show. The features are powered by Apple's HTTP Live Streaming technology, enabling automatic quality adjustment based on network conditions — meaning your video podcast will downgrade to audio seamlessly if your connection drops without interrupting playback. Apple is also adding support for dynamic video ads in Apple Podcasts with iOS 26.4 — a monetisation feature that opens new revenue possibilities for video podcast creators distributing through Apple's platform. For the growing number of podcasts that produce full video versions — a format that has exploded in popularity across all major platforms — iOS 26.4 makes the Apple Podcasts experience significantly more capable and competitive. Health, Reminders & More: The Full Feature List Beyond the headline additions, iOS 26.4 brings a meaningful collection of smaller but genuinely useful upgrades across the system. The Apple Health app gains additional Sleep and Vitals data — including a new average bedtime metric that tracks your average bedtime alongside last night's bedtime for easy comparison, giving users a clearer picture of sleep consistency over time. The Reminders app builds on the Urgent task designation introduced in iOS 26.2 — adding a new Smart List that automatically surfaces all tasks you have marked as urgent in a single, dedicated view. It is a small addition that significantly reduces the friction of managing high-priority tasks across multiple lists. When Is iOS 26.4 Coming? Late March — Maybe Earlier With four betas now released and the update tracking consistently with Apple's historical release patterns, the public release of iOS 26.4 is expected in late March — with the possibility of a mid-March release if the beta cycle moves faster than expected. Apple released iOS 18.4 on March 31 last year. The first iOS 26.4 beta arrived on February 16 — matching the timing of iOS 18.4's beta cycle almost exactly. Late March remains the most likely window. If you are a developer or public beta user, beta 4 is available now via Settings > General > Software Update. If you are waiting for the public release — it is close. 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