Overview
- Apple on March 9 released fourth developer betas for iOS, iPadOS, macOS Tahoe, watchOS, tvOS and visionOS, with multiple outlets expecting a public launch within the next few weeks.
- The latest builds add new emoji to iOS, iPadOS and macOS, including trombone, treasure chest, distorted face, hairy creature (Bigfoot), fight cloud, orca, landslide and ballet dancers.
- Apple removed the RCS end-to-end encryption test from iOS 26.4 beta 4, reaffirming that full E2E for RCS will ship in a future update rather than in 26.4.
- macOS Tahoe 26.4 brings back Safari’s compact tab bar, introduces a Charge Limit battery setting, fixes a window-resize pointer bug, and begins warning about apps relying on Rosetta.
- Platform refinements include tvOS dropping the legacy iTunes Movies and TV Shows apps and adding a Continuous Audio Connection option, visionOS enabling foveated streaming, and Apple Podcasts adopting an HLS video backend for native video episodes.