iOS 26.4 Beta expected in February with new Apple Intelligence tools

The upcoming iOS 26.4 update is expected to bring Apple Intelligence upgrades and a redesigned Siri experience to iPhones later this spring. The next addition in the iOS 26.4 is expected to be a breakthrough, added Apple Intelligence tools and a significant Siri revamp. With Apple Intelligence iOS 26.4, Siri will gain personal context awareness and advanced on-screen understanding. The development was first reported by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and later confirmed by 9To5Mac. These new iPhone AI features aim to reduce manual searches and improve task automation.

Apple Intelligence iOS 26.4: Beta timeline and release expectations

According to Bloomberg, the iOS 26.4 beta release date is scheduled for the week of February 23 for developers. Apple intends to use a developer beta beginning February 23, and a public beta in early March. In the event of successful testing, the stable version would be able to be released late in March or early in April. This is consistent with Apple's history of innovating with spring updates, where enhanced AI is being done following the foundation work of iOS 26.

Siri Revamp in iOS 26.4 brings LLM powered features

The title is Siri 2.0, which is an LLM (large language model)-based and a collaboration with Google Gemini. The main upgrades include:

• Personal Context: Siri accesses emails, messages, notes, and files to answer queries like "Find the recipe Eric sent me" or "What's my passport number?" without manual searches.

• On-Screen Awareness: Comprehends on screen visible information to take actions, including appending a text to an address book or an image to share or edit.

• In-App and Cross-App Actions: Performs more complex actions, such as the transfer of files or navigation and sharing of ETAs.

• Dubbed Siri 2.0, the new assistant will support multi-step commands and contextual search across apps.

These are features introduced in iOS 18, which builds on privacy using On-device processing and Private Cloud Compute.

iOS 26.4 emojis: New emoji and additional enhancements

The iOS 26.4 emojis include Unicode 17.0 characters such as orca, Bigfoot, ballet dancers and a treasure chest.

Additional enhancements can be health application updates, adaptive power features and enhanced notification summaries. iOS 27 chatbot Siri will be introduced during WWDC 2026.

This Apple AI update marks the company’s biggest shift toward proactive and conversational computing. Released to support iPhone 15 Pro and above (iOS 26.4 supports Apple Intelligence with A17 Pro+ chip), the new iOS can be used to transform the everyday iPhone experience with proactive and contextual assistance. These new iPhone AI features aim to reduce manual searches and improve task automation. The iOS 26.4 supported iPhones start from the iPhone 15 Pro and newer models with the A17 Pro chip or higher.

Disclaimer: The information regarding the gadgets/devices listed in the table and article has been sourced from various secondary sources. For detailed product specifications, please refer to the brand sources.