2026-05-12

I installed iOS 26.4 on 03/28/26 on my iPhone 11 (very old phone). I did this because of urgent messages from Apple saying that 26.4 has many security fixes for holes that the Bad Guys are exploiting.

The first thing I did was to back up my iPhone to my Mac, in case of any problems. To do this I

• Connected the phone to the Mac with a USB cable
• On the Mac, in Finder, opened a new Finder window and clicked the Mac's name in the left sidebar.
• Clicked Back Up Now
• On the phone, entered my passcode
• Waited for the backup to finish

Then on the iPhone, I selected Settings / General / Software Update and clicked install. The installation process took a very long time to download and sat there saying "preparing update" for maybe 30 mins. It needs 40GB of fee space on the phone to install.

Finally 26.4 finished installing, and then took its time rebooting: the thermometer seemed stuck again ... many minutes just sitting... finally it finished installing, and I could log into the phone with my passcode.

Results

The install went smoothly with no problems. I didn't lose any data from the old version.

There are many changes under Settings > General, Accessibility, Display, etc. I have not tried nearly all of them.

Some online commenters absolutely HATE the new "liquid glass" appearance. I kind of like some of the changes; the others don't bother me. Some text is bigger and bolder that the old way -- no big deal. Yup, some panels have a (barely noticeable) 1-px white border: so what.

• The phone looks different, not awful though
• mail: headings are bolder, font sizes are different
• messages: old messages are still there, it mentions that some are "encrypted"
• many apps, e.g. Weather and Messages, have much larger controls in white-on-black background
• had to fiddle with the startup screen, but it is OK

Things I don't use

My phone is so old that it doesn't support a lot of the AI features, and this is fine by me. Many of these features are not things I want, so I can't tell you anything about how these work.

Application Changes

Photos the old Photos sucked and this is somewhat better. It has a very different display... the thumbnails are bigger... must control with options:zoom out.
Albums from my Mac are several clicks deeper.
"featured content is turned off" -- why do i care. can reorder to put this at bottom. What is "featured" and by whom? Aha, '"Featured Content" is generated by Photos to highlight past moments.' Whole thing sounds stupid.

Camera has a very different display. "a new streamlined design" elevates Photo and Video modes. swipe left or right to get more modes. tap the control button on the top to get more modes. ok, i found photos, and escaped from video mode, but why is there a big "3" in the left upper corner of the photo viewfinder. 3 what? .. exited from Camera and re-entered, now there is no "3", who knows.

Many apps look different, better to my eyes. Perhaps this is "reduce transparency"? Anyway I like it. e.g Firefox Focus has different fonts, Contacts is easier to read, ditto Notes.

Two new apps are provided: Games and Preview. Not interested.

The desktop still uses the same background I set up. The lock screen still had my same background, but the time was switched to white-on-white.. I fixed it by doing a long press on the lock screen to get into "Customize" mode and then clicking the time and choosing black text.

(My lock screen is a 828x1792 JPG file with my picture and "Property of Tom Van Vleck" in the bottom half of the picture. The idea is that if I forget my phone in a bar, anybody who picks it up can return it to me. I customized the lock screen to have the time in big letters at the top.)

Settings

• Stolen Device Protection is ON by default (do not shave your beard just before updating)
• Web suggestion: Open Settings, Accessibility, Display & Text Size and turn on Reduce Bright Effects and Reduce Transparency.
• Web suggestion: Open Settings, Accessibility, Motion and turn on Reduce Motion (was already on)
• There are ome things I don't use: I have not tried them out. For example: Apple Music, emojis, podcasts, subtitle and caption settings, apple news, Apple TV, freeform, reminders, purchase sharing, encrypted messages, RCS with Android, new wallpaper, playlists, ambient music, new widgets.
• App Store improved a little
• Some users report improved keyboard accuracy and stability in iOS 26.4, with enhanced responsiveness and typing speed on various iPhone models.

Info from Reddit · r/ios26 . comment
"It feels nice to finally get a version with no lagging after all this time. Especially after IOS 26.3.1, which had been a total nightmare."

iOS 26.4.1 and 26.4.2

iOS 26.4.1 was announced on 8 April 2026. My iPhone wanted to automatically install it. I waited until 27 April 2026. By then 26.4.2 had been announced with another emergency fix. I installed it without any problems or delays.

Apple says iOS 26.4.1 has an urgent bug fix: "iPhones using 26.4 would stop receiving iCloud change notifications, which impacted cloud data sync." I don't use any iCloud sync features, so this fix is not urgent for me. It also turns on "stolen device protection."

26.4.2 has several security fixes, and supposedly improves battery performance, and better WiFi connections. It has a cure for a serious security bug that let the FBI extract deleted Signal messages.