OS 26.2 Adds Reminder Alarms, Edge Light, Podcast Chapters, and Enhanced Safety Alerts

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Originally published at: OS 26.2 Adds Reminder Alarms, Edge Light, Podcast Chapters, and Enhanced Safety Alerts - TidBITS

Following its traditional mid-December schedule, Apple has released the 26.2 updates across its operating systems, featuring a mix of focused enhancements and bug fixes. The most surprising new feature is Edge Light, a video effect that uses your Mac’s display to illuminate your face during low-light video calls. The Podcasts and Games apps see improvements across platforms, iPhone and Apple Watch users in the US gain enhanced safety alerts, and Reminders finally gets alarms.

It’s also worth noting up front that all of these updates include fixes for a pair of WebKit vulnerabilities that have been “exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 26.” In other words, these updates address two zero-day vulnerabilities, so you should update sooner rather than later from the 26.1 versions or install the standalone security updates for Apple’s older operating systems.

Shared Improvements Across Platforms

As always, Apple worked to maintain feature parity across its operating systems by releasing new features that apply to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS:

  • Alarms for Reminders: You can now mark a reminder as urgent, which triggers an audible alarm that you must dismiss explicitly. When an alarm goes off, it appears as a Live Activity, and you can snooze it for 9 minutes if you’re not ready to complete the action. You can even reschedule a snoozed alarm. Although you can mark reminders as urgent on the iPad and Mac, alarms appear to play only on an iPhone and a connected Apple Watch. While this feature is welcome, Apple should go further by adding alarms as a third notification type that users can select on a per-item basis (see “A Call to Alarms: Why We Need Persistent Calendar and Reminder Notifications,” 11 May 2023).Alarms in Reminders in iOS 26.2
  • Podcasts chapters and links: The Podcasts app now automatically generates chapter markers, making it easier to navigate within episodes to find a segment you want to hear again. Additionally, when a podcast host mentions another podcast, Apple says you’ll see links to view and follow the referenced podcast directly from the player and transcript.
  • Apple News section links: The News app now includes section links in the sidebar for quick navigation to popular topics like Sports, Politics, Business, and Food.
  • Freeform tables: The Freeform app now supports tables, allowing you to organize text, images, documents, and drawings in a structured grid. Cells intelligently resize to fit their content. These enhancements also appear in the Freeform app for the Vision Pro.
  • Games app improvements: The Games app gains filters to help you find games by category, size, and more. In-game challenge score banners provide real-time updates when someone takes the lead, and controller support has been improved; the iOS and iPadOS release notes specifically mention Backbone and Razer controllers.
  • Pre-release album fix: Apple has resolved an issue where pre-release albums in Apple Music weren’t immediately playable at their release time.

iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 Improvements

With two exceptions, all the changes in iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 are shared. The exceptions are:

  • iPhone (and Apple Watch) Enhanced Safety Alerts: New emergency alert capabilities can inform US users about imminent threats such as earthquakes, floods, natural disasters, and other emergencies, with information like maps of affected areas and links to additional safety guidance. We hope wildfires, hurricanes, and tornadoes will also be included. You configure these options in Settings > Notifications > Enhanced Safety Alerts, and some explanatory text there suggests that enabling the feature can help your iPhone anonymously alert other nearby Apple devices.Enhanced Safety Alerts in iOS 26.2
  • iPad multitasking gestures: Apple continues to refine iPadOS’s new Mac-inspired approach to multitasking. You can now quickly tile windows or place an app in Slide Over by dragging app icons from the Dock, which makes a lot of sense within the iPad context.

The iOS/iPadOS shared changes include:

  • Apple Music enhancements: Your Favorite Songs playlist now appears in Top Picks, making it easier to access the music you’ve explicitly marked as favorites. Music also now stores offline lyrics for downloaded songs.
  • AirDrop verification codes: When using AirDrop with unknown contacts, a new verification system provides an additional layer of security. The receiver’s device displays a code that the sender must enter to complete the transfer.
  • Lock Screen time customization: In another step back from Liquid Glass transparency, a new option lets you adjust the transparency of the Lock Screen time display. The Solid option is still far more readable.
    Lock Screen time customization in iOS 26.2
  • “Juice jacking” protection fix: In “Juice Jacking Protection Setting Broken in iOS 26” (13 October 2025), I noted that the options in Settings > Privacy & Security > Wired Accessories could incorrectly appear as managed by an enterprise organization. iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 resolve that problem, but you should check the setting, as it defaulted to Always Allow on both my iPhone and iPad, not the Ask for New Accessories I had previously selected.
  • Home app multipack pairing: When you buy HomeKit accessories sold in multipacks, you can now use the same setup code to enroll them all.
  • Flash for alerts: A new Accessibility option lets you have the device screen flash when you receive a notification.

macOS 26.2 Tahoe Improvements

In addition to the cross-platform features mentioned above, macOS 26.2 introduces a unique new feature. The Edge Light video effect uses your Mac’s display to illuminate your face during video calls, functioning like a virtual ring light when you’re in low-light conditions. You invoke it from the green video camera menu bar icon, and you can customize the light’s width and temperature there. Mouse awareness causes the light to recede when you need to access content underneath it. On Macs from 2024 and later, you can reportedly set it to turn on automatically in low-light situations.

In quick testing, I was unimpressed. While using FaceTime, I enabled Edge Light and moved into a dark room. It made my face visible, but the quality was poor. You can’t see the bright white Edge Light rim in the screenshot below, but it’s reflected in my glasses. I suppose it’s better than nothing if you can’t turn on a light.

Edge Light in FaceTime in macOS 26.2

The macOS 26 Enterprise release notes call out three additional changes:

  • App privacy permissions in System Settings: Permissions configured by device management now appear in System Settings.
  • Platform SSO and smart card fix: A bug that made the Lock Screen unresponsive on a Mac configured for Platform SSO with smart card authentication has been resolved.
  • Console stability: The Console app is more stable when viewing log files with Now mode enabled.

watchOS 26.2 Improvements

In addition to support for Enhanced Safety Alerts, watchOS 26.2 offers two modest updates:

  • Sleep score refinements: The Sleep app adds notification controls for sleep scores and refinements to how your sleep is classified.
  • Music app advance bug: Apple fixed a bug that could prevent the Music app from advancing to the next song.

tvOS 26.2 Improvements

With tvOS 26.2, Apple focused on enhancing the new profile capabilities that give each user of an Apple TV their own environment:

  • Apple TV app profiles without Apple Accounts: Family members and friends can now have their own profiles for the Apple TV app without needing an Apple Account, giving them their own Watchlist and personalized recommendations.
  • Kid profile improvements: Age-suitable content automatically appears for kid profiles across video providers, and parents can set restrictions to limit access to age-appropriate content.

visionOS 26.2 Improvements

Along with the cross-platform table support in the Freeform app, visionOS 26.2 gains two additional enhancements:

  • Travel Mode expands: Apple has extended Travel Mode beyond airplanes and trains to include cars and buses.
  • Spatial accessory improvements: visionOS now supports hand-drawn content with spatial accessories like Logitech Muse in Notes, Freeform, and any PencilKit-enabled app.

HomePod Software 26.2 Improvements

All Apple is admitting to with HomePod Software 26.2 is “performance and stability improvements.”

Security Updates

These updates—and updates for the last two versions of macOS and the previous version of iOS and iPadOS—address numerous security vulnerabilities. As mentioned above, two of these vulnerabilities have been exploited in the wild against earlier versions of iOS.

Update Advice

If you’re already running version 26.1, these updates appear safe to install and important due to the zero-day vulnerability fixes. The Reminders alarms, Podcasts improvements, and Enhanced Safety Alerts are genuinely worthwhile additions, Edge Light might be useful in some situations, and the various bug fixes address real-world annoyances.

For those still on earlier operating system versions, waiting for Tahoe and its siblings to stabilize, version 26.2 is a reasonable time to consider an upgrade. We’re now two point releases in, and Apple continues to smooth out the rough edges in Liquid Glass and iPadOS multitasking, in particular.

If any quirks arise in your everyday use of these updates, leave a comment on this article, and I will investigate.

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Regarding tvOS, here’s my question and I’ll probably figure it out and come back:

So I bought a lot of content when it was iTunes and now I’m stuck with Apple TV who wants you to forget purchased content exists. ESPECIALLY family library shared content.

My question is, over the holidays can I have visiting family create a profile and then watched my purchased library content? With this new account-less profile, I wonder if there’s any way to access that content. Currently it has to be through an actual Apple ID tied to the family sharing account. The account it was purchased with is the primary account on the device. It sure would be nice if Apple would just make that content available on that device. That account purchased it, that account authenticated the device, I don’t see the problem.

Really tired of subscriptions and have bought a lot of the good stuff since there’s so little good new, but Apple makes it really hard to watch. They’re always trying to push to a subscription service over their own library.

Edit: I am pleasantly surprised to say that it works exactly the way I hoped it would. I easily made an account called Guest, went to the Apple TV app, and didn’t even had to go to family sharing. It was right there front and center in the Library tab. And sure enough selecting one started playing it right away.

This is great and just in time for the holidays when it will be especially useful.

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I installed on my 15 Pro yesterday. It’s working just fine. I can’t say “happy fixes” because I had no problems at all with 26.1. Everything continues to work fine.

My wife still has 18 on her 13 mini and iPad Mini (though not for long) and occasionally doing things on her devices shows me that I still prefer 26 to 18. She hates when things change, so I’ve already warned her she’s not going to be happy about it.

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Any comments about 26.2
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It’s disappointing that if you want a larger lock screen clock display, iOS forces you to display your widgets at the bottom of the screen. If you want to those widgets to stay top aligned, you have to accept smallest time display.

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And I’ll note that 26.2 doesn’t fix the Safari crashing after Reading List item delete bug I’ve been reproducing on every. single. attempt. Even with no extensions and not a single other tab open it still reliably crashes on this iPhone 15.

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I’m seeing an iOS 26.2 bug with the new Screen Flash for Alerts feature (Accessibility —> Hearing: Audio & Visual —> Visual: Flash for Alerts). When I have this on and don’t wake my iPhone for a while, it’s gone and changed my screen brightness without my consent (I always have auto-brightness disabled in my Accessibility settings). Most of the time, it dimmed the brightness below where I had manually set it, though once it set the brightness to maximum (which is blindingly bright on an iPhone 17 Pro when used indoors in the evening).

As I find this bug far more annoying than the “cool” factor of the new screen flash (which I never got to actually witness), I have gone and disabled the new feature.

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I doubt that non-account users will be able to watch/play purchased content. For example, with Homepods connected to an Apple TV my partner sometimes has to log into her account (profile) on the Apple TV and open the Music app in order to accept the terms and conditions and be able (once again) to request Apple Music on the Homepod.

But we can always be pleasantly surprised!

BTW- I vaguely recall that, more than a decade ago, there was a way to use the screen of a Mac to illuminate the user’s face when using iChat (a brilliant app that got downgraded to Facetime). I don’t think it caught on because it made the user look a little spooky (no offence intended Adam :smiling_face_with_sunglasses:)

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Lock Screen time customization: In another step back from Liquid Glass transparency, a new option lets you choose whether the Lock Screen time display is glass (below left) or solid (below right). Much more readable!

Making the clock solid is available in 26,1.

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After upgrading my iphone16 to 26.2 and my ipad to 18.7.3 I am having difficulty hotspotting to my phone. It seems to drop out after a minute or so, if it connects at all. This also happened some time ago after software upgrades.

I will be upgrading the ipad to 26.2 soon and maybe that will fix it. Otherwise it’s another Reset Network Settings!

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Also with regard to glass on the lock screen, shocker but it appears to be buggy like so many things to do with the lock screen.

If you turn the glass slider all the way down, some of the edges pick up unsightly streaks of background color in a way that is clearly not intentional.

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I’d actually prefer the transparency slider for the lock screen keyboard. Once every week when I have to tap in my passcode, I can hardly recognize the keys because of lack of contrast to my background image. At least the clock transparency slider could be made to also apply to that lock screen keyboard.

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Thanks! I misinterpreted Apple’s release note. I’ve updated the article to mention the transparency slider and provided a new screenshot.

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The update giveth and taketh.

I had experienced an issue with iOS 26.1 where iOS would sometimes ask if I’d like to update details of a keychain item used to log me onto certain work web pages that require a 2nd factor (that I also have iCloud Keychain supply). Even though whatever was entered after I had authenticated with FaceID was 100% correct and logged me onto the site, iOS would often then bring up a dialog asking me if I wanted to update the Keychain item even though there was nothing at all to update. As of iOS 26.2, that is no longer happening.

OTOH, ever since updating my 14" M4 Pro MBP to macOS 26.2, I experience, when I first get to my MBP in the morning, that Mail has crashed sometime over night. There’s a little panel telling me it crashed and asking if I want to report. I can restart Mail and it works just fine, but then the next night it will crash again. Never had many issues with Mail and certainly never had these repeated overnight Mail crashes before the .2 update.

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2 posts were split to a new topic: What is Freeform and does anyone use it?

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18.7.3 showed up for my iPads and was installed, however, I’m STILL waiting for it to show up for my iPhone.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: What is Freeform and does anyone use it?

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Same here, iPad air 4 and iPhone 12 mini. Since I like to keep my devices on the same OS version and do not want to upgrade to 26 any time soon I will not be updating/upgrading at all. Not secure? Blame Apple!

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Does the tvOS 26.2 feature of adding managed profiles require anything special?

I upgraded my 4K Apple TV to 26.2 in hopes that I could add a “Guest” profile for houseguests and our house sitter, but when I follow the directions on Apple’s support site, I don’t get an option to “Create Profile”, only to log in with an Apple ID.

I made sure the update was complete, and the Apple TV reports that it’s running tvOS 26.2.

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Yes, I always wait until August before downgrading. I downgraded from iOS 17 to 18 last August and will do the same next August to 26. I do have Security Responses & System Files set to automatically install however.

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It appeared for my iPad Air 4th generation a few days ago. It still hasn’t appeared for my iPhone SE 2020.