TLDR; if you have not yet installed the iOS 26.4 update it might be best to wait a little while, because it includes a bug that makes Drafts sync (and other apps that rely on iCloud sync) less immediate. If you have installed this update, don’t worry too much. There’s no risk of data loss, you may just notice slower updates between devices.
Overview
The iOS (and iPadOS) 26.4 update shipped with a bug effecting many apps that utilize iCloud (specifically CloudKit) for sync. To be clear, Drafts sync still works fine on these updates, but you may notice it being less immediate to push changes between devices.
Apple seems to have already fixed this bug in the iOS 26.5 beta release, and it is significant enough I think they will likely push out a fix in a 26.4.1 or similar bug fix release in the next week or two, but that remains to be seen.
As a result, I recommend that if you have not updated to 26.4 yet, you wait until this issue is resolved to maintain optimal operation of Drafts, and likely other apps that may be effected by this bug.
Technical Details
For those interested, the technical details of this bug are roughly as follows…
CloudKit, Apple’s lower-level iCloud storage API, has a mechanism to notify apps of changes to cloud data using silent push notifications. When you first launch Drafts on a device, the app tells the system it’s interested in hearing about changes to data in Drafts’ CloudKit storage — so whenever Drafts on one of your devices makes a change, the other devices get an immediate push notification* telling them they should perform a sync and see what’s new in the cloud.
On iOS 26.4, these push notifications are not being delivered.
Drafts does not rely solely on these notifications to trigger sync. It has other mechanisms in place, so sync will still happen—you may just notice it being slightly less immediate on devices running iOS 26.4.
So, ultimately, not a tragic bug, at least for Drafts, but unless you have a compelling need to have those eight new emoji in 26.4, it might be best to sit out this update for a week or two until Apple resolves the issue.
* This is an over-simplification, but essentially correct.