Apple’s iOS 26 Public Beta is here and it’s a fresh but familiar update for iPhone users. Open to anyone who wants to try beta software, it brings a Liquid Glass design and practical improvements to how you use your device.
Liquid Glass shapes the design of iOS 26, with transparent, fluid-like layers that move across apps, menus and notifications as you navigate. Buttons and controls appear to float and reflect the underlying colors with a prism-like effect. There’s an Accessibility setting to reduce transparency for better clarity.
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App icons are layered and transparent, just like last year’s tinted themes, with a new “clear” theme that makes icons ghostly, which may be hard to navigate. Navigation bars in apps like Photos, Music and the App Store are now at the bottom of the screen on larger iPhones. Popover menus have been redesigned: tap and hold and you get a compact menu, tap and hold again and it expands into a full command panel.
The lock screen builds on its customization heritage with some subtle additions. The clock dynamically sizes itself to fit the space, avoiding overlap with faces in photos, but manual sizing feels unnecessary given its adaptability. The rainbow clock from last year is still there, available as a “solid” style option. Widgets can now slide to the bottom of the screen above notifications, so you don’t block the images.
Spatial scenes, inspired by Vision Pro, add a 3D effect to lock screen photos, animating depth when you tilt your phone, but motion sensitive users may find it uneven. Music album artwork animates across the lock screen when playing music, supported by a developer API for third-party apps, but it’s only cool if you use the lock screen.
The Camera app is a core iPhone feature and it’s been simplified by prioritizing photo and video modes, with other options like panorama available via swipes. A button reveals advanced settings like exposure, so you can take quick shots and still have depth for advanced users by swiping up or using the Camera Control button on newer models.
Battery settings now show the last charge and daily usage compared to averages, while Adaptive Power mode dims the screen to save power. Notes can be exported with images in Markdown. Plus, Passwords monitors credential changes and flags, thus preventing potential security issues. Love traveling? Maps’ Visited Places logs travel privately and you can search by city or category.
