You’ve seen all the changes coming to your iPhone and now you’re desperately ready to upgrade to iOS 26 — but it’s only August and the operating system won’t be here until this fall. But I have good news: you can test out all the features now by downloading and installing Apple’s public beta, which CEO Tim Cook says is (along with the other current beta operating systems) “by far the most popular developer betas we’ve had,” 9to5Mac reports. You can also take a look at our preview of the iOS 26 public beta release, which shows off the fresh home and lock screen redesign. Called Liquid Glass, the new translucent look will extend across all of Apple’s upcoming operating systems. The overhaul is one of several big changes coming to iOS, macOS, iPadOS and the rest of Apple’s software suite, all of which were showcased during the company’s WWDC keynote on June 9.
After overpromising on AI plans last year, Apple kept its iOS roadmap focused more on basic quality of life improvements this year. There are multiple useful additions coming to the Phone and Messages apps on your iPhone, for instance: Apple execs outlined the ability to weed out spam texts or other unknown senders and an option to hold your spot on a phone call when you’ve been waiting for a representative to pick up. Plus, a treasured feature that we took for granted is coming back (hint: it’s in the Photos app).
Siri, meanwhile, is in a holding pattern. Apple has previously specified that its smarter voice assistant — first promised at WWDC 2024 — is delayed until some point “in the coming year,” so you shouldn’t expect any major changes in the current betas. But there are reports that Apple is aiming to give Siri a bigger brain transplant by basing it on third-party artificial intelligence models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude, which could make 2026 a pivotal year. The company is also reportedly working on a ‘stripped-down’ AI chatbot to rival ChatGPT.
With each beta, it seems like additional new improvements are popping up, like this FaceTime feature that’ll freeze your video if it detects nudity. Most newer iPhone models are eligible to download iOS 26 (both the betas and final version). Want to see the full list of new features coming this fall? Read on.
What is iOS 26?
The current iPhone operating system is iOS 18, and Apple is still actively updating it — version 18.6 was just recently released. But don’t expect to see iOS 19. Instead, Apple is skipping the numbering ahead…