Apple releases iOS 26 public beta with tweaked 'Liquid Glass'

Apple is rolling out the first public beta of its upcoming operating systems. iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 Tahoe are now available for public testing after a couple of months in the Developer Beta program.

In case you missed it, Apple changed its operating system branding strategy at WWDC 2025. Now, all of Apple's systems carry a single version that represents the current year (technically speaking, the next year). As such, Apple jumped from iOS 18 all the way to iOS 26, with iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS following suit.

If you have a compatible iPhone, iPad, or Mac, you can sign up for the public beta program on the official Apple website. It will ask you to sign in with an Apple ID and then get you a profile to download the update. After that, head to Settings > General > Software Update.

You can check out the list of iPhones that support iOS 26 here, iPads that support iPadOS 26 here, and Macs that support macOS 26 Tahoe here.

While public betas are much more stable and less buggy than developer betas, you should keep in mind that they are still pre-release operating systems. Therefore, they could be less stable, more power-hungry, and unpolished. Especially, when you factor in that this year's updates introduce a reworked design language called "Liquid Glass," which went through several tweaks and alterations during the first few weeks in the Developer Beta program after quite a critical initial reception from users and developers.

If you still want to try it, make sure to back up important data and be ready to restore your device to iOS 18 in case something unexpected happens. I nearly bricked my 13-inch M1 iPad Pro with iPadOS 26, so beware.

iOS 26 and the rest of the operating systems are expected in September or October 2025 with the launch of new iPhones and other Apple products.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Posted Friday 25 July 2025 at 11:59 am AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend