iOS 26 With Liquid Glass Gets Its First Public Beta, Here's How To Get It
First showcased at WWDC 2025 in June, iOS 26 introduces the Liquid Glass look—a translucent, fluid design that transforms icons, menu buttons, and navigation bars with subtle animations reflecting and refracting light. This redesign extends across system applications like Phone, Camera, Safari, Music, and system areas such as the Lock Screen, Control Center, and Home Screen, aiming for a more immersive UX. Early developer betas saw some fluctuations in transparency, but it looks like the public beta has refined the effect. Personally, it looks great when there's animation or movement, but looks rather bland when static.
iOS 26 also features some functional improvements. One of the major ones is real-time live translation integration into Messages, Phone, and FaceTime apps. The Phone app receives a revamp as well, including a new Call Screening feature that prompts unknown callers to identify themselves before the call reaches the user.
More Apple Intelligence features are being peppered throughout iOS 26, if that's your jam. These include improved Visual Intelligence for screenshots, updated order tracking in the Wallet app, and new capabilities in Reminders. Image Playground now offers ChatGPT-style options, and users can create Genmojis by mixing two or more emoji characters.
The new operating system also brings redesigned Camera and Photos apps, offering a cleaner layout, customizable collections, and improved search. Messages now supports customizable backgrounds and polls in group chats, along with automatic text translations on compatible iPhones. A dedicated gaming app provides a centralized hub for discovering and playing games, and users can now customize alarm snooze times.
In a move to streamline its software versions plus taking a play from car manufacturers, Apple has unified its operating system numbering, with iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and HomePod Software 26 all aligning with the "26" moniker, corresponding to the upcoming year.
For iPad users, iPadOS 26 introduces Mac-like functionalities such as the Preview app for PDF annotation and a windowing system for enhanced multitasking. macOS Tahoe 26 enhances Spotlight with AI-powered search anticipation and integrates Live Activities synced with iPhones. Meanwhile, watchOS 26 introduces Workout Buddy, which is an AI fitness coach providing personalized motivation, and automatic volume adjustment.
Users eager to explore the new features can enroll in the Apple Beta Software Program, and then enable the iOS 26 Public
Beta option in their device settings. The stable versions of iOS 26 and
its counterparts are expected to be officially launched this fall. Compatible iPhone models for iOS 26 include the iPhone 11 and newer, though Apple Intelligence features are exclusive to the iPhone 16 lineup, plus iPhone 15/16 Pro and Pro Max.
