Apple Seeds iOS 26.3 and iPadOS 26.3 Release Candidates

[roncron]

The general public consensus seems to be that all <device>OS 26.X releases are not good.

I've been holding off on updating any of my devices to 26.

Three questions:
1. I hear horrible things about Liquid Glass. Is there a way to turn it off yet? Does it kill battery life?
2. Any other battery life issues?
3. What other problems are out there that should be fixed before I upgrade?

Thanks!

As a few folks have said in response to this comment, it's not bad for everyone. People not having problems are less likely to chime in. That's not to diminish the very real problems some folks have had with the various iOS 26 versions.

I haven't had a bad experience on any publicly available version of iOS 26, including 26.0. I've experienced a few glitches in 26.0 and 26.1, but nothing that made me regret installing. 26.2 was a bit better and smoother. 26.3 beta 3 has been pretty good for me. On most versions of 26, I've had good battery life.

Liquid glass is a bit polarizing. I don't have strong feelings about it, other than I wish development on it were further along when iOS 26.0 was first released to the public. It's been refined a bit since then and I think it works pretty well. There are settings you can play with to adjust the liquidness and glassiness to get something closer to what you might prefer.

I don't have strong feelings about liquid glass either way. I get that Apple felt the need to give iOS a fresh look, after many years with minimal aesthetic changes. And when you make such a big change to the look and feel of an OS, there will be folks who love it and others who hate it. Most people get used to it. I'm in that group.

Apple doesn't let the newest phones install previous iOS versions. When I upgraded from 15P to 17P, I had no choice but to embrace iOS 26. But... that's fine. It's fine.

I think by this point it's very safe for you to install. Just make a good backup to your computer, so that you can go back if you want to.

Good luck.

 

[Jimmy Bubbles]

Finally. This security patch was hot garbage. I’m very tempted to install the RC just to not have bugs from the currently 26.2.1.

 

[repoman016]

The general public consensus seems to be that all <device>OS 26.X releases are not good.

I've been holding off on updating any of my devices to 26.

Three questions:
1. I hear horrible things about Liquid Glass. Is there a way to turn it off yet? Does it kill battery life?
2. Any other battery life issues?
3. What other problems are out there that should be fixed before I upgrade?

Thanks!

1. No way to turn it off. It does not kill my battery like others have claimed (16pm)
2. It kills my watch series 6 randomly
3. screen flickering. lag at times. keyboard misses keys or hits the wrong ones (this could be user error but ive never had as many problems typing as I do now... maybe I'm getting old)

 

[cpnotebook80]

Since last week my 16p has been draining battery like crazy and not sure why on ios 26. the battery app shows just screen on and mail and no other heavy apps. Also the phone heats up now which it never did.

 

[Surgicalshark]

Does this mean iOS 26.4 is next?

 

[Surgicalshark]

Who cares about 26.3, please now do the 26.4 beta

Sorry .... but I am ready to burst my own bubble when I get 26.4 because Siri.

 

[GodFather24TR]

Well well well Apple, why i can´t download the ipsw file for iPhone 16 Pro Max.
I want to make a clean install... the links for other devices has no problems 🙁

 

[repoman016]

Since last week my 16p has been draining battery like crazy and not sure why on ios 26. the battery app shows just screen on and mail and no other heavy apps. Also the phone heats up now which it never did.

Do you have chrome with a bunch of tabs open?

I have a rewards that uses a QR code and each one i scan opens a new chrome tab. By the time I'm done I have like 25 chrome tabs open and my phone gets realllllly hot lol. Once I close them all it cools off in no time

 

[McTool]

Nice, that means 26.4 beta shortly with improved Siri.

Improved Siri you mean with Gemini

 

[lazyrighteye]

26.2 RC was Dec. 12.
26.3 beta was a few days later.
26.3 RC was Feb. 4.
26.4 first beta 2/X?
And how deep do we go before seeing any Siri updates? Third? I don't feel like it will be one.

 

[Alexl9126]

Can anyone verify that it fixes the broken mirroring to Apple TV 4K

 

[CarAnalogy]

Doubt we'll see anything with the new Siri in 26.4 DB1. Probably won't be at least DB2 or 3 at the earliest.

I'm still betting that despite the rumors we don't see any significant Siri update at all in 26.4 and that all waits until 27.

Only Gurman has ever said 26.4, Apple of course has not said that nor have they ever said "Spring." They've used two specific phrases. Last year they said "in the coming year" and this year they said "later this year." Never even implied Spring.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Apparently many people do because they understand that we won't be getting any 26.4 anything (not to mention other future releases) without 26.3 first 🙂

Well we got 26 without 19, 20, etc. Apple is just making stuff up now. There's no telling what number we could get!

 

[rotvaldi]

As a few folks have said in response to this comment, it's not bad for everyone. People not having problems are less likely to chime in. That's not to diminish the very real problems some folks have had with the various iOS 26 versions.

I haven't had a bad experience on any publicly available version of iOS 26, including 26.0. I've experienced a few glitches in 26.0 and 26.1, but nothing that made me regret installing. 26.2 was a bit better and smoother. 26.3 beta 3 has been pretty good for me. On most versions of 26, I've had good battery life.

Liquid glass is a bit polarizing. I don't have strong feelings about it, other than I wish development on it were further along when iOS 26.0 was first released to the public. It's been refined a bit since then and I think it works pretty well. There are settings you can play with to adjust the liquidness and glassiness to get something closer to what you might prefer.

I don't have strong feelings about liquid glass either way. I get that Apple felt the need to give iOS a fresh look, after many years with minimal aesthetic changes. And when you make such a big change to the look and feel of an OS, there will be folks who love it and others who hate it. Most people get used to it. I'm in that group.

Apple doesn't let the newest phones install previous iOS versions. When I upgraded from 15P to 17P, I had no choice but to embrace iOS 26. But... that's fine. It's fine.

I think by this point it's very safe for you to install. Just make a good backup to your computer, so that you can go back if you want to.

Good luck.

Polarizing ? Dude They messed it up Tahoe

 

[Octavius8]

How about the keyboard lag bug?. Is it solved?.
Otherwise, all new “features” are 100% useless for me and I see no value in “updating” to bloatware.

 

[TJFDenver]

Well we got 26 without 19, 20, etc. Apple is just making stuff up now. There's no telling what number we could get!

iApple should use satoshi precision for the naming convention

 

[maika1305]

Did they fix the Continuity features broken in Beta 3?

Update: Looks like Apple did. I upgraded to the RC and haven't seen it broken yet

 

[johnsawyercjs]

Can anyone verify that it fixes the broken mirroring to Apple TV 4K

I just updated both my iPhone 16 Pro Max and my Apple TV 4K (current generation) to the new OSs, and then successfully mirrored the iPhone's display to the ATV using the iPhone's Control Center. I played a YouTube video in Safari, and it played fine, including showing in full screen mode on the attached TV. There may be iPhone mirroring modes/situations that still don't work properly, but that basic method worked fine for me.

 

[Abydos]

summary : spiro Agnew would characterize this group as nabobs of negativism

 

[I7guy]

In the lottery of when these might come out…Monday?

 

[Fred de France]

Well well well Apple, why i can´t download the ipsw file for iPhone 16 Pro Max.
I want to make a clean install... the links for other devices has no problems 🙁

View attachment 2601859

Same problem !

 

[super chimp]

How about the keyboard lag bug?. Is it solved?.
Otherwise, all new “features” are 100% useless for me and I see no value in “updating” to bloatware.

According to this video at least on the 17 Pro Max it is. It should be in its own chapter as he specifically mentions it not being there anymore.

 

[Radeon85]

Improved Siri you mean with Gemini

I'm looking forward to it 😃

 

[robvalentine]

Except Apple's been quite slow in addressing a number of UI bugs, if they address them at all

Here's hoping for iOS 27

To be fair they still haven't fixed the totally random back swipe/button/button location action, whereas Android you just swipe from anywhere.

 

[artifex]

Battery life on my iPad 9 has gotten noticeably worse, which is weird for a device that completely misses all of the major new features of 26 except for the windowing. I don't think it's just age, though, because I bought it almost exactly 3 years ago. Think I'm going to turn off the new windowing stuff in case that's burning cycles in the background, but also step off the beta train when the RC goes gold, and prepare to retire the device earlier than expected. Sucks, because I was hoping it would still at least be good to stream a normal length movie on a full charge for a while longer, but now even just reading a book on it for a couple hours drains it.