iOS 26 Beta 1 ― Bug Fixes, Changes, and Improvements

[Nanis]

Anyone know if the call screening and live translate are meant to be in beta?

Call screening not working with me, 16 Pro Max

 

[Stiille]

My impressions of iOS 26 on iPhone 16 Pro-

1. Battery life is acceptable, not as goods iOS 18 but I would say for me it's like 80-90% of what iOS 18 was.

2. Design is alright, I am kinda neutral to it maybe because it's new idk. There are inconsistencies across the OS like the bottom tab bar in clock app, the current tab selected in shown in "Yellow" Colour like it has always been but in other apps it's blue like Notes. It's unnecessarily bouncy for my taste. I like the Music Player's design and audio mix feature.

3. Animations are choppy and frame drops everywhere even in some light games. I have never seen my 16pro lag before this beta but it eventually settles down. Initial time is rough. On the second day it got better but it's still stutters and lags.

4. AI. I hardly use these features but whenever I did iPhone just ***** the bed. Playground app is like useless to me. So many times it went to generate image but never gave me the result especially on Chatgpt style.

5. Messages app is a hit or miss for me. All the OTP I get from the third party apps never showed up in my notifications. I opened the messages app and it was gone into "Transactions" tab but it never showed up as a notification. Kinda needs fixing a bit. Had to cancel some transactions before I could figure out what was happening.

6. Initially it did overheat a bit but then it calmed down after a few hours. Second day, my phone didn't get hot at all but overall system is slow and janky which is expected as its first beta.

7. Torch toggle is a hit or miss as well for me. I regularly turn on the torch from lock screen and it's like 70% hit or miss. it goes into edit wallpaper section when pressed for turning on the torch. I had to intentionally look for the button and turn it on. It has become a muscle memory for me to turn on the torch but something in iOS 26 definitely had it wrong.

8. Sometimes screen doesn't react to touch. there are a lot of misses on touch interactions throughout OS.

9. Cellular connectivity has also been slow for me as compared to iOS 18. It needs tweaking.

10. Always on lock screen blur wallpaper is neat plus the lock screen depth effect on photos. That (Spacial Scene) was kinda trippy but fun but I don't think I will be using that feature often. Photos apps is like pre iOS 18 which is a relief.

I don't feel like it's a big leap forward. If you were bored of the iOS 18 style design then maybe it's a big deal but I feel iOS 18 looked and felt better (Personal opinion). All this glassy stuff is gonna add more weight on the cpu and gpu imo. It's like an extra overhead with all the new bouncy and glassy animations etc.

Make sure to file a case in the feedback app for each of your observations !

 

[heyfrasr]

Call screening not working with me, 16 Pro Max

same here

 

[jsamuels]

Does the stuttering get better? I am now 8 hours in, phone has cooled down, but the UI is still stuttering, as if 30/60Hz.

16 Pro.

Mine is better after two days but not perfect. Assume it will improve in subsequent beta releases. 16 PM

 

[Laggy]

Even though the first beta seems kinda buggy it's still miles better than first beta of iOS 7. Considering that it's a whole system redesign it's actually pretty good.

hat the **** are you talking? redesign? it is not redesign, they changed some buttons, corners, and you call it redesign?

 

[Reeneman]

hat the **** are you talking? redesign? it is not redesign, they changed some buttons, corners, and you call it redesign?

Would agree here. Calling it a system wide re-design might be accurate for the apple marketing but in reality it’s not that big.

 

[d245770q]

hat the **** are you talking? redesign? it is not redesign, they changed some buttons, corners, and you call it redesign?

I don’t think that was actually the point he was trying to make! I agree with him…. Betas now days are so much more stable than they used to be!

 

[HouseLannister]

Does the stuttering get better? I am now 8 hours in, phone has cooled down, but the UI is still stuttering, as if 30/60Hz.

16 Pro.

Still stutters @ 60hz if you turn off ProMotion.

 

[Fraud Goblin]

Has anyone noticed that 3rd party apps icons are kind of fuzzy? The Apple apps icons are crystal clear

Yep, it seems like they are a little clearer while in dark mode but I believe that most apps need to be run through the icon composer Apple has now to be updated for 26.

 

[dimon2242]

I noticed that the entire system lags/becomes sluggish when my battery hits 30% below. I’m using 15PM

Turn off the adaptive power mode

 

[dimon2242]

My impressions of iOS 26 on iPhone 16 Pro-

1. Battery life is acceptable, not as goods iOS 18 but I would say for me it's like 80-90% of what iOS 18 was.

2. Design is alright, I am kinda neutral to it maybe because it's new idk. There are inconsistencies across the OS like the bottom tab bar in clock app, the current tab selected in shown in "Yellow" Colour like it has always been but in other apps it's blue like Notes. It's unnecessarily bouncy for my taste. I like the Music Player's design and audio mix feature.

3. Animations are choppy and frame drops everywhere even in some light games. I have never seen my 16pro lag before this beta but it eventually settles down. Initial time is rough. On the second day it got better but it's still stutters and lags.

4. AI. I hardly use these features but whenever I did iPhone just ***** the bed. Playground app is like useless to me. So many times it went to generate image but never gave me the result especially on Chatgpt style.

5. Messages app is a hit or miss for me. All the OTP I get from the third party apps never showed up in my notifications. I opened the messages app and it was gone into "Transactions" tab but it never showed up as a notification. Kinda needs fixing a bit. Had to cancel some transactions before I could figure out what was happening.

6. Initially it did overheat a bit but then it calmed down after a few hours. Second day, my phone didn't get hot at all but overall system is slow and janky which is expected as its first beta.

7. Torch toggle is a hit or miss as well for me. I regularly turn on the torch from lock screen and it's like 70% hit or miss. it goes into edit wallpaper section when pressed for turning on the torch. I had to intentionally look for the button and turn it on. It has become a muscle memory for me to turn on the torch but something in iOS 26 definitely had it wrong.

8. Sometimes screen doesn't react to touch. there are a lot of misses on touch interactions throughout OS.

9. Cellular connectivity has also been slow for me as compared to iOS 18. It needs tweaking.

10. Always on lock screen blur wallpaper is neat plus the lock screen depth effect on photos. That (Spacial Scene) was kinda trippy but fun but I don't think I will be using that feature often. Photos apps is like pre iOS 18 which is a relief.

I don't feel like it's a big leap forward. If you were bored of the iOS 18 style design then maybe it's a big deal but I feel iOS 18 looked and felt better (Personal opinion). All this glassy stuff is gonna add more weight on the cpu and gpu imo. It's like an extra overhead with all the new bouncy and glassy animations etc.

Great! Send feedback to Apple please

 

[Ossyref]

Anybody else having issues opening documents from files straight in to their relevant apps?

Also excel documents on email attachments (Apple Mail) seem to open in another email client that I have.

Has anybody found a setting that lets you change this behaviour?

 

[uniquexoxo]

Turn off the adaptive power mode

it’s off… i didn’t even know i had that on my settings hahaha

 

[gank41]

Everyone should expect Battery Life to be horrid. Any frame rate issues should also be expected. Again, these are not things they are worried about AT ALL. It's the first beta of a new OS. There won't be any optimizations done to address any Battery Issues and Screen Frame Rate issues until we get close to, or even the RC.

Hopefully everyone remembers to submit feedback. Now's the time... In 3 weeks, things will be locked down for the most part.

 

[adrianlondon]

I agree with some of the posts above saying that this is not a redesign. Not that it matters - it's just marketing.

iOS 26 will, hopefully, have an improved UI over the betas and look ok.

A redesign, according to me anyway 😁, would include:

* Different dock design, or no dock
* Adjustable icon sizes (hence varying number of rows/columns)
* Folders showing more than 9 icons
* App library that can have the apps categorised manually, as it's often wrong
* Consistent UI for stock apps.
* Redesign of the lock screen interface. I still accidentally go into edit/swipe mode.
* Remove the swipe right to access the camera on locked phones.

Off the top of my head.

 

[ixrated]

I don't think they'll be around these parts anymore :-(

We miss you, @gwhizkids and @Pearsey!!

 

[StumpyBloke]

We miss you, @gwhizkids and @Pearsey!!

Where are they?

 

[Stiille]

Where are they?

Banned I believe

 

[EugW]

There won't be any optimizations done to address any Battery Issues and Screen Frame Rate issues until we get close to, or even the RC.

This is not true.

 

[H3LL5P4WN]

Preface all of these with "Yes, I realize this is the first developer beta in a major update cycle."

• Battery life is bad (see above), however I've never run into an issue before where a phone would lose power while being on a MagSafe 2 battery pack (the Anker 10k one with the screen), while simply updating apps.
  • Phone would DISCONNECT from the battery pack after about 2 seconds, reconnect, disconnect, etc.
• Stuttering animations, icons always redrawing if you change home screens.
• CarPlay is straight up broken.
  • Does not auto connect.
  • The phone recognizes that it's connect to a power source, but in order to connect, you have to unlock the phone, open Music, and press play (the lock screen live activity doesn't cut it). The car headhunt will recognize music being pushed "iPod style" after which the phone sends the "CarPlay signal."
• Weird UI button glitches in Music. The Add button in Liquid Glass was over (or under?) another button and neither worked.
  • I had to add that single by long pressing on the art from the search page and choosing Add.
• Liquid Glass keyboard is not constantly applied across apps (though this could be an app issue).
• Quick reply in Messages does not work. It loads a gray block where the quick reply should be.
• Location doesn't work for some contacts, despite them showing up in Find My just fine.

 

[gank41]

This is not true.

They're obviously going to be addressing various issues all along the way, for sure. But the Indexing and extra "Beta Stuff" that's included that reduces Battery Life will be there all Summer until the RC. Frame Rate issues may be addressed thru addressing other issues, but they won't "focus on that" issue until the RC or maybe the couple betas before.. Still, we're looking at all Summer with these expected issues.

 

[ixrated]

Banned I believe

Another one who's not around anymore (still dunno why they got banned) is @Theyayarealiving.

 

[EugW]

They're obviously going to be addressing various issues all along the way, for sure. But the Indexing and extra "Beta Stuff" that's included that reduces Battery Life will be there all Summer until the RC. Frame Rate issues may be addressed thru addressing other issues, but they won't "focus on that" issue until the RC or maybe the couple betas before.. Still, we're looking at all Summer with these expected issues.

So IOW, what you originally said isn’t true. Performance and the various issues will gradually improve over the coming betas.

What I find is that in general, there is usually a vast improvement by dev beta 3 / public beta 1.

 

[WildstarBR2020]

My impressions of iOS 26 on iPhone 16 Pro-

1. Battery life is acceptable, not as goods iOS 18 but I would say for me it's like 80-90% of what iOS 18 was.

2. Design is alright, I am kinda neutral to it maybe because it's new idk. There are inconsistencies across the OS like the bottom tab bar in clock app, the current tab selected in shown in "Yellow" Colour like it has always been but in other apps it's blue like Notes. It's unnecessarily bouncy for my taste. I like the Music Player's design and audio mix feature.

3. Animations are choppy and frame drops everywhere even in some light games. I have never seen my 16pro lag before this beta but it eventually settles down. Initial time is rough. On the second day it got better but it's still stutters and lags.

4. AI. I hardly use these features but whenever I did iPhone just ***** the bed. Playground app is like useless to me. So many times it went to generate image but never gave me the result especially on Chatgpt style.

5. Messages app is a hit or miss for me. All the OTP I get from the third party apps never showed up in my notifications. I opened the messages app and it was gone into "Transactions" tab but it never showed up as a notification. Kinda needs fixing a bit. Had to cancel some transactions before I could figure out what was happening.

6. Initially it did overheat a bit but then it calmed down after a few hours. Second day, my phone didn't get hot at all but overall system is slow and janky which is expected as its first beta.

7. Torch toggle is a hit or miss as well for me. I regularly turn on the torch from lock screen and it's like 70% hit or miss. it goes into edit wallpaper section when pressed for turning on the torch. I had to intentionally look for the button and turn it on. It has become a muscle memory for me to turn on the torch but something in iOS 26 definitely had it wrong.

8. Sometimes screen doesn't react to touch. there are a lot of misses on touch interactions throughout OS.

9. Cellular connectivity has also been slow for me as compared to iOS 18. It needs tweaking.

10. Always on lock screen blur wallpaper is neat plus the lock screen depth effect on photos. That (Spacial Scene) was kinda trippy but fun but I don't think I will be using that feature often. Photos apps is like pre iOS 18 which is a relief.

I don't feel like it's a big leap forward. If you were bored of the iOS 18 style design then maybe it's a big deal but I feel iOS 18 looked and felt better (Personal opinion). All this glassy stuff is gonna add more weight on the cpu and gpu imo. It's like an extra overhead with all the new bouncy and glassy animations etc.

I agree. All the visual stuff does not contribute anything and just adds dead weight to the CPU and GPU. Maybe they need to make iphone 26 looking faster than the 16…

 

[WildstarBR2020]

Preface all of these with "Yes, I realize this is the first developer beta in a major update cycle."

• Battery life is bad (see above), however I've never run into an issue before where a phone would lose power while being on a MagSafe 2 battery pack (the Anker 10k one with the screen), while simply updating apps.
  • Phone would DISCONNECT from the battery pack after about 2 seconds, reconnect, disconnect, etc.
• Stuttering animations, icons always redrawing if you change home screens.
• CarPlay is straight up broken.
  • Does not auto connect.
  • The phone recognizes that it's connect to a power source, but in order to connect, you have to unlock the phone, open Music, and press play (the lock screen live activity doesn't cut it). The car headhunt will recognize music being pushed "iPod style" after which the phone sends the "CarPlay signal."
• Weird UI button glitches in Music. The Add button in Liquid Glass was over (or under?) another button and neither worked.
  • I had to add that single by long pressing on the art from the search page and choosing Add.
• Liquid Glass keyboard is not constantly applied across apps (though this could be an app issue).
• Quick reply in Messages does not work. It loads a gray block where the quick reply should be.
• Location doesn't work for some contacts, despite them showing up in Find My just fine.

Do you have a 3rd party battery on you iPhone or is the original one?