iOS 26 Public Beta Appears Imminent Based on This Latest Hint

[Radeon85]

iOS 26 B3 has been pretty rock solid for me, with very few issues when it comes to stability. No OS crashes; the only app that has crashed, and quite regularly, is Candy Crush, so no big issue.

The one improvement I wish they would do is improve the laggy and stuttery UI. This is never an issue in apps, but the phone’s UI feels terrible to use and this is on a 16 PM. I know it’s a beta, so I expect issues, but iOS 18 B1 wasn’t even close to as bad as this. It is getting a little smoother on each release so that’s a good sign.

 

[serzhs1]

I predict that the iPhone 17 will be released in September 🤭😂🤣

 

[xxFoxtail]

Please have a slider for Liquid Glass shading, to make everyone happy, and not piss off 50% of the user base.

I'm probably in the minority, but I’d like a system-wide color picker for the Liquid Glass too. We can change the icon color, why not do it everywhere?

 

[thelion7]

I can’t wait, my HomePods are suffering on 18.6 whilst everything else is on 26. 😭

 

[Taq'aix]

Yeah this isn’t exactly rocket science. SMH.

 

[IceCool]

Is this a serious post? It’s been widely known to be the worst series of betas in the history of iOS. Serious lag and glitchiness makes me so thankful I only installed it on my 15PM and not my main phone.

Absolutely not true.

This is the most stable beta since iOS 14 and it’s not even close. For the first time in years, features actually work - and they have from the first beta.

Complaining about lag and some glitches is what seems unserious as it’s an expected early beta issue.

iOS 11, iOS, 13, iOS 16 are probably the top 3 actual worst “series of betas”, with iOS 11 and iOS 13 having plenty of remaining issues at release and iOS 16’s feature set being almost unusable in the first several betas due to bugs. 🤣

 

[m4mario]

August is eminent based on hints in the calendar app.

 

[chucker23n1]

This seems plausible and likely.

• developer betas of the next major release (iOS 26, etc.) every other week
• the weeks in between, betas of the next minor release (iOS 18.6, etc.)
• but also, starting with the first public beta, the weeks in between, public betas of the next major release (iOS 26, etc.)

This gives each iOS (etc.) 26 developer beta about one week's worth of testing before rolling it out to a much larger testing group.

 

[wbeasley]

I predict that the iPhone 17 will be released in September 🤭😂🤣

you beat Gurman and Kuo to the punch

 

[pcd213]

Resist……must resist……

 

[MD0600]

Resist……must resist……

 

[IIGS User]

I did the 18 Developer Beta last year and that kinda swore me off Developer Beta's for a while. I may try one of the Public Beta's when they come out.

I used to like being on the cutting edge of things, but as I've gotten older it's just not as much fun.

I used to be with it. But then they changed what "IT" was. Now what I'm with isn't "it" anymore and what's "it" seems weird and scary.

It'll happen to you. It's only a matter of time before I'm at Golden Corral at 3 PM with my pants hiked up to my naval bitching about something.

 

[Rokair]

I have been skipping the Developer Beta on my phone at least so far this year. But did decide to try it on my iPad a couple days ago. So far I actually like it but...

I have had three crashes already where the system spins and then all my applications are no longer running.
And, while I find several things better than iPadOS 18 the fact that the right click does NOT work on the Magic Mouse is driving me a little crazy. LOL. Especially given that it works fine for the Magic Keyboard trackpad and a generic mouse. Really apple? Your own mouse doesn't work!!..

 

[GioGiusi]

Here's hoping for some actual consistency in the Liquid Glass design. The Music app is more or less what they presented with a touch too much opaqueness, meanwhile the Mail app is just pure white controls. Get it together.

 

[Devyn89]

Is this a serious post? It’s been widely known to be the worst series of betas in the history of iOS. Serious lag and glitchiness makes me so thankful I only installed it on my 15PM and not my main phone.

Your experiences are not universal lol “widely known” by whom exactly?

 

[B-Mc-C]

Absolutely not true.

This is the most stable beta since iOS 14 and it’s not even close. For the first time in years, features actually work - and they have from the first beta.

Complaining about lag and some glitches is what seems unserious as it’s an expected early beta issue.

iOS 11, iOS, 13, iOS 16 are probably the top 3 actual worst “series of betas”, with iOS 11 and iOS 13 having plenty of remaining issues at release and iOS 16’s feature set being almost unusable in the first several betas due to bugs. 🤣

Your experiences are not universal lol “widely known” by whom exactly?

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and all the tech YouTubers seem to disagree.

 

[jeremz1ne]

Hopefully today we get Beta 4

 

[BigBlur]

The title & article is confusing...

Title: iOS 26 Public Beta Appears Imminent Based on This Latest Hint
Article: Someone leaked the new build numbers

Huh? How do the build numbers hint that a public beta is coming soon?

I mean...yeah, it's about that time when the public beta comes out; but this story feels cobbled together just to get a story out.

 

[Piplodocus]

How safe do you reckon it is to use public betas with iCloud? I'm very tempted to try it on my iPad. If it crashes or is crap I really don't care. I don't even care if it buggers the iPad so bad I have to take it to an Apple store to get it re-flashed. But if it eats iCloud data that's shared with all my other devices then that's too risky. 🤔

 

[mentaluproar]

by the time it hits public beta, the only real concern you might have is apple might not be able to replace your screen. the systems they use to get the phone to recognize and permit replacement parts to fully function on an iphone dont get updated to betas, only full releases

 

[BigBlur]

How safe do you reckon it is to use public betas with iCloud? I'm very tempted to try it on my iPad. If it crashes or is crap I really don't care. I don't even care if it buggers the iPad so bad I have to take it to an Apple store to get it re-flashed. But if it eats iCloud data that's shared with all my other devices then that's too risky. 🤔

There was a time many years ago when Apple had to wipe iCloud data for those that were using the beta (presumably due to bad data caused by a bug). I think the chances of that happening again are low, and hopefully Apple has better processes in place, but you know what they say... "never say never".

Ideally, you should be running the beta on a spare device a with a different Apple ID/Account.

Apple Planning to Wipe CloudKit Data for iOS 8 and Yosemite on July 7 Ahead of Beta Updates

Apple has notified developers of plans for a server-side data wipe on CloudKit public and private databases for both the beta versions iOS 8 and OS X...

www.macrumors.com

 

[xraydoc]

Hopefully someone will start a wiki listing the apps that aren't working (or aren't working correctly) on iOS 26. I'll definitely need to review something like that before trying it out.

 

[bradman83]

I mean how many betas before the release, 8? I’m actually starting to get concerned they think the Finder in its current form is ready to go.

Each release since Big Sur has seen been as many as 11 developer betas (Ventura) or as few as 7 (Sonoma).