iOS 26 and Co.: 4th developer betas are here – When can everyone join testing?
As expected, Apple has delivered another developer beta of its new operating systems. Will the public preview version finally be released on Wednesday?
iOS 26 is expected to arrive in September 2025 and will offer a new UI, among other things.
(Image: Apple)
July is slowly drawing to a close, but there is still no sign of the first public betas of Apple's eagerly awaited new operating systems such as iOS 26, iPadOS 26 or macOS 26. Instead, Apple presented the fourth pre-release versions for developers on Tuesday evening. They deliver some interesting detailed improvements. The release of the public betas is now expected on Wednesday evening – but it is still unclear whether this will actually happen.
Beta stories
Apple itself had stated that the pre-release versions for the general public could be expected in July – This is the usual procedure. Last year, however, iOS 18, macOS 15 and co. were released much earlier in their public betas, namely on the evening of July 15, 2024. However, the technical leap between iOS 17 and iOS 18 was smaller than that from iOS 18 to iOS 26, as Apple is relying on a brand new user interface with Liquid Glass, which has also been tweaked several times in the developer betas.
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iOS 26 beta 4 continues this. Apple has again changed some menus, tab bars and buttons. In some cases, the translucent effect of the glass look has been increased again (i.e. less "frosted glass"), while in other areas the elements react better to changes in background colors, making them easier to read. In the notification center, a darker background ensures that it is easier to read. The so-called Notification Summaries can be reactivated within Apple Intelligence. Apple had deactivated this function for news articles in iOS 18 because these AI summaries were sometimes full of nonsense. Users can now specify whether they want to activate the summaries for news and entertainment, communication and social media and "all other apps" in part or in full. Apple also warns that this is a beta feature. "Summaries may contain errors."
Little things and improvements
Apple has also tweaked some background images, which can now be dynamic and change throughout the day, there are new CarPlay backgrounds and the icons for Apple Mail and the camera app look slightly different. The new "Call Screening" function, which intercepts spam calls, can now be controlled more precisely. You can decide whether a caller should be asked for their reason for calling or simply mute all unknown numbers. Finally, beta testers have noticed the option to let the app access "important places" in the weather settings. This database contains information on frequently visited locations. With this access, the weather app should provide weather data for these locations more quickly.
In addition to iOS 26 Developer Beta 4, Apple has also released new developer preview versions of macOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26 and visionOS 26. The new features are only slowly leaking out here –, but most of the changes from iOS 26 Developer Beta 4 can also be found in iPadOS 26 Developer Beta 4.
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