The public beta version of iOS 26 is now available. We've found over 20 details worth paying attention to for you.

After more than a month of testing across four developer preview versions, Apple officially released the public beta versions of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, and watchOS 26 in the early hours of July 25th. The official versions are expected to be released in the fall.

In this article, we'll take you on a quick tour of the new features in iOS 26 that are worth trying out. If you want to try the iOS 26 public beta, you can apply for the Apple Beta Software Program on the official Apple website.

Before the official release, Apple will continue to introduce new features and enhancements to its various operating systems. To keep you informed of these new system features as soon as possible, SSPAI will also provide continuous tracking and reporting.

📱New Design

This year, Apple is determined to unify the UI styles across all its platforms, taking inspiration from the visionOS system, which is relatively unfamiliar to most people.

To project the UI elements from the Apple Vision Pro into the user's field of view and blend them seamlessly with the real - world environment, visionOS incorporates a lot of semi - transparent glass designs that can reflect or refract light from the real world, resulting in a better AR display effect. Therefore, this major update to iOS is the most significant change to the overall UI style since iOS 7.

In iOS 26, Apple boldly introduces the visionOS - like style to the iPhone, with the core being Liquid Glass. This material can reflect or refract light from the surrounding environment, creating dynamic and responsive interface elements.

Lock Screen

As the "face" of the system, the lock screen continues to receive special attention from Apple in iOS 26. In the new version, the size of the time component can be manually adjusted.

Apple has also added a feature to the time component that allows it to change automatically based on the content of the wallpaper. For example, if you set your wallpaper to random photos, you'll notice that the clock component changes each time the wallpaper is updated, including adjustments to the font weight, width, and height to match the wallpaper content.

Additionally, when a notification appears on the lock screen, the background wallpaper will dim.

Apple uses AI technology in iOS 26 to enable 3D effects for regular photos, a feature called "Spatial Scene". In addition to using this feature in the Photos app, you can also enable "Spatial Scene" for photo wallpapers on the lock screen. Any photo can instantly have a 3D effect, making the lock screen more vivid. Currently, this feature is only available on iPhone 12 and later devices.

Lock screen widgets can now be placed at the bottom of the screen, no longer restricted to the area below the clock. The default system wallpapers in iOS 26 come with four new color schemes: Shadow, Sky, Halo, and Twilight. They support the corresponding dark mode, and the color schemes can change over time.

If you're an Apple Music user, you may have noticed that many new album covers are now short, dynamic videos. This allows you to appreciate the singer's creativity while listening to music. In the iOS 26 lock screen, when you're playing a song from Apple Music, the lock screen will display the album cover animation full - screen, acting as a temporary lock screen wallpaper that changes dynamically.

Although Apple claims that the music animation wallpaper feature supports all media apps at the time of release, other third - party apps still need to be developed and adapted.

Home Screen

When you unlock your iPhone and enter the home screen, you can immediately see the application of Liquid Glass.

First, the app icons. All system app icons have been redrawn with the Liquid Glass style, and third - party app icons are also automatically outlined in iOS 26, giving them a floating visual effect.

In the home screen customization interface, Apple has added a "Transparent Color" option in iOS 26. This allows all app icons to use a semi - transparent glass material, and you can choose between light and dark styles.

Second, the app folders. Whether in the minimized or expanded state, they have a straightforward, pure semi - transparent glass effect. Especially when expanded, you can easily observe the refraction effect of the folder on the background.

As part of the home screen, widgets are no exception. Currently, widgets from many native apps such as Contacts, Battery, Home, and Find My have adopted the semi - transparent glass material in the Liquid Glass style. It's believed that many third - party apps will follow suit.

Safari

Safari on iOS 26 offers an "immersive" browsing experience. In the new version, Apple has removed the traditional navigation bar in Safari and replaced it with three floating buttons. From left to right, they are Back, Address, and Menu. The minimalist design combined with the semi - transparent material allows for a larger web display area. That's not all. When you scroll down the web page, all three buttons will automatically hide, leaving only a minimized address button. Only when you click on the address button or scroll up the page will the three normal - sized buttons reappear.

Camera

Although we saw John Prosser showcase a concept image of the camera app in a WWDC25 preview article, and the style was already quite similar, we didn't expect Apple to be even more radical. In the iOS 26 camera app, the entire UI and interaction have been re - engineered.

All UI elements, including buttons and menu interfaces, adopt the Liquid Glass style, and the shooting menu has been simplified to just the two most frequently used operations: video and photo. Only when you swipe the shooting button left or right will other shooting modes such as Time - lapse, Slow - motion, Cinematic, Portrait, Spatial, and Panorama appear.

The shooting function interface is now integrated into a single interface. You can trigger the corresponding function interface in three ways: by clicking the button in the top - right corner of the camera app, swiping up, or tapping the shooting button. Clicking the button in the top - left corner allows you to change parameters such as resolution, format, and frame rate.

Photos

After the major overhaul of the Photos app in iOS 18, the UI of the Photos app in iOS 26 has reverted to a more familiar style. Although it uses the Liquid Glass design, Apple has re - introduced the independent tab design for Albums and Collections.

The Albums tab includes all your photos, and you can use the filter button in the top - right corner to filter or change the display and sorting options. The Collections tab includes features such as Memories, Albums, People & Pets, Shared Albums, Recent Days, Journeys, Media Types, and More Items, which help you better organize and share your photos.

Bottom Bar

In iOS 26, there's a subtle change that's easy to miss: the bottom bar that started with the iPhone X has become less noticeable. When you open any app, the bottom bar will briefly appear for about 2 seconds and then automatically disappear. Only when you touch the bottom of the screen again will the bar reappear, allowing you to return to the home screen or open the multitasking center.

💡New Features

Apple Intelligence

Although most of the new features of Apple Intelligence are still unavailable to users of Chinese - mainland - spec iPhones, as the highlight of WWDC25, I've decided to introduce them in the first part of the new features section.

One of the most practical applications of AI for ordinary people is translation. Apple has enhanced the real - time translation capabilities in iOS 26 and integrated it into its own communication tools such as Messages, FaceTime, and Phone. Take the Messages app as an example. When both parties send messages, the text will be automatically translated into the recipient's language, effectively reducing the communication barrier between people who speak different languages. Currently, the real - time translation function in communication tools only supports English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and is only available on iPhone 15 Pro and later devices.

The visual intelligence feature, which was previously introduced on iPhone 15 Pro and later devices, now supports the analysis and processing of content on the iPhone screen in iOS 26. The operation method is a bit complicated. You need to take a screenshot first, and then click the "Ask" or "Image Search" button at the bottom of the screenshot interface for further operations, such as searching for image content, asking related questions, or creating reminders based on the screenshot content. In comparison, Google Gemini is more efficient. You can long - press the bottom of the screen at any time to activate Google Gemini and perform operations on the screen content.

In the TuLeYuan app on iPhone 15 Pro and later devices, Apple has added more possibilities to the AI painting function. In the new version, emojis, Genmoji, and text descriptions can be combined, and a ChatGPT style option has been added, greatly enriching the means of creation.