Apple launched the third public beta of iOS 26.1 on Tuesday, a couple of month after the corporate launched iOS 26, which launched Liquid Glass, name screening and extra to your gadget. The iOS 26.1 beta brings just a few new settings to builders’ and beta testers’ gadgets, in addition to a helpful safety characteristic I hope will make the ultimate reduce.
Since this can be a beta, I like to recommend downloading it solely on one thing aside from your main gadget. The replace is perhaps buggy, and battery life could also be quick.
Additionally, on condition that it is not the ultimate model, extra options may land in your iPhone when 26.1 is launched. There isn’t any phrase on when Apple will launch iOS 26.1 to most of the people.
Listed below are the options builders and beta testers can attempt now, and what may very well be in your iPhone when Apple formally releases iOS 26.1.
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Mechanically set up Safety Enhancements
Apple introduces a helpful new safety setting within the iOS 26.1 beta that permits your iPhone to obtain and set up Safety Enhancements by itself.
“Background Safety Enhancements present extra safety to your iPhone in between software program updates,” in response to Apple. “In uncommon situations of compatibility points, these Safety Enhancements could also be quickly eliminated after which enhanced in a future software program replace.”
This menu additionally means that you can uninstall a Safety Enchancment. To take action, faucet the three dots (…) subsequent to the put in replace. A brand new menu will seem with the choice to Take away & Restart. This may be useful when you really feel the Safety Enchancment is inflicting you extra points than it is fixing.
This characteristic jogs my memory of Apple’s Fast Safety Responses (RSR). The corporate launched RSRs in 2023 as a method to shortly deploy safety fixes to gadgets. Whereas a good suggestion in idea, Apple hasn’t used iOS RSRs because the launch of iOS 16.5.1 (c) in July 2023.
This is not a flashy setting, but it surely’s helpful and means that you can keep updated on smaller safety updates with out doing any further work. As soon as enabled, this setting takes care of the remainder, so you do not have to verify your iPhone on daily basis for brand spanking new updates to potential safety points.
Native Seize choices
Native Seize is a simple method to file high-quality video and audio recordings of video calls in your iPhone, and the iOS 26.1 beta introduces a brand new Settings menu for the characteristic. The menu offers you the choice to pick a save location to your recordings, in addition to a toggle that permits you to solely file audio when utilizing Native Seize.
“Add Native Seize to Management Middle to file your personal audio and video throughout a name to avoid wasting and edit later,” Apple writes within the Native Seize settings web page.
New Accessibility possibility
The iOS 26.1 beta additionally introduces a brand new choice to desire single-touch actions over sliding actions in your iPhone’s display screen. You will discover this new possibility by going to Settings > Accessibility > Contact and scrolling to the underside of the web page.
Alarm will get one other replace
Considered one of my favourite small upgrades in iOS 26 was the power to change your alarm snooze size. Within the iOS 26.1 beta, Apple makes it more durable to by chance dismiss your alarm. When your alarm goes off within the beta, you now need to swipe to cease it slightly than hit a button. This may very well be annoying when you’re making an attempt to close your alarm off quick, or it may assist make sure you’re really awake earlier than you flip your alarm off.
Altering songs in Apple Music
Apple Music received a handful of recent options in iOS 26, however the iOS 26.1 beta would not change a lot in regards to the app or service. As an alternative, the replace allows you to change songs in a brand new approach.
With the iOS 26.1 beta, as a substitute of tapping the subsequent or backward buttons to vary songs, you may swipe left or proper on the tune title from the music participant inside Apple Music. You are able to do this when the participant is taking over your complete display screen or whenever you’re trying by way of Apple Music and the participant is small and close to the underside of your display screen. The tune title even seems to leap left or proper whenever you change songs now, too.
Extra Dwell Translation languages
The iOS 26.1 beta provides extra languages to the brand new Dwell Translation characteristic. Apple launched this characteristic to iPhones and AirPods with iOS 26, and the beta lets builders and beta testers use it with these languages.
- Chinese language (Mandarin, simplified)
- Chinese language (Mandarin, conventional)
- Italian
- Japanese
- Korean
Apple Intelligence in additional languages
In case you have an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, iOS 26.1 beta 1 brings the AI options to those languages.
- Chinese language (conventional)
- Danish
- Dutch
- Norwegian
- Portuguese (Portugal)
- Swedish
- Turkish
- Vietnamese
Calendar replace
Not a serious change, however the iOS 26 beta updates the Calendar interface. When you view your calendar in Checklist View, any calendar occasions you’ve gotten on a particular day can be coloured throughout the entire backside a part of your display screen.
New video scrubbing bar
The iOS 26.1 beta additionally brings a small change to the video scrubbing bar in Pictures. When you go into Pictures and watch a video, you may discover that the bar throughout the underside of your display screen is extra compact and inline in comparison with the previous scrubbing bar, which had the play/pause and quantity buttons above the bar.
That is one other small change that you just won’t have even seen.
These are just a few of the brand new options builders and public beta testers can attempt with the third public beta of iOS 26.1. There’ll probably be extra betas earlier than the OS is launched to the general public, so there’s loads of time for Apple to vary these options.
For extra iOS information, this is my evaluation of the iOS 26, tips on how to scale back the Liquid Glass results within the replace and the way textual content screening works within the replace. It’s also possible to try our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
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