We went hands-on with Apple’s iOS 26 operating system, which brings a new Liquid Glass user interface to the iPhone and packs other changes and improvements.
The biggest news is Liquid Glass, a redesign of user interfaces across the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro and CarPlay. Some people like it, and others hate it. Like with every change, it’ll take some time getting used to it.
Overall, I think it looks nice, but there are clearly areas that are half-finished and will be tweaked in subsequent betas. This is the software that will truly shine on the twentieth anniversary iPhone in 2027, which should be an all-glass phone with a display that wraps around all sides.
iOS 26 hands-on video: Liquid Design and other new features for your iPhone
iDB’s video guy Michael Billig (@michael_billig) has installed the first developer beta of iOS 26 and took it for a spin on his iPhone. Watch the 15-minute video at the top of the post for a better feel for the glass-inspired redesign. Aside from Liquid Glass, the video covers the new features in Messages, Camera, Photos and other apps.
For more videos like this, be sure to subscribe to the official iDownloadBlog channel on YouTube, and make sure to hit the bell icon so you get notified about new uploads. To stay on top of things, be sure to peruse our feature on everything Apple announced at the WWDC25 keynote.
How to install the iOS 26 developer beta on your iPhone
If you’re a registered Apple developer who pays a $99/year fee, you can install the iOS 26 developer beta on your device through the Apple Developer portal.
Follow the instructions in our step-by-step tutorial explaining how to install the iOS 26 developer beta on an iPhone. You’ll need to turn on Developer Mode on your iPhone in Settings > Privacy & Security, then go to Settings > General > Software Update > Beta Updates and select the iOS 26 developer beta from the menu.
How to install the macOS Tahoe 26 developer beta on a Mac
If you’d like to test-drive macOS 26 Tahoe, follow our separate tutorial explaining the steps to install macOS Tahoe 26 on a different partition of your Mac, creating a dual-boot configuration so you can boot into macOS Sequoia when you need stability or macOS Tahoe 26 to test the latest features without affecting your current setup. While at it, download the WWDC25 wallpapers to celebrate the latest software with official backgrounds for your devices.
iOS 26 is coming this fall
Apple will release iOS 26, along with its other “26” operating systems, ahead of new iPhones in September. Apple has renamed all of its operating systems, adopting a year-based naming scheme to simplify things for everyone, including people like us who write about technology and folks like yourself who are reading about it.
iOS 26 brings a host of other changes, new features and under-the-hood changes, including several new features for AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 owners,
The official system requirements for iOS 26 and other operating systems have changed, leaving a few older devices behind. The iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR, all released in 2018, don’t meet the hardware requirements for macOS 26. And if you own an Intel-based Mac, you won’t be able to install macOS 26.
The requirements for watchOS 26 and tvOS 26 have not changed. If your Apple Watch runs watchOS 11, it will run watchOS 26, Likewise, tvOS 26 supports the Apple TV HD and Apple TV 4K models like the previous tvOS 18 software.