My Eight Favorite New Features and Changes in IOS 26 Beta 2
On Monday, Apple released the second developer beta for iOS 26. While the update is primarily designed to fix bugs and glitches found in the first beta, Apple took the opportunity to include some new features and changes that weren’t ready for beta 1 — no fewer than eight, in fact.
To be clear, iOS 26 is currently in beta testing and is not yet available to the general public. Moreover, it is a developer beta, which is intended for software developers to test their apps on Apple’s new OS. While anyone can install the beta on their iPhone, I don’t recommend it as it is still too unstable. You may find your iPhone unusable or lose data if you delete the beta without a proper backup .
Whether you’re using the beta or just want to see what’s new, here are eight of my favorite features and changes I learned from Apple’s second iOS 26 beta.
Liquid glass effect in Control Center
The first thing you’ll probably notice when you install iOS 26 on your iPhone (or any of Apple’s upcoming updates, really) is the new Liquid Glass design. It’s hard to miss: All UI elements, including menu bars, windows, and buttons, now take on a “glass” effect that reveals the elements behind them, albeit in a blurry and distorted way.
While there are many opinions on this redesign, I think it’s pretty cool, and it’s nice to see Apple overhaul its design for the first time in over a decade. That said, the initial design that arrived with the first iOS 26 beta wasn’t perfect. Control Center in particular was a bit of a mess: as usual, it’s a grid of tiles, only now they’re made of “glass,” letting through too much of the background. It’s hard to see; it’s cluttered; it’s just not very Apple-esque.
The company clearly went back to the drawing board for beta 2, because Control Center now looks completely different . Apple has significantly reduced the transparency effect, to the point that I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that nothing has changed with iOS 18 at all.
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The tiles are now objectively easier to see, but I wonder if Apple can find a better balance here. I understand the need for visibility and simplicity, but I like the new glass look, and it would be a shame if that design was compromised by having to fade the effect too often. It’s still early, so we’ll see what comes out of Liquid Glass when the beta ends.
Transparency can be reduced even further
Before Apple toned down the Liquid Glass effect in Control Center in beta 2, beta testers were looking for ways to reduce the effect themselves. As it turns out, Reduce Transparency, an existing accessibility feature, does the job , reducing transparent effects across iOS.
With the latest beta, Apple has further strengthened the Reduce Transparency effects . It looks like this will be an official workaround for Apple’s new design limitation, at least for now.
New ringtone
The last time Apple updated its ringtone selection was in iOS 17 in 2023. Before that, its tones had remained the same since iOS 7, with the exception of “ Reflection ,” a ringtone Apple released with the iPhone X in 2017.
Reflection is now the default ringtone on all iPhones, and while you can change it to any other Apple tone ( or even your own ), the company would prefer you have a different version of Reflection to work with . In beta 2, Apple added Alt 1 as an option in Reflection, and the original ringtone is now labeled “Default.” As is often the case, the new ringtone was spotted in the first beta’s IPSW file, but Apple only added it to the ringtones settings with this latest update.
You can hear the new ringtone below. I think it’s pretty good, although I’m not sure why Apple insisted on calling it an alternate version of Reflection. It sounds different enough that it could have been its own ringtone to me.
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New widget “Live Radio”
Apple Music has a new widget on the home screen: Live Radio . If you often listen to various Apple Music radio stations, you can add this widget to your iPhone’s home screen to select a station without having to open Apple Music first.
Safari Tab Options Are Back
With the first beta of iOS 26, Apple’s updated Safari also changed the placement of the tab buttons. If you’re using an iPhone with iOS 18, you’re probably used to these options being at the bottom of the screen. That’s not the case with iOS 26, as Apple has moved them to the top.
Perhaps Apple got too many complaints from beta testers whose muscle memory failed them while browsing the web, because those buttons are now back at the bottom .
Now we know what low power mode actually does
You can use Low Power Mode to extend your iPhone’s battery life when it starts to run low, but do you really know what this feature does?
Up until this point, we could only speculate, as the current description in iOS 18 reads, “Low Power Mode temporarily reduces background activity, like downloads and Mail, until you can fully charge your iPhone.” But it clearly does more, as any owner of a high-refresh-rate iPhone can attest to Low Power Mode dropping the refresh rate from 120Hz to 60Hz.
iOS 26 beta 2 gives us a lot more details, according to MacRumors . The description now reads: “iPhone will temporarily reduce some background processes, processing speed, display refresh rate, and brightness, and limit some features like 5G, iCloud syncing, Mail retrieval, and more.”
While this may still not cover all capabilities, Apple now confirms that Low Power Mode not only stops apps from running in the background, but also reduces data processing speeds and limits resource-intensive cellular connections.
Order tracking in Apple Wallet is now available
Apple initially announced the ability to track orders in Apple Wallet during WWDC , but the feature is now available in beta 2. When you update, you’ll see the ability to scan the Mail app for orders from businesses, which will then appear in Wallet. You can see which orders have been placed, which have shipped, and which are awaiting delivery.
Apple Confirms You Can Restore Your iPhone Without a Mac or PC
As MacRumors reports , the initial iOS 26 beta included the ability to restore an iPhone without a separate computer — a first for Apple. But in beta 2, Apple confirmed the change in its release notes, saying, “Recovery Assistant is a new way to restore your device if it doesn’t start up normally. It can look for problems and try to fix them if they’re found.”