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Here's When to Expect the iOS 26 Public Beta

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Apple previously announced that a public beta of iOS 26 would be available in July, and now a more specific timeframe has surfaced.

iOS-26-on-Three-iPhones.jpg

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said that Apple's public betas should be released on or around Wednesday, July 23. In other words, expect the public betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and more to be available at some point next week.

Apple will be releasing public betas of the following updates:
  • iOS 26
  • iPadOS 26
  • macOS 26
  • tvOS 26
  • watchOS 26
  • HomePod Software 26
  • AirPods Firmware
Apple does not plan to offer a visionOS 26 public beta, according to its website.

Anyone can sign up to be a member of the Apple Beta Software Program, for free, and gain access to the public betas for testing. As always, we highly recommend backing up your devices before installing beta software, in case of issues.

All of the updates are already available in developer beta. A few years ago, Apple dropped the requirement to pay $99 per year for an Apple Developer Program membership in order to access the developer betas, but you still need to have an Apple Developer account. Technically, though, the public should wait for the public betas.

Check out our iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and watchOS 26 roundups linked below to learn more about new features and changes in those updates.

Article Link: Here's When to Expect the iOS 26 Public Beta
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/07/15/ios-26-public-beta-release-date/
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Expecting to see it towards the last few days of the month. Generally I do not try out betas but for the first time might install on one of my devices.
 
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jz0309 said:
Wow, 2 weeks to go in July and Gurman picks the middle - incredible.

Seriously, I'll likely install it on my iPad to explore some of the new features for myself.
Click to expand...
This is what I've often done in the past. I won't install anything but final releases on my daily driver iPhone, but my iPad is non-critical enough to try out the public betas.

Liquid Glass aside, what is the consensus among those who have been using the developer betas, in terms of overall stability?
 
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maruyama said:
This is what I've often done in the past. I won't install anything but final releases on my daily driver iPhone, but my iPad is non-critical enough to try out the public betas.

Liquid Glass aside, what is the consensus among those who have been using the developer betas, in terms of overall stability?
Click to expand...
Running it on iPhone 15 Pro Max, the app crashes for me are contained to iCloud settings in Settings and sometimes when switching Safari profiles
 
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MacRumors said:
... A few years ago, Apple dropped the requirement to pay $99 per year for an Apple Developer Program membership in order to access the developer betas, but you still need to have an Apple Developer account. Technically, though, the public should wait for the public betas. ...
Click to expand...
I entirely concur with the (emphasis added) sentiment above. I activated a Dev account awhile back with the intent of exploring the type of development that I don't get to do in the course of my day job, but I still can't quite bring myself to committing my iPhone to a potentially unstable developer beta build -- nor can I justify the expense of keeping a second current gen iPhone on hand solely for that purpose.

Thus, I satisfy myself with the lower risk of the public betas. I'm very much looking forward to next week's release!
 
maruyama said:
This is what I've often done in the past. I won't install anything but final releases on my daily driver iPhone, but my iPad is non-critical enough to try out the public betas.

Liquid Glass aside, what is the consensus among those who have been using the developer betas, in terms of overall stability?
Click to expand...
Had some random app crashes and behaviors, updates on the beta and I’m sure app updates fixed a few (discord and maintaining random mac addr off, most notably). I wouldn’t consider it yet tbh, Liquid Glass is a mess and it will get refined once the public beta opens, and battery life still sucks (improved since last betas but still bad, watchOS especially). I’m on 15 Pro.
 
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Been using public beta’s for the major OS releases on my main phone from jump for the last few years without serious problems, so will be doing again. Been running the dev beta on my secondary/work 11 Pro with only the occasional stutter, otherwise fine. With big improvements in performance beta to beta. Also have the dev beta on several iPads with good performance honestly, very little to no issues. Excited for the public beta to drop so I can try it on my main 16PM, haven’t dared to put the dev one on it in case banking apps conk out 😳
 
Is there an option to turn off Liquid Glass and have a usable, sober, rational UI instead of that useless 2006 Aero fluff?
 
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