When Apple announced iOS 26 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, the tech company also announced that the new iOS version would be available to the general public this fall. However, developers can try an early version of iOS 26 now, and public beta testers could see the iPhone software this week. According to rumors, we could see the public beta before the weekend.
When is the iOS 26 public beta release date?
We don’t have an exact date but early rumors suggest the beta could be released in the next day or two.
Historically, Apple releases the first public beta of its upcoming iPhone software during July. Apple usually releases the latest iOS version in September, so a July public beta release gives the company time to squash major bugs and address issues you might encounter on your iPhone before the OS shows up for everyone.
But we’re already halfway through July so you might be wondering where the public beta is. The good news is that Mark Gurman, a managing editor and Apple reporter at Bloomberg, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that Apple could release the public beta around Wednesday, July 23. But Apple didn’t release the public beta then.
Gurman did say in his post that Apple could release the public beta “around” July 23, which could mean Thursday or Friday. So public beta testers could get to experience new iOS 26 features, like Liquid Glass and backgrounds in Messages, before the weekend.
Before you download the public beta, you should know that this is a beta version of iOS 26, not the final version of the software. That means the update might be buggy and your device’s battery life may be affected so it’s best to keep those troubles off your primary device. If you want to try the beta, I recommend downloading it on a secondary device.
You should also know iOS 26 is only compatible with devices newer than the iPhone 11. So if you have an iPhone XR — like I do — you can’t download the developer or public beta of iOS 26. Trust me: I tried, and my XR wouldn’t load the page to download the developer beta despite me really wanting to see if my almost 7-year-old device could handle the OS.
For more, here’s what to know about Liquid Glass, how iOS 26 revamps your iPhone’s alarm and everything else you should know about the update.
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