What these changes mean for you is that your technology experience may differ drastically depending on which type of phone you buy in the coming years.

OS 26 isn't quite ready to launch yet, but we're far enough along in the testing process that Apple is seeding the update out to millions

If you're having second thoughts about installing the first public beta of iOS 26, follow these steps to go to back iOS 18.

Updated on Thursday, July 24 at 3:40 p.m. ET — Well, it's now official: you can now sign up for the iOS 26 beta. Apple officially opened the beta program for the upcoming version of iOS, set to release this fall. You can read our original article about this topic below.

With the iOS 26 public beta now out, you may have chosen to give the new software update a try ahead of its general release in the fall.

Apple released the first public beta of iOS 26 on July 24, more than a month after the company announced the next iOS version at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. That

Indeed, Liquid Glass does bring somewhat of a major change to iOS 26, or what we would have called iOS 18 (Apple is switching iOS numbers to years, and iOS 26 will release in the fall). I've been using the developer beta of iOS 26 for some weeks now,

As part of iOS 26's interface changes, your iPhone lock screen can take on a new look with spatial photos available as the background image for your phone and an adaptive time feature that adjusts the look of the on-screen clock to fit with the other visual elements. We go through all the iOS 26 lock screen changes.