Apple seeds fifth developer betas of iOS 26, iPadOS 26

Jump to First Reply
AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in iOS

The fifth developer beta round has arrived for the milestone operating systems, with fresh builds available for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26.

Various Apple devices including a laptop, tablet, smartphone, smartwatch, and VR headset displayed together on a white background.
Apple's hardware getting the 26-generation update - Image Credit: Apple



The fifth round surfaces after the fourth, which landed on July 22. The third appeared on July 7 for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, watchOS 26, macOS 26 Tahoe, and visionOS 26, but tvOS 26, arrived one day later on July 8.

  • iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 beta 5 is build 23A5308g, replacing 23A5297i

  • watchOS 26 beta 5 is build 23R5328g, replacing 23R5317g

  • macOS Tahoe 26 beta 5 is build 25A5327h, replacing 25A5316i

  • visionOS 26 beta 5 is build 23M5311g, replacing 23M5300g

  • tvOS 26 beta 5 is build 23J5327g, replacing 23J5316g



The milestone release includes cross-platform changes, including Liquid Glass. A glass-based user interface, it's an aesthetic with transparent elements that features throughout Apple's operating systems and apps.

Other changes in iOS 26 include a new battery management system, an overhauled camera app, ChatGPT integration tweaks, and AirPods feature updates.

For iPadOS 26, it is more productivity focused with an updated Files app, Preview, and window management changes. The macOS Tahoe changes include the Phone app, Clipboard History, and a reworking of Spotlight.

In the third developer beta build for iOS 26, Apple added more wallpaper color options, as well as more tweaks to the new Liquid Glass UI. The fourth developer beta tweaked Liquid Glass more, revived Summarize Notifications for news apps, and a Silence Unknown Callers option.

The '26 betas aren't the only ones Apple is currently testing. It has a second track that has been testing out updates for current-gen operating systems.

AppleInsider and Apple strongly advise against users installing test operating systems or beta software onto primary or "mission-critical" hardware. The higher likelihood of major issues in developer beta releases can potentially result in the loss of data.

Ideally, beta participants should use secondary or non-essential hardware and ensure they have sufficient backups of their critical data at all times.

Members of the public wanting to try out the features of the inbound generation should really use the public betas, which have been available since July 24.

Find any changes in the new builds? Reach out to us on Twitter at @AppleInsider or @Andrew_OSU, or send Andrew an email at andrew@AppleInsider.com.



Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 2
    melgrossmelgross Posts: 33,722member
    Well, I lost several tabs in safari from this update on my iPad. I don’t believe that’s ever happened before. I wonder if they’ll come back? Likely not.
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
  • Reply 2 of 2
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,070member
    I haven’t installed 26 on my Mac, but I have done it on my other devices. So far, it’s extremely impressive for a first public beta.  There are some points of feedback that I’ve offered and some bugs, of course.   One thing that drives me nuts is how many taps it takes to select all and mark all as read in mail.   You literally have five taps and three different corners of the screen to do it. other than that, the Apple remote seems to be Bugey, with their being no way to hide the keyboard after searching something via text input. Looking forward to updates!  
     0Likes 0Dislikes 0Informatives
Sign In or Register to comment.