Apple presents iOS 26 Developer Beta 4 – keep waiting for public beta

July is slowly coming to an end, but new operating systems such as iOS 26, IPADOS 26 or MacOS 26 can still be seen from the first public betas of Apple’s with excitement. Instead, Apple presented the fourth versions for developers on Tuesday evening. They provide some interesting detailed improvements. The release of the public betas is now expected on Wednesday evening – but whether it really happens is still unclear.

Beta stories

Apple himself had announced that with the Preliminary versions for the general public can be expected in July – that is the usual procedure. In the past year, however, iOS 18, MacOS 15 and Co. appeared in their public betas much earlier, namely on the evening of July 15, 2024. However, the technical jump between iOS 17 and iOS 18 was lower than that from iOS 18 to iOS 26, after all, Apple relies on a brand new user interface with Liquid Glass, which has also been screwed several times in the development of betas.

iOS 26 Beta 4 continues. So Apple changed some menus, tab strips and buttons. In some cases, the brass effect of the glass look was increased again (less “frosted glass”), in other areas the elements react better to the change in background colors, so that they are easier to read. In the notification center, a darker background ensures that it is easier to read. The so -called notification summaries within Apple Intelligence can be activated again. Apple had deactivated the function in iOS 18 for news articles because sometimes heavy nonsense came out in these AI summits. Now users can determine whether they want to activate the summaries for news and entertainment, communication and social media and “all other apps”. Apple continues to warn that it is a beta function. “Summary can contain errors.”

Little things and improvements

Furthermore, Apple has screwed on some background images that can now be dynamic and change during the day, there are new CarPlay backgrounds and the icons for Apple Mail and the camera app look slightly different. The new “call screening” function that intercepts spam calls can now be controlled more finely. You can decide whether a caller should be asked about his call or simply mute all unknown numbers. Finally, in the weather settings, beta testers noted the option of letting the app access “important places”. This database contains information about frequently visited locations. With the access, the weather app should provide faster weather data for these places.

In addition to iOS 26 Developer Beta 4, Apple has also presented new developer pre -adversions of MacOS 26, Ipados 26, Watchos 26 and Visionos 26. Here the innovations only slowly seep through – but most of the changes from iOS 26 Developer Beta 4 are also located in Ipados 26 Developer Beta 4.