Apple released the first public beta of iOS 26 on July 24, more than a month after the company announced the upcoming software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Apple said in June the new iOS version would be available to the general public this fall, but developers and beta testers can try an early version of iOS 26 now on their iPhones.
If you're a public beta tester or developer, you can download the first public beta of iOS 26 by going to Settings > General > Software Update. Tap Beta updates to make sure you have iOS 26 Public Beta selected. Then tap Update Now and following the prompts on your screen.
On July 15, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman predicted on X, formerly Twitter, that the public beta would be released around Wednesday, July 23. Since Apple released the beta on Thursday, July 24, that still counts in my book.
Before you download the iOS 26 public beta, you should know that this is 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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