IOS 26
How Long Can I Resist the *26 Betas?
WWDC 26 was better than I expected
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I expected WWDC 25 to be boring. It was not. In fact, there are more than enough new features to make me wonder if I can resist the betas — it is going to be hard, especially for iPadOS, where I spend most of my time.
I’m only going to mention the features that attract and might possibly tempt me. These are my beta temptations for iOS; I’ll do iPadOS separately.
iOS 26 Features
Liquid Glass
Yes, it might be pretty and pleasant to look at, though until I actually see it on my screen, I can’t be sure. I definitely did not like the see-through style or the tinted, though I might like the dark mode.
Putting a spatial photo on my Lock Screen seems silly, but being able to turn existing photos into partial 3-D could be interesting. We’ll see. Mildly beta tempting.
Dynamic navigation controls
Yes, that could be very nice, though not very tempting.
Visual intelligence for what’s on my screen
I have occasionally used Google image search to shop or just identify something. It’s always been a bit clumsy; perhaps this will be easier and more polished. Mild temptation.
Agentic phone screening
It will be interesting to see how the spammers react to this. I have enough patience to wait on this, but might change my mind.
Live Activities in CarPlay
I might like weather and stock updates. No strong beta temptation
Tapbacks in CarPlay
So, I’ll be able to tap the message and choose a thumbs up or heart as a response. Yeah, that’s a decent improvement, but not life changing. Small temptation.
Preferred routes in CarPlay
Definitely a beta temptress.
Remember visited places
Yeah, I might use it. Not grabbing me by my collar, though. Beckoning though, and I turned my head.
Mixing emoji
Can’t wait to see what people do with eggplants.
I suppose that’s a little tempting, and heck, some of these may be clever and funny — even without eggplants, so yes, tempting.
Shortcuts
I wrote about this at:
Very, very tempting, but I bet that may not show up until 2026, so probably not a reason to look at betas, damn it.
Digital id
Not available in my state; if it were, it might help when I have to dig out my license for one of my wife’s prescriptions. That’s not often, though, so no great temptation.
AirPods Camera Remote
This seems no better than the Camera Remote in my watch, and unlike that, it isn’t showing me a preview. But maybe there will be some time when this helps.
Start recording video in Camera by pressing and holding on AirPods or AirPods Pro with the H2 chip. Umm, okay, that might come up. I’ve wanted to record my exercises at times to check on my form.
Okay, maybe tempting.
Simplified Camera Controls
Yes, tempting. I hate finding myself anywhere but Photo or Video.
Exercise buddy
If it’s anything like that demo, no, I don’t want it. But maybe it can be toned down to be less chirpy. No big temptation, though, because I bet it will be obnoxious. It would be nice if not.
Set a snooze duration between 1 and 15 minutes
Yes, I almost always ignore snooze now because it doesn’t have this. But then again, I usually act on alarms, so only a little lust.
Customizable reading experience
It’s more than just changing fonts and such. It aims to be a system-wide Reader mode not limited to Safari or PDFs. You’ll be able to adjust fonts, text size, spacing, and background colors, though they do say it’s for “supported content”, so who knows what that might mean? I would guess it means only Apple apps for now.
I do often use Reader Mode, so slightly tempting.
Audio recording
I keep telling myself to do a podcast.
They said something like “Capture high-quality audio during video conference calls. Select which sources go to which mic, and record in high definition in Camera with AirPods and AirPods Pro with the H2 chip.”
That might be very interesting if I really believed I’ll ever do a podcast, but that’s a very likely no, so it kind of kills all the temptation. But I should do a podcast.
Wish I were not so lazy.
Reminders Suggestions
Pretty sure this will be more annoying than useful, but I’d try it. Temptation somewhere very near zero, though.
The rest
Everything else announced for iOS has zero attraction for me. That doesn’t make it bad; it’s me, not them.
