My Eight Favorite New Features and Changes in iOS 26's Second Beta

On Monday, Apple released its second developer beta for iOS 26. While the update is mostly here to fix bugs and glitches found in the first beta, Apple did take the opportunity to include some new features and changes that weren't ready for beta 1—at least eight, in fact.

To be clear, iOS 26 is currently in beta testing, and is not generally available to the public yet. What's more, this is the developer beta, which is meant for software developers to test their apps within Apple's new OS. While anyone can install the beta on their iPhones, I do not recommend it, as it's still too unstable. You may find your iPhone unusable or lose data if you uninstall the beta without a proper backup.

Whether you're running the beta or you're just curious about what's new, here are eight of my favorite features and changes I've seen reported from Apple's second iOS 26 beta.

Control Center's Liquid Glass effect

The first thing you'll probably notice when you install iOS 26 on your iPhone (or any of Apple's upcoming updates, really) is the new Liquid Glass design. It's hard to miss: All of the UI elements—including menu bars, windows, and buttons—now take on a "glassy" effect that shows the elements behind them, albeit blurred and distorted.

While there are plenty of opinions about this redesign, I think it's pretty cool, and it's refreshing to see Apple mix up its design in a major way for the first time in over a decade. That said, the initial design that rolled out with the first iOS 26 beta wasn't perfect. Control Center, in particular, was a bit of a mess: As usual, it features a grid of tiles, only now they're made of "glass," letting in too much of the background. It's difficult to see; it's messy; it's just not very Apple.

The company clearly went back to the drawing board for beta 2, because Control Center now looks way different. Apple significantly reduced the transparency effect, to the point where I wouldn't blame you for thinking nothing had changed from iOS 18 at all.

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It's objectively easier to see the tiles now, but I do wonder if Apple could strike a better balance here. I appreciate the need for visibility and simplicity, but I do like the new glassy look, and it'd be a shame if that design was compromised by the need to reduce the effect too often. It's still early yet, so we'll see where Liquid Glass ends up at the end of beta testing.

The transparency can be reduced even more

Before Apple toned down Control Center's Liquid Glass effect in beta 2, beta testers were looking for ways to reduce the effect on their own. As it happens, "Reduce Transparency," an existing accessibility feature, gets the job done, cutting down on the transparent effects throughout iOS.

With the latest beta, Apple has boosted Reduce Transparency's effects even more. It seems like this is going to be the official workaround for limiting Apple's new design, at least at this point.

A new ringtone

Apple last updated its ringtone selection with iOS 17 back in 2023. Before that, its tones had stayed the same since iOS 7, save for "Reflection," the ringtone Apple shipped with the iPhone X in 2017.

Reflection is now the default ringtone on all iPhones, and while you can change it to any of Apple's other tones (or even one of your own), the company would prefer you have another version of Reflection to work with. With beta 2, Apple added Alt 1 as an option under Reflection, with the original ringtone now labeled as "Default." As it happens, the new ringtone was spotted in the IPSW file of the first beta, but Apple only added it to the ringtone settings with this latest update.

You can hear the new ringtone below. I think it's pretty great, though I'm not sure why Apple was dead-set on calling this an alternate version of Reflection. It sounds different enough to me that it could have been its own ringtone.

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A new "Live Radio" widget

Apple Music has a new Home Screen widget: Live Radio. If you frequently listen to Apple Music's various radio stations, you can add this widget to your iPhone's Home Screen to select a station without needing to open Apple Music first.

Safari's tab options are back

With the first iOS 26 beta, Apple's redesigned Safari also moved the placement of the tab buttons. If you're using an iPhone with iOS 18, you're likely used to these options being on the bottom of the screen. That's not the case with iOS 26, as Apple moved them to the top.

Perhaps Apple received one too many complaints from beta testers whose muscle memories failed them while browsing the web, because these buttons are now back on the bottom.

We now know what Low Power Mode really does

You might use Low Power Mode to eke out as much time as possible when your iPhone's battery starts to die—but do you really know what the feature is doing?

We've only been able to speculate up until this point, as the current description in iOS 18 says: "Low Power Mode temporarily reduces background activity like downloads and mail fetch until you can fully charge your iPhone." But it clearly does more than this, as anyone with a high-refresh rate iPhone can attest that Low Power Mode cuts the refresh rate of 120Hz to 60Hz.

iOS 26 beta 2 gives us much more detail, per MacRumors. The description now reads: "iPhone will temporarily reduce some background activities, processing speed, display refresh rate and brightness, and limit certain features such as 5G, iCloud syncing, mail fetch, and more."

While this still might not cover all bases, Apple is now confirming that Low Power Mode not only stops apps from running in the background, but also does things like reduce processing speed and limit demanding cellular connections.

Order tracking in Apple Wallet is now live

Apple originally announced the ability to track your orders in Apple Wallet during WWDC, but as of beta 2, the feature is now live. When you update, you'll see an option to scan the Mail app for orders from companies, which will then appear in Wallet. You can see which orders have been placed, which have shipped, and which are out for delivery.

Apple confirms you can restore your iPhone without a Mac or PC

As MacRumors reports, the initial iOS 26 beta contained the ability to restore your iPhone without a separate computer—a first for Apple. But with beta 2, Apple confirmed the change in its release notes, saying: "Recovery Assistant is a new way to recover your device if it doesn't start up normally. It can look for problems and attempt to resolve them if found."