Following the release of the first iOS 26.1 beta, Apple has now rolled out its second test version. While we’re still checking to see what the new build has to offer, the company is likely focused on refining features that were introduced previously.
One of the most notable additions in iOS 26.1 beta is the expansion of Apple Intelligence to more languages. Apple’s AI now supports Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (Traditional), and Portuguese (Portugal).
Apple is also improving Live Translation language support, adding Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Italian, Japanese, and Korean. With the previous beta version, the company added a new gesture to the Apple Music app, a Liquid Glass design touch to the keypad on the Phone app, and improved the list view on the Calendar app. More importantly, Apple continues to work on fixing bugs that have been plaguing iOS 26, including an issue with the iPhone 17 camera, unreliable Wi-Fi experiences, and more.
iOS 26.1 beta paves the way for two important iPhone features
With the first beta of iOS 26.1, Apple began working to add support for the Model Context Protocol, which could let third-party LLMs, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, read data from various apps and perform actions on behalf of users. While it’s not available to test, this feature means that the iPhone will soon enter the agentic AI world, where you could ask ChatGPT to write you a message on WhatsApp or edit a photo in a specific way (all of the things Apple wants to do with its smarter, more conversational Siri).
Besides that, beta references in iOS 26.1 suggests Apple is readying support for third-party smartwatches. It’s unclear if the company will restrict this functionality to the European market or if it could expand globally. After all, Apple needs to add third-party smartwatch support by June 2026 to satisfy European Commission rules.
Alongside iOS 26.1 beta 2, Apple seeded the second test versions of iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, watchOS 26.1, tvOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1. We’ll let you know if we find anything new while exploring the latest betas.
