After a month of beta testing, Apple is nearing the end of the iOS 26.1 beta cycle, as the company readies the official release that should arrive within the next few weeks. With iOS 26.1 beta 4, Apple is expected to continue polishing the experience of its most significant redesign yet.
With the previous beta, iOS 26.1 beta 3, Apple started implementing the changes of the new Apple TV+ rebrand, which is now officially called “Apple TV.” This update brought a new app icon, reflecting the rebranding of the company’s streaming service.
Besides that, Apple had also tweaked Local Capture, making it available in the Settings app. More interestingly, in previous beta versions, the company continued to work on its Model Context Protocol to make it easier for third-party developers to integrate LLMs with Apple Intelligence. In addition, these codes suggest Apple continues to develop proper support for third-party smartwatches, which will eventually let them receive notifications from the iPhone.
Top features of iOS 26.1
While we need Apple’s official release notes to tell everything the company plans to introduce with iOS 26.1, we already know a few features that the company has been working on, which include:
- Expanded Apple Intelligence languages: With iOS 26.1, Apple will add support for Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese in addition to Portuguese (Portugal) and Chinese (Traditional).
- Expanded Live Translation feature: As promised by Apple, it’s working to implement more languages to the Live Translation feature with AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 2 or newer, including Japanese, Korean, Italian, and Chinese.
- Apple Music tweak: Apple added the ability for users to slide the Now Playing icon on the Apple Music app to move back and forth between songs.
- Phone app tweak: iOS 26.1 beta added a Liquid Glass keypad to the Phone app.
- General improvements: Apple continues to improve on the Liquid Glass design by tweaking the Control Center, adding the new iOS 26 wallpaper to a section of the Settings app, and more.
Alongside the fourth beta of iOS 26.1, Apple is also releasing beta 4 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 with these testing versions.
