Apple Seeds First iOS 26.2 Public Beta for iPhones

After releasing the first developer beta of iOS 26.2 on November 5, 2025, Apple has now started shipping the public beta version of iOS 26.2 from today. This is the first public beta and the latest update has added app enhancement, new features and subtle design tweaks.

iOS 26.2 Public Beta is all about fine-tuning the iOS experience

The latest public beta build comes just two days after the iOS 26.1 general release. As part of this new update, iOS 26-supported devices will now be able to experience a revamped Apple Sleep Score system. The previously "Excellent" rating has now been replaced with "Very High".

Moreover, each range in between now offers a more realistic threshold that better emulates the user's actual sleep quality. This new change brings a much more true-to-life measurement and has been incorporated based on user feedback data.

Additionally, the new roughly 8 GB iOS 26.2 public beta update has started making use of AI in Apple Podcasts. Users can now gain better insights via AI-generated chapters, better linking to reference podcasts and also collect show links.

Design-wise, the lockscreen now supports a much more granular slider, which can precisely control the amount of tinting for each lockscreen clock. The Apple News app now has pill-shaped popular links and topics right at the top of the homepage for easy and quick access.

Other than that, the new language support for AirPods Live Translation will arrive in European Union (EU) countries starting December 2025.

That said, eligible users can install the iOS 26.2 public beta update by heading over to Settings> General> Software Update> Update Now. Alongside iOS 26.2, Apple is also expected to ship the general stable updates of iPadOS 26.2, macOS 26.2, watchOS 26.2, tvOS 26.2 and visionOS 26.2.