Apple Releases iOS 26 Developer Beta 3 with New Wallpapers and Better Liquid Glass

It's almost been a month since Apple first announced iOS 26 and until now we've seen two versions of developer betas roll out. The company has now started rolling out the third developer beta of iOS 26, and it modifies some Liquid Glass elements for better readability along with some other notable changes, besides increasing the build number from 23A5276f to 23A5287g. 

The most significant change in developer beta 3 is that Liquid Glass elements are less transparent and more frosted in a way that it doesn't affect readability. So, icons, text and option names that were previously harder to read because they were overlapping with the glass-like background are now more visible, thanks to a more solid background. This change has been implemented across iOS as well as some Apple apps. 

iOS 26 developer beta 3 adds a fresh coat of paint to the home and lock screens with three new wallpapers – Shadow, Halo and Dusk. There are now four iOS 26-exclusive wallpapers in total, as the default wallpaper from previous betas is now named – Sky. All four of these wallpapers adjust to both Light and Dark modes, offering different shades and hues. 

Apple has added some minor changes to the saturation across some icons like Photos, Files and some Control Centre tiles. In terms of UI, Safari gets some minor visual changes when interacting with folders. Lastly, the Apple Maps app on iOS 26 now offers notifications for commute delays as well as fog advisory support when using the map offline. 

Being a developer beta, it fixes a bunch of known bugs that Apple has addressed in its changelog. Users already running the developer beta 2 can update their iPhone to iOS 26 beta 3 and check out these new changes by going to Settings > General > Software Update > Update Now. As always, this iOS 26 beta is accompanied by beta 3 updates for iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, visionOS 26 and tvOS 26.